Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib | |
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Died | AH 132 (749/750) [1] |
Era | Medieval era |
Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib ( Arabic: عبد الحميد بن يحيى الكاتب) was the secretary to the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan II, and a supreme stylist of early Arabic prose. [2]
Quote:
He may have been a descendant of a Persian captive at the battle of Qadesiya who became a mawlā (freedman) of the Qorashī clan of the Banu Amer b. Loʾayy. Some accounts, however, make the less likely claim that he was of this clan, hence of pure Arab descent. [3] According to the Encyclopedia of Islam (3rd edition), Abd al-Hamid al-Katib was "a third-generation Muslim of non-Arab, probably Persian, extraction". [4]