The New International Encyclopædia/Kifti

KIFTI, or IBN AL-KIFTI, ĭb′’n ȧl kēf′tē̇ (Ar. Jimal al-Din abu al-Hasan ‘Alī ibn Yusuf al-Kiftī) (1172-1248). An Arabian vizier and historian. He was born of good family at Kift (Coptos). Upper Egypt, and received a good education there and in Cairo. After Saladin conquered Jerusalem (1187) Al-Kifti went to that city, where his father held an official position under the Sultan. In 1202 he betook himself to Aleppo and there, much against his will, was made vizier by Saladin's son. When the prince died in 1216, Al-Kifti gave up his office, but was again forced to assume public cares from 1219 to 1231, and again from 1236 till his death in 1248. He was an able administrator, and the State prospered under his care; literature and learning flourished. But his best title to fame rests upon his favorite studies, although of his numerous histories all were destroyed in the Mongol invasion (1260) except one. This was his Kitāb Ikhbār al-‘Ulamā biakhbār al-Ḥukamā (“Information of the Wise Men Regarding the History of the Scientists”), a historico-bibliographical work on Greek, Syriac, and Mohammedan philosophers and scientists. Unfortunately, this most important work has come down to us only in the extract made by Ali ibn Mohammed al-Zanzani in 1249. Consult August Müller. “Ueber das sogenannte ta’rīkh al-ḥukamā des Ibn el-Qifti,” in the Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Orientalists, vol. i. (Leyden, 1891).