Hamzah al-Isfahani

Hamzah al-Isfahani 

(also Abu Abdallah ibn al-Hasan). Born circa 893; died between 961 and 971. Iranian historian, philologist, and lexicographer.

Hamzah al-Isfahani was an adherent of the shuubiyah movement, which disputed the right of the Arabs to cultural and political domination in the Muslim world. He wrote 12 works, in Arabic, of which three have survived; these include a history of the world that contains factual material on the history of Iran before 961. Hamzah al-Isfahani made use of Arabic sources and written and oral accounts of pre-Islamic Iran. He also used a no longer extant Middle Persian compilation of Iranian epics and court chronicles, the Hwadai-namaq.

REFERENCE

Rosenthal, F. “Hamza Isfahani.” In Encyclopédie de I’lslam, vol. 3. Leiden-Paris, 1971. [28–532–1 ]