1. These were first identified as the starting points of different strands of Arabic autobiographical writing in Franz Rosenthal, “Die arabische Autobiographie,” Studia Arabica 1 (1937): 11–12, 15–19. [BACK]

2. Although referred to by several later writers, the autobiography of Yāqūt has not come down to us. In the appendix to his recent edition of Yāqūt's compendium, Iḥsān ‘Abbās states that he was unable to locate the author's autobiography in any manuscript of the work. See Iḥsān ‘Abbās, ed., Mu‘jam al-udabā’ (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1993), 7:2881. [BACK]

3. This work is available only in a reconstruction by Claude Cahen: “Une source pour l'histoire ayyubide: Les mémoires de Sa‘d al-dīn ibn Ḥamawiya al-Juwaynī,” Bulletin de la Faculté des Lettres de Strasbourg 7 (1950): 320–37; rpt. in Cahen, Les peuples musulmans dans l'histoire médievale (Damascus: Institut Français, 1977), 457– 82. [BACK]

4. ‘Imād al-Dīn al-Kātib al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdat al-qaṣr (Damascus: al-Maṭba‘a al-Hishāmiyya, 1964), 112. [BACK]

5. Hartwig Derenbourg, ‘Oumâra du Yémen, sa vie et son oeuvre (Paris: Leroux, 1897), xii–xiv; al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdat al-qaṣr, 101–44. [BACK]

6. Derenbourg, ‘Oumâra du Yémen, xiv; al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdat al-qaṣr, 107. [BACK]

7. Derenbourg, ‘Oumâra du Yémen, xiv–xv. [BACK]

8. Franz Rosenthal, A History of Muslim Historiography (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), 175. [BACK]

9. [tarjama nafsahu fī ta’līfin mustaqillin sammāhu al-barq al-shāmī] in al-Suyūṭī; cited in English in the introduction of this work. [BACK]

10. See ‘Ali Ibn al-Qaṭṭā‘, al-Durra al-khaṭīra fī shu‘arā’ al-jazīra, ed. Bashīr al-Bakkūsh (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1995), 232 n. 3. Ibn al-Imām (d. 1155) was a compiler of biographies of Andalusian poets (see Hussain Monés, “Ibn al-Imām,” EI² 3:807). ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm Ibn al-Ḥijārī is the author of Kitāb al-Mushib fī gharīb al-maghrib. [BACK]

11. In his autobiography, Ibn al-Khaṭīb includes the text of one of his letters to Ibn Khaldūn. [BACK]

12. For a translation of Ibn Khaldūn's version of this famous encounter as well as useful information concerning the different versions of his autobiography and conflicting accounts found in the works of other medieval Arab historians, particularly Ibn ‘Arabshāh, see Walter J. Fischel, Ibn Khaldūn and Tamerlane (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952). [BACK]

13. An English translation of this text is found in University Library of Autobiography, vol. 2: The Middle Ages and Their Autobiographers (New York: F. Tyler Daniels, 1918), 171–206. [BACK]

14. Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1943–49), Supp. vol. 2, p. 31: Irshād al-ghāwī bal [sic] is‘ād al-ṭālib wa-l-rāwī li-l-i‘lām bi-tarjamat al-Sakhāwī; in addition, he wrote a lengthy biography of his teacher, Ibn Ḥajar. [BACK]

15. See Titus Burckhardt, “Le Sheikh al-‘Arabī Ad-Darqāwī: Extraits de ses lettres,” Études Traditionnelles (March–April 1966): 60–80; “Le Sheikh Ad-Darqāwī: Nouveaux extraits de ses lettres,” Études Traditionnelles 402–3 (July–October 1976): 192–210. [BACK]

16. See Allan Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook (New York: Garland, 1984); and Marc Shell and Werner Sollors, eds., The Multilingual Anthology of American Literature (New York: New York University Press, 2000). [BACK]

17. Shell and Sollors, Multilingual Anthology of American Literature, 58–93. [BACK]

18. Al-Ghamdi, for example, classifies medieval Arabic autobiographies into spiritual, political, and academic; Ḍayf, into philosophical, scholarly/literary, Sufi, political and modern. [BACK]

19. For a detailed discussion of the history of the manuscripts, published editions, and translations, see William E. Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation (Albany: SUNY Press, 1974). [BACK]

20. There is an ongoing debate about whether this text should be read as an autobiography or as a demonstration of the author's “epistemological theory” concerning intuition and study. For the latter argument, see Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988): 194–98; and for a response, see Michael E. Marmura, “Plotting the Course of Avicenna's Thought,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 111, no. 2 (1991): 333–42. [BACK]

21. Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina, 7–8. [BACK]

22. Ibid., 7. [BACK]

23. Aḥmad Ibn ‘Ajība, L'autobiographie (Fahrasa) du Soufi Marocain Ahmad ibn ‘Agîba (1747–1809), trans. into French by J.-L. Michon (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969), 33. Reprinted from Arabica 15–16: 1968–69; Engl. trans. of cited passage by D. F. Reynolds. [BACK]

24. Al-Sakhāwī, al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar; cited in Rosenthal, Muslim Historiography, 603. [BACK]

25. Al-Sakhāwī in Rosenthal, Muslim Historiography, 606; it is worth noting that Galen's On My Books is framed as the response to a similar request. [BACK]

26. Ibn Buluggīn, The Tibyān: Memoirs of ‘Abd Allāh b. Bulluggīn, Last Zirid Amīr of Granada, trans. Amin Tibi (Leiden: E. J. Brill 1986), 33. [BACK]

28. Ibid., 41. [BACK]

29. Adapted from A. J. Arberry, The Ring of the Dove (London: Luzac, 1953), 158. [BACK]

30. Ibn Buluggīn, Tibyān, 9. [BACK]

31. Ibid., 8. [BACK]

32. Our translation. [BACK]

33. A number of theological discussions took place among early scholars concerning the obligation of thanking God, but these do not seem to have involved the verse in question. For an extensive description of this debate, see Kevin Reinhart, Before Revelation: The Boundaries of Muslim Moral Thought (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995). [BACK]

34. This passage is quoted in Aḥmad al-Maqqarī (d. 1632), Nafḥ al-ṭīb min ghuṣn al-Andalus al-raṭīb, ed. Iḥsān ‘Abbās (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1968), 2:262, from the autobiography of Ibn Sa‘īd (d. 1286) in al-Mughrib fī hulā al-Maghrib; however, the versions of al-Mughrib that have come down to us independently do not appear to include the passage. See Ibn al-Qaṭṭā‘ (d. 1121), al-Durra al-khaṭīra fī shu‘arā’ al-jazīra, ed. Bashīr al-Bakkūsh (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1995), 232 n. 3. [BACK]

35. Al-Sakhāwī, in Rosenthal, Muslim Historiography, 586–610. [BACK]

36. Al-Qurashī and al-Mālaqī remain unidentified. [BACK]

37. Qur’ān 93:11, for example, is mentioned by al-Suyūṭī, al-Sha‘rānī, Ṭashköprüzāde, al-‘Aydarūs, and Ibn ‘Ajība. [BACK]

38. Tzvetan Todorov, Genres in Discourse, trans. Catherine Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 17. [BACK]

39. Al-Siyāq li-ta’rīkh Nīsābūr, ‘Abd al-Ghāfir al-Fārisī's “Continuation” of Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥakīm al-Nīsābūrī's (d. 1014) Ta’rīkh Nīsābūr (History of Nishapur). [BACK]

40. Al-Fulk al-mashḥūn fī aḥwāl Muḥammad ibn Ṭulūn (Damascus: Maṭba‘at al-Taraqqī, 1929), 6. Ibn Ṭulūn's citation from al-Suyūṭī is from a different text than that quoted at the beginning of this volume. [BACK]

41. Many collections were organized alphabetically by first name; thus the author's autobiography would fall under Y for Yūsuf, the last letter of the Arabic alphabet. [BACK]

42. Possibly Rabī‘a ibn ‘Alī ‘Abd al-Raḥmān (d. 753). [BACK]

43. [lā yanbaghī li-aḥadin ‘indahu shay’un min al-‘ilmi an yuḍayyi‘a nafsah], al-Bukhārī, Bāb al-‘Ilm (The Chapter on Knowledge). [BACK]

44. ‘Abd al-Wahhāb al-Sha‘rānī, Laṭā’if al-minan wa-l-akhlāq (Cairo: ‘Ālam al-Fikr, 1976), 6–8; al-Sha‘rānī's preface is translated in Dwight F. Reynolds, “Shaykh ‘Abd al-Wahhāb al-Sha‘rānī's Sixteenth-Century Defense of Autobiography,” Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 4, nos. 1–2 (1997–98): 122–37. [BACK]

45. Ibn ‘Ajība, L'autobiographie, trans. J.-L. Michon, 33. [BACK]