Having a Look at Ibn Fūti's Life and Academic Activities

Kamāloddin Abulfazl Abdorrzāq, known as Ibn Sabūni or Ibn Fūti, was one of the historians and narrators of traditions in the Ilkhanid period. One of his important works is Majma’ al-Ādāb fi Ma’jam al-Alqābwhich is considered to be one of the great translations that provides some significant information though a major part of it is lost. Among the available biographies in this book, some points about Ibn Fūti’s life are also revealed. Therefore, due to these points, one can find out about Ibn Fūti’s life, his academic activities, the book sources, and social, scientific and religious conditions of his time. The first part of the present paper includes a brief history of the researches done about Ibn Fūti and his works. According to the author of this paper, despite the fact that the contemporary researchers have acknowledged the importance of this book and used it a lot in different researches, no comprehensive research has been carried out about Ibn Fūti’s living conditions and the characteristics of this book. Hence, he considers three important issues in his own writing: an overview of Ibn Fūti’s life; structure,sources and features of Majma’ al-Ādāb;Ibn Fūti’s academic activities and his relationship with scholars and the community of his contemporary intellectuals.