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Ahmad al-Tifashi

Type Figure Region North Africa Time 1184–1253 Also known as Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Tifashi

Ahmad al-Tifashi (1184–1253) was a North African Arab scholar, poet and mineralogist who wrote a noted treatise on gems.

Timeline

  1. 1184–1250Cairo · CairoAl-Tifashi received his early education in North Africa, then went to Cairo to study under scholars such as Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi and also studied in Damascus. After returning home he served as a judge and made several further trips to Egypt and Syria; by the 1250s he was known in the eastern Islamic scholarly world for his poetry and natural history.
  2. 1251–1253Cairo · CairoFrom 1251 to 1253 al-Tifashi spent his last years in Cairo, where he was favored by rulers such as al-Kamil, supervised mining-related affairs, and continued to teach. There he completed or finalized the famous mineralogical work The Flowers of Thoughts on Gemstones and left literary and social-historical works such as The Promenade of Hearts; he died in Cairo in 1253.

Sources