‘Ibn al-Tiqtaqā’, or the son of a chatterbox, was an onomatopoeic nickname for the Iraqi historian Jalāl-ad-Dīn Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Tāji’d-Dīn Abi’l-Hasan ’Ali, the spokesman of the Shi'a community in the Shi’ī holy cities—Hillah, Najaf

Najaf

Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...

, and Karbala

Karbala

Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....

; in an Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 that was to remain the stronghold of Shi'ism, until the forcible conversion

Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism

The Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunnism to Shiism made Iran the spiritual bastion of Shia Islam against the onslaughts of orthodox Sunni Islam, and the repository of Persian cultural traditions and self-awareness of Iranianhood, acting as a bridge to modern Iran...

 of Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 by Shah Ismail I

Ismail I

Ismail I , known in Persian as Shāh Ismāʿil , was a Shah of Iran and the founder of the Safavid dynasty which survived until 1736. Isma'il started his campaign in Azerbaijan in 1500 as the leader of the Safaviyya, an extremist heterodox Twelver Shi'i militant religious order and unified all of Iran...

 Safavi

Safavi

Safavi is a Persian surname, best known as the surname of the royal family of the Safavid Dynasty.-Etymology:Some have argued that Safavi is a cognate of the word "Safaviyeh". And that "Safa" is a cognate of the word Sufi....

.

According to E.G. Browne's

Edward Granville Browne

Edward Granville Browne , born in Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire, England, was a British orientalist who published numerous articles and books of academic value, mainly in the areas of history and literature...

English version Of Mīrzā Muhammad b. ‛Abudi’l-Wahhāb-i—Qazwīni’s edition of ‛Alā-ad-Dīn ‛Ata Malik-i-Juwaynī’s Ta’rīhh-i-Jahān Gushā (London1912, Luzac) , p.ix, Ibn al-Tiqtaqā’s name was Safiyu’d-Din Muhammad ibn ‛Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Tabātabā.

Around 1302 AD he wrote a popular compendium of Islamic history called al-Fakhri.

External links

• Encyclopedia of Islam - only available to Authorized UM Users (Current University of Michigan faculty, students and staff)