Muhammad ibn Abd al-Jabbar al-Utbi

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Jabbar al-Utbi, called al-Utbi (c. 961 – 1036/1040), was an Arab historian^[1], poet, and courtier. Born in Rayy,^[2] al-Utbi traveled to Nishapur with his uncle, Abu Nasr al-Utbi, who was a courtier for the Samanids. Al-Utbi became sahib al-barid, working as a secretary for the Turkic general Abū ʿAlī Simjūr and for the Ziyarid ruler Qabus ibn Wushmagir. He later worked for the Ghaznavid Sabuktigin, alongside the poet Abu 'l-Fath al-Busti.^[3] He was neither an official court historian nor a trained scholar, so his writing lacks precise dates and a consistent chronological order.^[4]

Al-Utbi
Born	Muhammad ibn Abd al-Jabbar al-Utbi c. 961 Rayy, Buyid Empire
Died	1036/1040
Occupations	Historian, Poet
Academic work
Era	Samanid era, Ghaznavid era
Notable works	Kitab al-Yamini

In 999, al-Utbi, as an envoy for Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, was sent to Gharchistan to convince that ruler to recognize Mahmud as his overlord.^[5] He was patronized by the vizier Ahmad b. Hasan al-Maymandi.^[3] Later al-Utbi was removed from his position as sahib al-barid, due to plots by the governor.^[3] He spent the rest of his life in retirement, dying in the later period of Sultan Masʽud I's reign (1036/1040).^[3]

The history of his family goes back to Utba ibn Ghazwan, the founder of the city of Basra.^[6]

Legacy

Around 1021, al-Utbi finished his work, Kitab al-Yamini.^[5] The al-Yamini, an embellished flowery rhetorical rhymed prose, is a history of the reigns of Sabuktigin and Mahmud.^[7][8] The al-Yamini starts in 965 CE, but the Samanids are not mentioned until Nuh ibn Mansur's reign in 976, while it details the Buyids prior to 983.^[9] Utbi had direct knowledge of Sultan Mahmud's personality and the actions of his officials, and he was well-informed about the background of Mahmud's campaigns in India, though he likely never took part in those expeditions himself.^[4] His work recounts the rise of Ghaznavid power under Sebuktegin and details Mahmud's character and military achievements up to the year 1020.^[4] Utbi was unfamiliar with Indian languages and had a poor grasp of Indian geography, leading to numerous errors in his accounts of Mahmud's Indian campaigns.^[4]

According to the historian al-Tha'alibi,^[10] al-Utbi wrote numerous works, which included poetry.^[11] His sole surviving work is the Kitab al-Yamini.^[3] Jurji Zaydan's Tarikh Adab al-Lughat al-Arabiya, regarded the al-Yamini superior in style to al-Tha'alibi's Yatima, while stating it was comparable to Hilal al-Sabi's Tarikh al-Wuzara.^[5]