Abu al-Barakat al-Mubarak, ibn Ahmad ibn al-Mubarak ibn Mawhub ibn Ghanima ibn Ghalib al-Lakhmi, an Irbil native and chancery scribe, better known as Ibn al-Mustawfi.

He was born (1) in Irbil in 564 AH. He studied the Qur’an and Arabic letters with Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Baḥrānī and Makkī ibn Rayyān al-Māksinī. He heard hadith from ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Abī Ḥabbah, Mubārak ibn Ṭāhir, Ḥanbal, Ibn Ṭabarzadh, Naṣr Allāh ibn Salāmah al-Hītī, and many of the scholars who visited Irbil.

He wrote copiously, gathered material exhaustively, and produced for his city a History (2) in five volumes. His home was a meeting place for men of letters. He possessed a vast memorised repertoire, a firm, elegant hand, and an engaging style. He composed both poetry and prose, excelled in a wide range of literary virtues, and held written authorisations from Abū Jaʿfar al-Saydalānī and others.

He in turn granted an ijāzah to our own teacher, Shams al-Dīn Ibn al-Shīrāzī.

He supervised the fiscal administration of Irbil for a time, but left when the Mongols seized the city and settled in Mosul. His father and grandfather before him had both served as chief mustawfīs of Irbil.

I say: among his poetry, as cited by Ibn al-Fuwatī, are the lines:

My tears were true to their promise on the day they left—
I let them flow until I drowned in their tide.