and was removed from office, while he enjoyed considerable dignity and endowed a ribat—an endowment that served as a hostel—for the poor. He died in Dhu’l-Qaʿda (1), 645 AH.
149 – Ibn al-Dawāmī, Hibatu Allah ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Hibatu Allah al-Baghdādī
Known by the honorific al-Ṣāḥib and the epithet ʿIzz al-Kufāh, Abū al-Maʿālī Hibatu Allah, son of the minister Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Hibatu Allah ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Dawāmī al-Baghdādī, Chief of the Chamberlains (2).
Born: 561 AH.
He received hadith from Tajannī al-Wahbāniyya—specifically the Ḥadīth al-Ḥaffār—and from Abū al-Fath ibn Shatīl.
His father had been the agent (wakīl) of the caliph al-Nāṣir.
Hibatu Allah was appointed governor of Wāsiṭ, but was soon relieved of his post because of his leniency and generosity. About him the caliph wrote: “The trustworthy yet incapable is to be ranked with the resolute traitor” (3). Thereafter he remained in his home, devoted to worship, good works, and acts of charity.
(1) According to the historian-king al-Malik al-Ashraf al-Ghassani, he died on 4 Dhu al-Qada of that same year, whereas the chronicle entitled al-Hawadith al-Jamiah records his death in 646 AH.
(*) Al-Hawadith al-Jamiah, p. 227 (there he is styled Nizam al-Din); Talkhis Majma al-Adab, vol. 4, entry 921 (styled ʿIlm al-Dawla); al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam (Aya Sofya 3013), vol. 20, folio appended to fol. 64 in the author’s hand; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, 5 / 187; al-Dhahabi, al-Mukhtasar al-Muhtaj Ilayh min Tarikh Ibn al-Dhibithi, 3 / 222, entry 1286; al-Malik al-Ashraf al-Ghassani, al-ʿAsjad al-Masbuk, pp. 558-559; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 5 / 233.
(2) Muhibb al-Din Ibn al-Najjar states in his History that he was appointed to the office of hijabat al-hujjab (chief chamberlain) in Safar 589 AH and dismissed in 600 AH.
(3) The manuscript reads “bi-l-jaʾiz,” which is meaningless; we have corrected it as above. In his own hand, the author of Tarikh al-Islam writes: “He proceeded to the districts of Wasit, harmed no one, and his conduct was praised. Nevertheless, he was removed because of his mildness and kindness, just as his predecessor had been removed for treachery. The imam wrote: ‘The trustworthy yet weak man is to be treated like the vigorous traitor.’ Thereupon the man stayed at home, leading a life of restraint, seclusion, worship, abundant recitation, fasting, and charity.”