‘Abd Allah Ibn Al‐Muqaffa’ and the ‘Abbasid revolution

The life and works of 'Abd Allah b. al-Muqaffa', probably the Abdala the Saracen with whose mention the Christian humanist Pico della Mirandola opens his great Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), have received some attention in modem scholarship.' His life and work, however, have not been systematically studied in the context of the revolution of his time-namely, the 'Abbasid revolution. This paper will try to show that Ibn al-Muqaffa"s impressive intellectual output appears in a new light when it is properly put in this context, and is seen from the perspective of the breakdown of the Umayyad state and the ensuing process of revolution.

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