Why Sahib-ibn-Abbad carried 2,06,000 books on 400 camels
The story of a 10th-century Persian vizier whose love for books was so vast it took 400 camels — arranged alphabetically — to carry them.
He did not carry them on an iPad or a Kindle. Instead, he carried them on 400 camels that walked in alphabetical order.
His name is Abu’l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-Abbās, commonly referred to as Sahib ibn Abbad in history books.
The rise of the Buyid Dynasty
During the early 10th century, Persia was undergoing a significant shift. The land once ruled by Arabs had started to see the rise of several native Persian Muslim dynasties — the Tahirids, Sajids, Saffarids, Samanids, Ziyarids, Buyids, and Sallarids. Among them, the Buyid dynasty was one of the most powerful kingdoms in the Middle East.
In 938, in the middle of all this, Sahib ibn Abbad was born in Persia.
Grand Vizier of Mu’ayyad
At its peak, the courts of the Buyid Dynasty naturally attracted scholars and bureaucrats. The father of Ibn Abbad was the vizier of Rukn al-Dawla, the first Buyid ruler.
When his father died, Ibn Abbad was only seven or eight. The famous Grand Vizier Ibn al-‘Amid trained him to be a competent bureaucrat and secretary. When the boy was twenty, he was sent to serve as the secretary of Mu’ayyad al-Dawla, the third son of Rukn.
The prince and the secretary became close friends. Ibn Abbad’s nickname, Sahib, means “companion” and was given to him by Mu’ayyad. In 970, Ibn Abbad became Mu’ayyad’s Grand Vizier.
As a Vizier, Ibn Abbad was famous as a writer and patron of literature. He had close ties with a network of over 500 poets, theologians, and other writers, making his court one of the premier centers of Shi’a and rationalist thinking in Persia.
Ibn Abbad’s Love for Books
Ibn Abbad loved reading and collecting books. During his time as a Vizier, he collected a vast amount of literature spanning multiple disciplines.
It is said that Ibn Abbad owned roughly 1,17,000 books — and it took 400 camels to carry them all. This included sixty camels just for his dictionaries. The catalog of his library alone took ten volumes.
Another source calculated the average weight of medieval Persian books and the average load that camels can carry, and estimated Ibn Abbad must have owned some 206,000 books.
His camel drivers acted as his librarians, and were trained to walk the camels in order of the Persian alphabets. He carried his entire library whenever he traveled.
After achieving so much, Ibn Abbad died in 995 at the age of fifty-seven. He is fondly remembered in history books for his love for books.