Ṣafī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā (; 1262– 1309) also known as Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, was a historian and naqib of Alids in Ḥilla. He was a direct descendant of Ḥasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib. According to E.G. Browne's English version Of Mīrzā Muhammad b. ‛Abudi’l-Wahhāb-i—Qazwīni's edition of ‛Alā-ad-Dīn ‛Ata Malik-i-Juwaynī's Ta’rīhh-i-Jahān Gushā (London1912, Luzac), p.ix, Ibn al-Tiqtaqā's name was Safiyu’d-Din Muhammad ibn ‛Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Tabātabā. Around 1302 AD he wrote a popular compendium of Islamic history called al-Fakhri. According to the political scientist Vasileios Syros, the philosophy of ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā can be compared to that of Niccolò Machiavelli. References Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. ii, (Leiden 1927, Brill), pp. 423–4. Note by Professor H. A. R. Gibb, in Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History 1262 births 1310 deaths Iraqi Shia Muslims 13th-century Arabs