Hilal al-Sabi'

 Abū'l-Ḥusayn Hilāl b. Muḥassin b. Ibrahīm al-Ṣābi' (969-1056) ابو حسين هلال بن محسن بن ايبراهيم الصابئ) was a historian, bureaucrat, and writer of Arabic.  Born into a family of Sabian bureaucrats, al-Ṣābi converted to Islam in 1012 AD.  First working under the Buyid amir Ṣamṣām al-Dawla, he later became the Director of the Chancery under Baha' al-Daula's vizier Fakhr al-Mulk.

Works
Hilal al-Sabi' is the author of numerous books, not all of which have survived. Bureaucratic matters and matters of the court were his main themes, along with history.


 * The Rules and Regulations of the Abbasid Court - (Arabic: رسوم دار الجلافة Rusum dar al-khilafa)

Perhaps his most famous book is the Rusum dar al-khilafa which is a manual for behavior and work in the Abbasid court of late Buyid Baghdad. Though it is designed as a set of instructions and advice, the book contains numerous statistics, anecdotes and historical asides.


 * The Book of Viziers - (Arabic: كتاب الوزراء Kitab al-wuzara)

Only of the beginning of this work has survived, which deals with the viziers of the the caliph Al-Muqtadir.


 * History of Hilal al-Sabi'  - (Arabic: تاريخ ابي الحسين هلال بن المحسن بن ابراهيم الصابي Tarikh Hilal al-Sabi)

This too survives only in fragmentary form, but its fragments fill a much needed gap in the chronicles of the late Buyid era.