He was part of the entourage of the last zirid ruler al-Hasan ibn Ali since he said that he had consulted a book of the library of this sultan.
Ibn Shaddad probably fled the city with al-Hasan to the court of the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min.
In this later city he communicated his grandfather Tamim's Diwan to the scholar Imad ad-Din al-Isfahani.
He was still there in 1186 as he recorded the testimony of a citizen of al-Mahdiyya on Ifriqya's events the same year.
[4][1] And the 17th-century historian of Kairouan, Ibn Abi Dinar regretted not using his work.