Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn al-Asad ibn al-Qalānisī (Arabic: ابو يعلى حمزة ابن الاسد ابن القلانسي; c. 1071 – 18 March 1160) was an Arab politician and chronicler in 12th-century Damascus.
[1] He studied literature, theology, and law, and served firstly as a secretary in, and later the head of, the chancery of Damascus (the Diwan al-Rasa'il).
[3] The entire material of his chronicle covers the time span of two generations, his father's and his own, al-Qalanisi having experienced the First Crusade at a mature age, although apparently not as a fighter.
[2] As a result of al-Qalanisi's careful work, a chief quality noted by Gibb is the accuracy of the chronology of events, for which he even offers the day of the week.
[2] Gibb extracted from the chronicle and translated to English the material covering the period 1097–1159, which he published in 1932.