Shaʿyā ibn Farīghūn (Arabic: شعيا بن فريغون) was a Muslim writer active in the Emirate of Čaghāniyān in the 10th century.
[4] The patronymic Ibn Farīghūn suggests a connection to the Farīghūnids who ruled Gūzgān to the south of Čaghāniyān as vassals of the Sāmānids.
Intellectually, he belongs to the "eastern" school of the followers of al-Kindī alongside Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī and Abū al-Ḥasan al-ʿĀmirī.
The defining characteristic of this school of thought was its combination of Arab and Islamic interests, Hellenistic science and Persian notions of statecraft.
[3] If he was the author of the Ḥodud, he was patronized successively by two dynasties (Muḥtājid and Farīghūnids), wrote in two languages and flourished from 934 until 983.
[1] If the dating of Ibn Farīghūn's work to the mid-10th century is correct, then his is probably the earliest encyclopedia to adopt this "Arabic–Greek" format.
Its author, a native of Gūzgān who had not travelled widely, wrote the work in 982–983 and dedicated it to the Farighunid emir Abu ʾl-Ḥārith Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad.