ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Hibat Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn Ibn Abī al-Ḥadīd al-Madāʾinī al-Baghdādī was a Muʿtazilī scholar and writer. Born near Baghdad in 586/1190 to a Shāfiʿī family, he went on to spend long periods of his life in the metropolis. He studied at the Niẓāmiyya madrasa founded by the Seljuk vizier Niẓām al-Milk (d. 485/1092) in 459/1067. He had close relations with the twelver Shīʿī vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī (d. 656/1258), who served under the last ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mustaʿṣim (reigned 640-56/1242-1258). In addition to his proximity to the last court of the ʿAbbāsids, Ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd wrote poetry in praise of the previous ʿAbbāsid caliphs al-Nāṣir and al-Mustanṣir. He was appointed to numerous government positions and wrote at least sixteen works. The most well-known of these are his commentary on his contemporary Ibn al-Athīr’s (d. 636/1239) al-Mathal al-sāʾir, a work of Arabic literary theory and criticism; and a twenty-volume commentary (sharḥ) on the Nahj al-balāgha of al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1016-16). When the Mongols invaded Baghdad in 656/1258, Ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd sought the help of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274), who charged him and his brother with the administration of the libraries of Baghdad. He died soon thereafter in Jumādā al-thānī 656/January 1258 in Baghdad.