Ṣafī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā (; 1262–1309), also known as Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, was a historian and naqib of Alids in Ḥilla.
He was a direct descendant of Ḥasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib. According to E.G. Browne's English version of Mīrzā Muhammad b. ‛Abudi’l-Wahhāb-i—Qazwīni's edition of ‛Alā-ad-Dīn ‛Ata Malik-i-Juwaynī's Ta’rīhh-i-Jahān Gushā (London 1912, Luzac, p.ix), Ibn al-Tiqtaqā's name was Safiyu’d-Din Muhammad ibn ‛Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Tabātabā.
Around 1302 he wrote a popular compendium of Islamic history called al-Fakhri.Geert Jan van Gelder. The Classical Arabic Cannon of Polite (and Impolite) Literature. Cultural Repertoires: Structure, Function, and Dynamics. Peeters Publishing, 2003, pp. 45– 58. al-Ṭiqṭaqā, Al-Fakhrî, Histoire des dynasties Musulmanes depuis la mort de Mahomet jusqu’a la chute du khalifat 'Abâsîde de Bagdâdz (11-656 de l'hégire = 632-1258 de J.-C.) avec des prolégomènes sur les principes du gouvernement, traduit par Émile Amar, Paris, Leroux, 1910. [En ligne] https://archive.org/details/alfakhrhistoir00muamuoft.
According to the political scientist Vasileios Syros, the philosophy of ibn al-Ṭabāṭabā can be compared to that of Niccolò Machiavelli.
References
Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. ii, (Leiden 1927, Brill), pp. 423–4. Note by Professor H. A. R. Gibb, in Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History