Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam
E851142
Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam is an early Islamic antiquarian work that catalogues and describes the pre-Islamic Arabian idols, cults, and religious practices.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10227725 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam Context triple: [worship of al-‘Uzza, sourceDiscussedIn, Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam]
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A.
Al-Hawi
Al-Hawi is a monumental 10th-century medical encyclopedia by the Persian physician al-Razi, compiling and critically evaluating the medical knowledge of Greco-Roman, Indian, and earlier Islamic sources.
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B.
al-Mabsut by al-Sarakhsi
Al-Mabsut by al-Sarakhsi is a monumental multi-volume work of Islamic jurisprudence that systematically expounds and analyzes Hanafi legal doctrine.
-
C.
Kitab al-Buyu
Kitab al-Buyu is the section of Sahih al-Bukhari that compiles prophetic traditions related to commercial transactions, trade, and business ethics in Islamic law.
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D.
Kitab al-Sab'in
Kitab al-Sab'in is a seminal alchemical treatise attributed to the early Islamic polymath Jabir ibn Hayyan, exploring theoretical and practical aspects of chemistry and transmutation.
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E.
Kitab al-Qanun al-Masudi
Kitab al-Qanun al-Masudi is a monumental 11th-century astronomical and mathematical encyclopedia by Al-Biruni that systematically compiles and analyzes the scientific knowledge of his time.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam Target entity description: Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam is an early Islamic antiquarian work that catalogues and describes the pre-Islamic Arabian idols, cults, and religious practices.
-
A.
Al-Hawi
Al-Hawi is a monumental 10th-century medical encyclopedia by the Persian physician al-Razi, compiling and critically evaluating the medical knowledge of Greco-Roman, Indian, and earlier Islamic sources.
-
B.
al-Mabsut by al-Sarakhsi
Al-Mabsut by al-Sarakhsi is a monumental multi-volume work of Islamic jurisprudence that systematically expounds and analyzes Hanafi legal doctrine.
-
C.
Kitab al-Buyu
Kitab al-Buyu is the section of Sahih al-Bukhari that compiles prophetic traditions related to commercial transactions, trade, and business ethics in Islamic law.
-
D.
Kitab al-Sab'in
Kitab al-Sab'in is a seminal alchemical treatise attributed to the early Islamic polymath Jabir ibn Hayyan, exploring theoretical and practical aspects of chemistry and transmutation.
-
E.
Kitab al-Qanun al-Masudi
Kitab al-Qanun al-Masudi is a monumental 11th-century astronomical and mathematical encyclopedia by Al-Biruni that systematically compiles and analyzes the scientific knowledge of his time.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Islamic antiquarian work
ⓘ
book ⓘ historical source on pre-Islamic Arabia ⓘ |
| aim | to document and refute pre-Islamic idolatry ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Abbasid Caliphate intellectual milieu ⓘ |
| author |
Hisham ibn al-Kalbi
ⓘ
linked to:
Ibn al-Kalbi
|
| circulation | read and cited in medieval Islamic scholarship ⓘ |
| contains |
anecdotes about destruction of idols after Islam
ⓘ
etymologies of idol names ⓘ reports from earlier transmitters ⓘ |
| culturalContext | early Abbasid interest in pre-Islamic lore ⓘ |
| describes |
genealogies of tribes associated with idols
ⓘ
idols of various Arab tribes ⓘ ritual practices of pre-Islamic Arabs ⓘ shrines and sanctuaries in pre-Islamic Arabia ⓘ |
| discipline |
Arab antiquarian studies
ⓘ
Islamic historiography ⓘ |
| evaluatesFromPerspectiveOf | Islamic monotheism ⓘ |
| focusesOnRegion | Arabian Peninsula ⓘ |
| genre |
historical treatise
ⓘ
religious antiquarianism ⓘ |
| historicalValue | major early Muslim source on Arab paganism ⓘ |
| influenced | later Muslim heresiographical and antiquarian writings ⓘ |
| language | Arabic ⓘ |
| mentions |
major Meccan idols
ⓘ
regional tribal cults outside Mecca ⓘ |
| modernStatus | edited and published in modern critical editions ⓘ |
| preservedIn | later Arabic manuscript tradition ⓘ |
| primaryAudience | Muslim scholars and readers ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Arab genealogical traditions
ⓘ
Islamic narratives of jahiliyya (Age of Ignorance) ⓘ |
| religiousClassification | Islamic literature on pre-Islamic practices ⓘ |
| religiousFunction | polemical against pagan practices ⓘ |
| religiousPerspective | Islamic ⓘ |
| structure | organized by idols and associated tribes ⓘ |
| subject |
Arab pagan cults
ⓘ
Arab religious practices before Islam ⓘ pre-Islamic Arabian idols ⓘ pre-Islamic Arabian religion ⓘ |
| timeOfComposition | 8th–9th century CE ⓘ |
| title | Kitab al-Asnam ⓘ |
| translatedTitle | Book of Idols ⓘ |
| typeOfEvidence | literary source ⓘ |
| usedAsSourceBy |
modern historians of pre-Islamic Arabia
ⓘ
scholars of early Islam ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam Description of subject: Ibn al-Kalbi’s Kitab al-Asnam is an early Islamic antiquarian work that catalogues and describes the pre-Islamic Arabian idols, cults, and religious practices.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.