ABU ISHĀQ IBN al-'ASSĀL. — Coptic theologian and exegete of the 13th century. He was the son of the celebrated Fahr ad-Daula, renowned in Coptic literature; two of A.’s brothers also became famous.
After traveling in Syria, he returned to Cairo where he composed the *Raccolta dei fondamenti della religione*, a major work completed in 1260. He later published a compendium of II. He also wrote an *Introduction to the Epistles of St Paul*, a commentary on the Apocalypse, and an Arabic-Coptic dictionary. Only a small portion of his works has been published.
BIBL.: A. Mallon, Ibn al-'Assal: les trois écrivains de ce nom, in *Journal Asiatique*, 10 (1905), pp. 509-29; id., Une école de savants égyptiens au Moyen Age, in *Mélanges de la Faculté Orientale*, 1 (1906), pp. 109-32; G. Graf, Das Schriftstellerverzeichnis des Abū Isḥāq ibn al-'Assal, in *Orientalia Christiana*, 2 (1912), pp. 205-27; id., Die koptische Gelehrtenfamilie der Avlād al-'Assal, in *Orientalia*, 1 (1932), pp. 34-56, 129-48, 193-204; P. Sbath, *Vingt traités*, Cairo 1929.