Al-Nayrizi was probably born in Nayriz which was a small town
southeast of Shiraz now in central Iran. Certainly he must have
been associated with this town in his youth to have been called
al-Nayrizi. Little is known of his life but we do know that he
dedicated some of his works to al-Mu'tadid so he almost
certainly moved to Baghdad and worked there for the caliph. The
period during which al-Nayrizi was growing up was a turbulent
one in the region in which he lived. Following the assassination
of the caliph al-Mutawwakil in 861 there was a period of anarchy
and civil war. The Caliph al-Mu'tamid and his brother al-
Muwaffaq who was a military leader, reunited the empire from 870
but a rebellion was eventually put down in 883 only after many
years of military campaigns by al-Muwaffaq and his brother al-
Mu'tadid. Al-Mu'tamid died in 892 and, since al-Mu'tadid had
forced him to disinherit his own son, al-Mu'tadid became caliph
in that year. Al-Mu'tadid reorganised the administration and
reformed finances, and he