Ibn Khallikan

Ibn Khallikān was born in Arbil, Iraq on September 22, 1211 (11 Rabī’ al-Thānī, 608), into a respectable family that claimed descent from Barmakids.[2] His primary studies took him from Arbil, to Aleppo and to Damascus,[3] before he took up jurisprudence in Mosul and then in Cairo, where he settled.[4] He gained prominence as a jurist, theologian and grammarian.[4] An early biographer described him as "a pious man, virtuous, and learned; amiable in temper, in conversation serious and instructive. His exterior was highly prepossessing, his countenance handsome and his manners engaging."[5]

He married in 1252[4] and was assistant to the chief judge in Egypt until 1261, when he assumed the position of chief judge in Damascus.[3] He lost this position in 1271 and returned to Egypt, where he taught until being reinstated as judge in Damascus in 1278.[3] He retired in 1281[4] and died in Damascus on October 30, 1282 (Saturday, 26th of Rajab 681).[3]

Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ az-zamān (وفيات الأعيان وأنباء أبناء الزمان) ('Deaths of Eminent Men and the Sons of the Epoch').[6][3] Begun in 1256 this eight-volume biographical reference dictionary of Islamic scholarship and literature was completed in 1274.[3] Khallikān documented the lives of notable cultural figures, the celebrated writers, scientists, religious and legal scholars. Complementary to the popular religio-political biographies of the Prophet Muhammad and of the caliphs, it is primarily a literary work.[3] An English translation by William McGuckin de Slane, in four volumes, published between 1801–1878, runs to over 2,700 pages.[7][4] The British scholar Reynold A. Nicholson called it the "best general biography ever written".[5]

• Ibn Khallikān (1843) Ibn Khallikan's Biographical dictionary, M. de Slane trans. Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1843. Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 & Vol. 4