Title Chief Judge Jurisprudence Shafi'i Ethnicity Kurdish Name Ibn Khallikan | Religion Islam Region Middle East Denomination Sunni | |
 | ||
Born September 22, 1211 in Irbil (now Iraq) ( 1211-09-22 ) Notable work(s) Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch Died October 30, 1282, Damascus, Syria Books Ibn Khallikan's biographical dictionary | ||
Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm Abu ’l-ʿAbbās S̲h̲ams al-Dīn al-Barmakī al-Irbilī al-S̲h̲āfiʿī (Arabic: احمد ابن محمد ابن ابراهيم ابوالعباس شمس الدين البرمكي الاربيلي الشافعي) (September 22, 1211 – October 30, 1282) was a 13th Century Shafi'i Islamic scholar. He was described 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."
Contents
Biography
Ibn Khallikan was born in Arbil, Iraq on September 22, 1211, to a respectable family that claimed descent from Barmakids. He studied there and in Aleppo and Damascus. He also studied jurisprudence at Mosul and then settled in Cairo. He gained prominence as a jurist, theologian and grammarian. Ibn Khallikan married in the year 1252.
He was an assistant to the chief judge in Egypt until 1261 when he assumed the position of chief judge in Damascus. Ibn Khallikan was removed from this position in 1271, returned to Egypt and taught there until being reinstated as judge in Damascus in the year 1278. He retired from this position in 1281 and died in Damascus on October 30, 1282.
Works
Ibn Khallikan's most renowned work is the biographical dictionary entitled Wafayāt al-aʿyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ az-zamān (Deaths of Eminent Men and History of the Sons of the Epoch). He began compiling this work in 1256 and continued until 1274, referencing the works of earlier scholars. Deaths of Eminent Men does not include biographies of individuals already sufficiently covered, such as the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and the caliphs. This work has been translated into English by William McGuckin de Slane, (1801–1878), and is over 2,700 pages long. The British scholar Reynold A. Nicholson called it the "best general biography ever written".