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Ibn Khallikan

Type Figure Region Syria Time 1211–1282 Also known as Ibn Khallikan、Shams al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Khallikan、伊本·哈勒坎、Ahmad ibn Khallikan

Ibn Khallikan (1211–1282) was a Syrian Islamic scholar and judge renowned for compiling Wafayat al-A'yan, an alphabetical biographical dictionary of …

Timeline

  1. 1211–1241Erbil · KurdistanBorn in Erbil in northern Iraq, he received an education there in Islamic jurisprudence, hadith studies, and literature, showing a keen interest in biographies and genealogy that laid the scholarly foundation for his later biographical dictionary.
  2. 1241–1250Damascus · DamascusIn the 1240s Ibn Khallikan traveled through Mosul, Damascus, and Cairo, studying at various scholarly centers and holding judicial posts, broadly collecting biographical material and beginning to conceive a systematic biographical dictionary project.
  3. 1250–1274Cairo · CairoFrom the 1250s Ibn Khallikan systematically compiled Wafayat al-A'yan, arranging biographies of famous figures of the Islamic world alphabetically in Arabic; he completed the first edition in 1260 and the definitive text in 1274 in eight volumes, making it the most authoritative reference work of Arabic biographical literature.
  4. 1274–1282Damascus · DamascusAfter 1274 Ibn Khallikan served as Islamic judge (qadi) of Damascus, continuing to revise and expand Wafayat al-A'yan; he died in Damascus in 1282, and his work was repeatedly transcribed and translated by later scholars, becoming a fundamental source for the study of figures in Islamic civilization.

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