Ibn Khalikan

Ibn Khalikan (ibn khă'lēkăn) [key]or Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Barmaki al-Irbili ash-Shafii,1211–82, Arabic biographer, b. in Erbil, Iraq. Ibn Khallikan lived and served as a judge and scholar in Mamluk Egypt and Syria. His main work, Wafayat al-Ayan wa-Anba Abna az-Zaman (Biographical Dictionary), a biographical and historical compendium, is a primary reference for its extensive reporting on contemporaries and its lengthy quotations from otherwise lost sources.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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