Ibn Khalikan

Ibn Khalikan

(ĭbn khă`lēkăn) 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.