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LIFE OF IBN KHALLIKAN

On the left bank of the Tigris, opposite to the southern part of the province of Mosul, lies an extensive territory, bounded, on the north, by the greater Zab, on the east by the chain of mountains which separates that part of the Ottoman empire from Persia, on the south by a line which may be supposed to have extended from the town of Kefri to the Tigris, and, on the west, by the waters of that river. Arbela, the capital of this region, lies at the distance of twenty hours, or leagues, to the N. N. E. of Mosul.

During upwards of forty years, from A. H. 587 (A. D. 1191) to A. H. 630 (A. D. 1233), the principality of Arbela was governed by a brother-in-law of the sultan Salâh ad-Din (Saladin), and enjoyed, under that chieftain's sway, a period of continual prosperity (a). His name was Kúkubúri, an alteration of the words Ghiúk-Bûri, which, in the Jaghatâi dialect of the Turkish language, mean the blue wolf. The titles by which he was generally designated, in conformity to the custom of the age, were al-Malek al-Moazzam Muzaffar ad-Din (the exalted prince, the triumphant in religion). His father, Ali Ibn Bektikîn (the valorous bey), was a feudatory prince who had faithfully served the celebrated Nûr ad-Din, and whose

(4) See Ibn Khallikân's Biographical Dictionary, vol. II, page 535 et seq.

VOL. IV.

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usual titles were Ali Kutchek Zain ad-Din (little Ali, the ornament of religion). Kukuburi took an active share in the wars carried on by the sultan Salâh ad-Din against the Crusaders, and Arabic historians remark that, in every battle with the enemy, his standard always came off victorious. Appointed by Salâh adDin to the government of the city and province of Arbela, he reigned over that little state in the character of an independant sovereign, and consecrated the revenues of the country to the foundation of mosques, schools, hospitals, asylums for the blind, for widows, for orphans and for foundlings. The second volume of the present work, page 535 et seq. contains a long and interesting description of the institutions and practices by which Kukuburi displayed the ardour of his zeal for the Moslim faith. Doctors of the law, literary men and students found in him a generous protector; to his well-directed patronage it was that Ibn Khallikân, the author of this biographical dictionary, was indebted for his education.

It is worthy of remark that the province of Mosul, on the opposite side of the Tigris, was governed, nearly at the same time, by a prince who rivalled in talent and beneficence with the sovereign of Arbela. Badr ad-Dîn Lûlû al-Malik arRahim (Lûlû, the full moon of religion, the clement prince), such were his name and titles, was the patron and friend of Izz ad-Din Ibn al-Athir, and to his encouragement we owe that historian's excellent book of annals bearing the title of the Kâmil.

The family called the Bani Khallikân drew its descent from Jaafar Ibn Yahya Ibn Khalid the Barmekide, and held a distinguished place in Arbela. It derived its name from the father of the great grand-father of our historian. M. de Sacy in the third volume of his Chrestomathie Arabe, 2nd edition, page 538, says that the name of Khallikán does not occur in the genealogy of the family, but the list to which he himself refers, that given by Tydeman in his Conspectus, and another furnished by Abu'l-Mahâsin, in his Manhal, life of Ibn Khallikân, do really contain it. The Tabakát al-Fukaha, MS. of the Bib. Nat. ancien fonds, no 755, fol. 144 verso, and the Tabakât ash-Shafiyin, ancien fonds, no 861, fol. 72, insert also the name of Khallikân in the genealogy of our author.

Great uncertainty prevails respecting the prononciation of the word here transcribed Khallikân, it being written in Arabic Khlkán (), with the omission of the short vowels and of the sign which redoubles the letters; but the form adopted throughout this work is probably the true one.

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Our biographer bore the ethnic surname of al-Barmaki (the descendant of Barmek). Effectively, the family of which he was a member drew its origin from the celebrated Yahya, the son of Khâlid, and the grand son of Barmek. That genealogy has come down to us in three complete copies, one of them by the anonymous author of the biographical notice inserted by Tydeman in his Conspectus, another by the manuscrit of the Bib. Nat. fonds Saint-Germain, no 83, and the third, by Abu'l'-Mahâsin in his Manhal (b).

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The Khallikân family were greatly favoured and protected by Kûkuburi and by Ibn Bektikin, that prince's father. "Our family," says the author of this biographical dictionary (c), "was under such obligations to Muzaffar ad-Din Kûkubûri "that, to repay even a part of them, our utmost efforts would be vain. The "benefits and favours conferred by him on us, and by his forefathers on ours, were boundless." In another place he mentions that his father, Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim, was professor in the college founded at Arbela by al-Malik alMoazzam Muzaffar ad-Dîn, meaning Kûkubûri, and that he continued to teach. till the hour of his death. That event took place on the 21st of Shaabân, A. H. 610 (5th January, A. D. 1214) (/). The author was then in the second year of his age, for he informs us that he was born at Arbela, in the college founded by Kukuburi, on the 11th of the latter Rabî, A. H. 608 (22nd September, A. D. 1211) (e). This indication proves that his father was lodged in the college, probably by special favour. His mother, whose name we are unable to give, was a descendant of Khalaf lbn Aiyub, one of the imâm Abu Hanifa's disciples (). Of his brother, named Dia ad Dîn Isa, we only know that, towards A. H. 626 (A. D. 1228-9), he went to study at Aleppo under Bahâ ad-Dîn Ibn Shaddâd, the au

(6) This biographical notice we have given in vol. I, page VIII of the Introduction.

(c) Biog. Dict., vol. II, page 541.

(d) Ibid., vol. I, page 91.

(e) Ibid., vol. I, page 551.

(So says Abu 'l-Mahâsin in his al-Manhal as-Safi. See the Introduction to the first volume of this translation, page IX. An article on Ibn Aiyûb will be found in the Tabakåt al-Fukahd, MS. of the Bibliothèque nationale, supplément arabe, no 699, fol. 97, verso. Some of the indications given here and farther on are taken from notes collected by the translator in former years and may, perhaps, not be precisely exact. To verify them now, May, 1871, is impossible, the manuscripts from which they were borrowed and which belong to the Bib. nat., having been removed to a place of safety, where they are to lie as long as Paris remains in its present unsetled state,

thor of the life of Salah ad-Din (g), and that he was probably the elder son. We may suppose he was about sixteen years of age.

Before our author had completed his second year, he received the first elements of instruction from his father; even in that year, he obtained from a very learned lady, Zainab, the daughter of as-Shari and one of the celebrated Zamakhshari's pupils, a licence certifying that he had learned perfectly well some texts which she had taught him (h). It would be of little importance were we to insert here the names of the teachers from whom he took lessons in his early youth; one of these professors may, however, be noticed. His surname was Sharaf ad-Din; his family was that of the Banu Manâ, a distinguished house which produced a number of learned men (). "When a boy," says Ibn Khallikân ()," I attended his lessons. He was the best of men, and when I think

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of him, the world is of little value in my eyes. He continued to reside at Arbela for some years. He was there in A. H. 618 (A. D. 1221-2), when an attempt was made on the life of Ibn al-Mustaufi (k). At the age of thirteen, he heard al-Bokhari's Sahth explained by the shaikh Muhammad Ibn Hibat Allah as-Sufi (1). In the year 623 (A. D. 1226), he saw Ibn Onain at Arbela, whither that poet had been sent on a political mission (m). Between the years 618 and 626 (A. D. 1221-1228), he went more than ten times from Arbela to Mosul, where Dià ad-Din Ibn al-Athir, the brother of the historian, was residing: "I tried" said he, " to get introduced to him (n), because "I knew that he had been the intimate friend of my father, and I wished to study something under his tuition. I did not, however, succeed in my project." In A. H. 625 (A. D. 1227-8), he left his native place, with the intention of continuing his studies at Aleppo.

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(g) Biog. Dict., vol. II, page 435, vol. IV, p. 423.

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For the life of Bahâ ad-Din Ibn Shaddad, consult

vol. IV, page 417 et seq.; a very interesting article but, as usual with our author, badly drawn up.

(h) Biog. Dict., vol. I, page 551.

(i) Ibid., vol. IV, pages 597, 598.

(j) Ibid., vol. I, page 91.
(k) Ibid., vol. II, page 559.

(1) Ibid., vol. II, page 171.
(m) Ibid., vol. III, page 177.
(n) Ibid., vol. III, page 543.

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The north of Syria formed, at that time, a principality the capital of which was Aleppo. The sovereign, al-Malik az-Zahir (l), who was one of Salah adDin's sons, had taken for vizir and privy-counsellor the kadi Abû 'l-Mahâsin Yusuf, surnamed familiarly Ibn Shaddad and generally known by the title of Baha ad-Din (splendor of religion). This statesman had been one of Salah adDin's ministers and secretaries; at a later period he wrote the life of that sultan, the same work of which Albert Schultens has given us an edition under the title of Vita et res gesta Saladini, auctore Bohadino Ibn Sjeddad: "There were but few colleges (or high schools) in Aleppo till Bahâ ad-Din went there (o), and learned men were very rare. Abû 'l-Mahâsin (Bahâ ad-Dîn) was therefore induced "to reorganize these institutions and provide them with teachers learned in the "law. During his life a great number of colleges were thus established." He founded also a college at his own expense and a school for the teaching of the "When Aleppo, Traditions concerning the Prophet (p). says our author (4)," was brought into this (prosperous) state, legists arrived there from "all quarters, studies became active and the number of persons who went to "the city was very great. A close intimacy, a sincere and friendly attachment, "subsisted between my deceased father and the kâdi Abû 'l-Mahâsin (Bahâ adDin), from the time in which they were fellow-students at Mosul. My brother "went to study under him, a very short time before my arrival there, and a letter of recommendation, drawn up in the strongest terms, was sent to him (Bah↑ ad-Din) by (Kûkubûri,) the sovereign of our city. In this missive he said : "You know what is necessary to be done with these boys; they are the sons of one who was to me as a brother and who was also as a brother to you. I need not add any stronger recommendation.""

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It was towards the end of the month of Ramadan, 626 (about the 20th of August, A. D. 1229) that Ibn Khallikân left Arbela. On reaching Mosul, he went to visit one of the most learned men of the age, the celebrated legist, divine and mathematician, Kamâl ad-Din Ibn Manà, of whom he afterwards wrote a biographical notice. "I went frequently to see him," said he (r)" on account of the

(0) Ibid., vol. IV, page 422.
(p) Ibid., vol. IV, page 423.
(4) Ibid., loco laudato.
(r) Ibid., vol. III, page 467.

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