كتاب وفيات الاعيـــــان 272 IBN KHALLIKAN'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY TRANSLATED FROM THE ARABIC BY BN MAC GUCKIN DE SLANE, MEMBER OF THE PRENCH INSTITUTE, ACADÉMIE DES INSCRIPTIONS ET BELLES-LETTRES, ETC. LIFE OF IBN KIIALLIKAN 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-Búri, 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 (a) See Ibn Khallikân's Biographical Dictionary, vol. II, page 535 et seq. VOL. IV. |