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Essays in Arabic literary biography

This volume contains biographical studies of thirty-eight Arabic literary figures who lived between 1350 and 1850, a neglected period of Arabic literary history. The essays situate the authors and their writings in local contexts of literary and cultural production, from Morocco to Iran, India and Indonesia, in many cases offering the first comprehensive assessments of their lives and works. What emerges from the collection as a whole is a period characterized by institutional change, competition, conspicuous virtuosity, and diversity – when Christian and Shiite writers also played important role. 438p (Harrassowitz Verlag 2009) hardback, 9783447059336, $117.00. Special Offer $94.00

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Essays in Arabic Literary Biography II: 1350-1850 Hardcover – January 8, 2009

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harrassowitz Verlag (January 8, 2009)
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Essays in Arabic Literary Biography

Terri DeYoung and Mary St. Germain (eds.), ESSAYS IN ARABIC LITERARY BIOGRAPHY, 925-1350, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2011, 371 pages Status of Research Completed/published Related People Terri L. DeYoung Mary St. Germain Research Type Publications Books Related Fields Arabic Autobiography, Biography, and Life Writing Islamic Studies Literature Medieval Mediterranean Near Eastern Studies

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Arabic Literature الأدب العربي: Bibliographies, Autobiographies & Bio-bibliographies & سيرذاتية * ببليوغرافيات

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Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations in English on Arabic-Western Literary Relations, 1902-1997

Bibliographie Monde arabe

Arabian Nights Bibliography / compiled by Ulrich Marzolph [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z ]

Bibliography of the Arabian Nights in Egypt  compiled by Rasoul Aliakbari, University of Alberta, Canada.

Arabian Nights Bibliography (online)   compiled by Ulrich Marzolph. "The present Bibliography aims to list a representative selection of research publications on the  Arabian Nights  ( Alf Laylah wa-laylah, Les Mille et une Nuits, Tausendundeine Nacht etc. ) published in European languages, while also including some important books and articles published in other languages. Initially being based on the bibliography in  The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia  (Marzolph and van Leeuwen 2004, 811–852), the present Bibliography bears witness to the renewed and continued interest in the  Nights  resulting from its tercentenary celebrations in 2004. Aiming to be comprehensive, but not necessarily exhaustive, the Bibliography at present lists more than 500 items. It is conceived as an ongoing project and will be updated at regular intervals. Most items quoted treat particular aspects of the  Arabian Nights , with the exception of items discussing the scholars to whose endeavours we owe the most important European editions. Numerous publications bearing a secondary relevance for the study of the  Nights  have not been included. Also, editions of the  Nights  in international languages are not listed, while a number of them contain important essays on the history and character of the  Nights . The compiler appreciates comments and critique as well as suggestions for items to be added. As a further service to the scholarly community, we offer to supply scans of the items listed below, most of which are available here. In the future, we aim to link pdf-scans to specific items that are out of copyright."

Biographies

• al-Aʻlām : qāmūs tarājim li-ashhar al-rijāl wa-al-nisāʼ min al-ʻArab wa-al-Mustaʻribīn wa-al-mustashriqīn 1954-59. Ziriklī, Khayr al-Dīn, 1893-1976 Book[Cairo? : s.n., 1954-59]Arabical-Ṭabʻah 2, mazīdah, muḥallāt bi-al-khuṭūṭ wa-al-rusūm.Olin LibraryD198.3 .Z81
• Arab writers

Aʻlām al-adab al-ʻArabī al-muʻāsịr : siyar wa-siyar dhātīyah 2013.Bayrūt : al-Maʻhad al-Almānī lil-Abhạ̄th al-Sharqīyah fī Bayrūt ; Würzburg : Ergon in Kommission, 2013. Olin LibraryPJ7521 .A43 2013.

Aʻlām al-adab al-ʻArabī al-muʻāṣir : siyar wa-siyar dhātīyah . Campbell, Robert B., 1926-— 1996. Bayrūt, Lubnān : Yuṭlab min Dār al-Nashr Frānts Shṭaynar Shtūtgart : al-Maʻhad al-Alamānī lil-Abḥāth al-Sharqīyah, 1996. Uris LibraryA.D. White Z3014.L56 C18 1996.

Fawāt al-aʻlām maʻa al-istidrākāt wa-al-isʹhām fī itmām al-Aʻlām 2000. Rifāʻī, ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz. Bookal-Riyāḍ : Dār al-Rifāʻī, 2000.Arabical-Ṭabʻah 1.Olin LibraryD198.3.Z813 R53 2000

The Fihrist of al-Nadīm : a tenth-century survey of Muslim culture 1970. Fihrist. English. Ibn al-Nadīm, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, active 987 BookNew York, Columbia University Press, 1970.English

Kitāb al-Fihrist 2009. Ibn al-Nadīm, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, active 987 BookLondon : Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2009.ArabicUri. s LibraryA.D. White Z7052 .I2 2009.

Kitāb Kashf al-ẓunūn ʻan asāmī al-kutub wa-al-funūn [1892-1894?]Kashf al-ẓunūn ʻan asāmīʾ al-kutub wa-al-funūn. Kâtip Çelebi, 1609-1657 Book[Istanbul] : Maṭbaʻat al-ʻĀlam, [1892-1894?]Arabical-Ṭabʻah 1.Uris LibraryA.D. White Z7052 .K19 1892 + Online

al-Durr al-thamīn fī asmāʼ al-muṣannifīn 2009. Ibn al-Sāʻī, ʻAlī ibn Anjab, 1196 or 1197-1275. [Beirut] : Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 2009.Arabical-Ṭabʻah 1. Olin LibraryPJ7553 .I26 2009.

Die geschichtschreiber der Araber und ihre werke 1882. Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand, 1808-1899 BookGöttingen : Dieterichsche verlagbuchhandlung, 1882.German. Library AnnexOversize Z7052 .W95 +

Min aʻlām al-adab al-muʻāṣir Ramādī, Muḥammad Jamāl al-Dīn.— 1962? [al-Qāhirah] Dār al-Fikr al-ʻArabi [1962?] Olin LibraryPJ7538 .R16.

Muʻjam al-mu'allifīn : tarājim muṣannifī al-kutub al-ʻArabīyah 1993. Kaḥḥālah, ʻUmar Riḍā. BookBayrūt : Mu'assasat al-Risālah, 1993.Arabical-Ṭabʻah 1.Olin LibraryPJ7517 .K34 1993

Muʻjam al-udabāʾ : min al-ʻAṣr al-Jāhilī ḥattá sanat 2002 M 2003. Jubūrī, Kāmil Salmān. BookBayrūt : Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 2003.Arabical-Ṭabʻah 1.Olin LibraryPJ7521 .J795 2003.

Qāmūs al-adab al-ʻArabī al-ḥadīth 2007. BookMadīnat Naṣr, al-Qāhirah : Dār al-Shurūq, 2007.Arabical-Ṭabʻah 1.Olin LibraryOversize PJ7521 .Q36 2007 +

Tārīkh al-adab al-ʻArabī 1967-Brockelmann, Carl, 1868-1956 BookMiṣr : Dār al-Maʻārif, 1967-Arabic. Uris LibraryA.D. White Z7052 .B85 1968.

" Mapping Women Writers in the Mahjar " -- StoryMap from the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at NC State.

أعلام الادب العربي المعاصر : سير وسير ذاتية / Aʻlām al-adab al-ʻArabī al-muʻāṣir : siyar wa-siyar dhātīyah  2013

Muʻjam al-udabāʾ al-Islāmīyīn al-muʻāṣirīn [1999]

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Essays in Arabic Literary Biography: I: 925-1350

Description.

Essays in Arabic Literary Biography Vol. 1 (925-1350) is the first in a series of three works* that select 40 authors from a particular time period in Arabic literary history and invite scholars with specialized expertise to contribute biographical essays on them. The tenth through twelfth centuries was a period when Arab Islamic culture was experiencing dramatic growth and the entire Mediterranean area - extending from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to the banks of the Sind River in the East - came increasingly under its sway. The Islamic world had assimilated and consolidated a variety of influences from earlier times and other places, and now major intellectuals were turning their attention to producing new responses to the changed environment around them. These included innovations in the forms of literature, and engagement with new themes and ideas. The volume edited by Terri DeYoung and Mary St. Germain includes essays on Hispano-Arab authors as well as those writing in various capitals in the Arab East, those who wrote in other languages besides Arabic and those who were inspired to bring new literary approaches to religious sensibility, including members of the Shiite and Sufi communities alongside the more numerically dominant Sunnis. Every essay is self-contained, beginning with a list of the author's complete works (and translations of them), and then proceeding to chronicle the subject's life through a thorough examination of the principal works attributed to him. Each essay concludes with a selected bibliography of reference works.

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Essays in Arabic literary biography

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33 Arabic Biography

Faustina Doufikar-Aerts is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Free University (VU) of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

• Published: 13 January 2021
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This chapter examines the Arabic biographical tradition. The genre of biographical writing is a celebrated, multifaceted, and widely practised field of Arabic literature. Basic forms of biographical compilation can be shown from the first century of Islam (seventh century), initially orally transmitted and later in writing. The Arabic biographical tradition was mainly developed from within Islam, to which it owes its noticeable character. It probably originated from the earnest aspiration of generations following the initial period to preserve knowledge about the central figures of that era. For that reason, biographical transmission, initially, was a highly religion-orientated discipline. Nevertheless, or perhaps even due to this stimulus, there developed a huge field of different biographical genres and specialized life-writing.

The genre of biographical writing is a celebrated, multifaceted, and widely practised field of Arabic literature. Basic forms of biographical compilation can be traced from the first century of Islam (seventh century), initially orally transmitted and later in writing. The Arabic biographical tradition was mainly developed from within Islam, to which it owes its distinctive character. It probably originated from the earnest aspiration of generations following the initial period to preserve knowledge about the central figures of that era. For that reason, biographical transmission, initially, was a highly religion-orientated discipline. Nevertheless, or perhaps even due to this stimulus, there developed a huge field of different biographical genres and specialized life-story writing.

The current term in Arabic which covers the notion ‘biography’ is the word sīra : the course of life and conduct of a person. A smaller set of biographical data is often referred to as tarjama . Other terms for traditional forms of biography like maghāzī (expeditions), faḍā’il (virtues), manāqib (feats) are also in use. The term tārīkh (history) occurs several times in the title of works which are, in fact, biographical compilations.

The oldest information preserved in early biographical writings comes from so-called akhbārī s, the transmitters of akhbār , i.e. reports, communications, stories, and personal data and events in the lives of the Prophet Muḥammad and his companions and the successors of the following generation. The function of akhbārī may go back to a pre-Islamic profession of men (and women?) bearing knowledge of genealogies ( nasab ) and feats ( manāqib ) of families, clans, and tribes. In pre-Islamic society, striving for, safeguarding, and spreading the honour and nobility of the tribe were an existential part of the way of life. Since (noble) descent played an important role in this, it was vital to know and bear witness to the tribe members’ genealogy. The akhbārī -transmissions found their way into later written biographical works, where they are attested in many citations.

The information included in names was a valuable source to identify a person’s background and the starting point for biographical writings. Names in Arab communities reflected the names of older generations, as is the case in many traditional societies. Surnames were or could be extended with a patronymic (‘son of’ or ‘daughter of’: ibn , bint ), qualifications of relationships (e.g. belonging to a clan), or a toponymic (e.g. ‘al-Lībī’, ‘from Libya’). Names could be further enlarged with an agnomen ( kunyah ; ‘father of’ or ‘mother of’), a nickname or honorific ( laqab ), such as a profession (‘the carpenter’) or a physical disposition (‘the cross-eyed’). In this way, the nomenclature forms a rich source of rudimentary information about a person. This information was easily expanded with short narratives about ancestors. For example, the name of Khālid ibn Sa‛īd ibn al-‛Āṣ ibn ‛Umayya ibn ‛Abd Shams ibn ‛Abd Manāf ibn Quṣayy 1 provides the following information: his first name was Khālid, he was the son of Sa‛īd, the descendant of another five generations of forefathers, and a member of the Mekkan clan of the Banū ‛Umayyah (whose descendants were to found the dynasty of the ‛Umayyads). Finally, the theophoric names of two of his forefathers, ‛Abd Shams and ‛Abd Manāf, meaning ‘Servant of the Sun’ and ‘Servant of Manāf’ refer to deities worshipped in pre-Islamic times, obviously because Islam abolished the polytheistic cult, including such names referring to it.

Prophetic Biography: Sīra

The akhbārī s were the first providers of reports which lay at the basis of biographical writing, but they gradually lost their position as reliable transmitters of knowledge because they were not well versed in producing consistent, unbroken chains of transmitters going back to the first source—which became the pivotal standard of Ḥadīth (Islamic Tradition). Nevertheless, their reports continued to play an important role in the biography of the Prophet, in historiography, and the recollection of all kinds of information about individuals that otherwise would not have survived (Duri 1962 : 46–58).

The earliest known version and most celebrated example of biographical writing was the Biography of the Prophet Muḥammad, known as al-Sīra al-Nabawīya . This Sīra is ascribed to Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767), whose original text, probably entitled Kitāb al-Maghāzī ( Book of Campaigns or Book of Expeditions ), did not survive; however, it became known, and is presently extant for a large part, in the versions transmitted by Ibn Hishām (d. 828) and others. Ibn Isḥāq’s version was composed on the basis of reports that were preceded by those of other transmitters of akhbār , such as Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 742). The latter’s information harks back to the authority of ‛Urwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 714), a nephew of the Prophet Muḥammad’s wife ‘Ā’isha bint Abī Bakr, among others. 2 Another of his sources was the famous akhbārī , Wahb ibn Munabbih, who was well versed in Isrā’īlīyāt , the knowledge of Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian traditions, and the author of a Kitāb al-Mubtada’ (‘Book of Beginnings’) and a Kitāb al-Mulūk al-Mutawwaja (‘The Book of Crowned Kings’) about the Ḥimyarite kings of Yemen. 3

The first composite biographies of the Prophet consisted of a miscellany of data: genealogy, campaigns, lists of their participants, statements, and reports of events, Qur’ān verses related to them, poems, anecdotes, and manifestations of prophethood ( dalā’il al-nubūwa ). The arrangement is largely chronological, and the order reflects the intention of surveying the preceding events in a coherent time- and place-related framework. Ibn Isḥāq’s biographical survey placed the life of the Prophet in a historical framework, positioning his ancestry, lifecycle, and the Revelation as a matter foreshadowed in the history of mankind from Adam and all the subsequent prophets. The fact that lineage was an important issue also in early Islam is attested by a pronouncement in the Sīra composed by Muḥammad al-Bustī (d. 965), saying that the messenger of God (the Prophet Muḥammad) said: ‘God chose [Kināna] from the sons of Ismā‛īl, and He chose Quraysh from the Kināna, and He chose the Banū Hāshim from among the Quraysh, and He chose me from among the Banū Hāshim’, referring to his own ancestry and prophethood. 4

Stylistically, Ibn Isḥāq’s account is interspersed with poetical verses, a continuation of the style used by the akhbārī s. Poetry was, and still is, one of the pillars of Arabian tribal culture and its frequent use remained a very common stylistic element in elegant Arabic prose literature. For a modern reader this requires some adjustment of attitude, because the biographical information is interrupted by these poetic embellishments. In its cultural context, however, it appears to have been considered natural and relevant, in the sense that the verses may have evoked reminiscence of the addressed themes, emphasized their significance, or confirmed their genuineness.

This may be illustrated by the following section in the Sīra on the Persian affairs in Yemen. It was handed down on the authority of al-Zuhrī and it is said here that the Persian King Kisrā (Khusraw II, d. 628) had written to his satrap Bādhān in Yemen. The king wanted to be informed about ‘a man of the Quraysh operating in Mekka, who asserts that he is a prophet’. In the subsequent correspondence between this Bādhān and the Prophet Muḥammad, the latter then predicts the day that Kisrā will be killed. The redactor of the Sīra , Ibn Hishām, affirms that Kisrā was killed indeed by his son Shīrawayh (Siroes) and he then cites a poem by Khālid ibn Ḥaqq al-Shaybānī:

When Kisrā was killed by his son, And they cut him into pieces like a piece of meat, The fate of death arrived for him at the precise moment, Just as the fixed time to deliver arrives for every pregnant woman.

As a reaction, it is said, Bādhān and other Persians in Yemen converted to Islam. 5

The serial sequence of the akhbār in the biographies is structured according to a recurring principle. The communication starts with the author’s name (or that of the transmitter). Then, the chain of the transmitters is revealed, followed by the actual subject, which may be an anecdote, an event, or a pronouncement. A chain of transmitters is not given for all of the subjects in the Sīra . Sometimes there are only short references, like the following: ‘Ibn Isḥāq said: “I was told by Muḥammad ibn Sa‛īd ibn al-Musayyab 6 that ‛Abd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim [the Prophet Muḥammad’s grandfather] had gathered his daughters, when he perceived death and knew that he would die soon”’ (Ibn Hishām, ed. al-Dābūlī 1995 : 1.221).

In many other cases, a more detailed chain of transmitters occurs; we often find it in a more or less similar way, as presented here:

Ibn Isḥāq said: “I was told by ‛Āṣim the son of ‛Amr the son of Qatāda [the Prophet’s companion] on the authority of Maḥmūd the son of Labīd, on the authority of ‛Abd Allāh the son of ‛Abbās that he said: ‘I was told by Salmān the Persian that he said in his own words: ‘I was a Persian from the people of Isphahān, from a village called Jayy…’.’” (Ibn Hishām, ed. al-Dābūlī 1995 : 1.285)

We observe a different structure in another early biographical work on the Prophet, also called The Book of Expeditions . It was compiled by Ibn Isḥāq’s contemporary Ma‛mar ibn Rashīd (d. 770). The original does not survive, but it was preserved in a recension of Ma‛mar’s student ‛Abd al-Razzāq al-Ṣan‛ānī (d. 827). Ma‛mar’s work apparently has not embedded the Prophet’s life and deeds in a framework of the history of creation and on some points the thematic organization has outranked the chronological order. We find a short chapter on the marriage of the Prophet’s daughter Fāṭimah at the very end of the book. The report is said to go back to Asmā’, the daughter of ‛Umays, and is introduced with the following chain of transmitters:

‛Abd al-Razzāq [the redactor] reports on the authority of Ma‛mar [the compiler], on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of ‛Ikrimah and Abū Yazīd al-Madīnī, or one of the two (the doubt is Abū Bakr’s), that Asmā’ bint ‛Umays said: ‘When Fāṭimah was brought to ‛Alī as a bride, we found nothing in his house save a floor of packed sand, a pillow stuffed with palm fibers, and a single earthen jar and jug…’ 7

The Prophet, as the father of the bride, plays a role in this event in which Asmā’ offers assistance to accompany the bride at her marriage. This account occurs at the very end of Ma‛mar’s book, though it took place earlier in time. In this case the chronological order has been disrupted in favour of the partly thematic organization of the book.

Islamic Tradition: Biography Related to Ḥadīth and Biographies of Transmitters

Parallel to the interest in the biographical aspects of the Prophet Muḥammad runs the awareness of the need to preserve his sayings, conduct, lifestyle, and teachings and those of his followers. This resulted in compilations, referred to as Ḥadīth , which formed the basis for the gradually recorded (prophetic) tradition, the Sunna. For the Islamic religious ritual and legal system the Sunna became the second source, next to Qur’ān, on which prescriptive regulations and the legal system were built.

The collections of Ḥadīth contain a formidable portion of the initially gathered biographical material. In the course of the ninth century, serious efforts were made to systematically assess the authenticity of the reported traditions. This resulted in the ‘Kutub al-Sittah’ (six books), of which two in particular, the collections of traditions by Muslim and al-Bukhārī, were widely accepted as completely trustworthy and eventually they became canonical texts. These two collections, the Ṣaḥīḥ (‘Trustworthy’), are structured either thematically or according to transmitter. A sine qua non for the authorization of a ḥadīth was a strong, unbroken chain of reliable transmitters, muḥaddithūn , going back to the Prophet and his Companions, or at least to the first and second generation of Muslims. These criteria for the assessment of genuineness in their turn prompted the compilation of biographies of the transmitters themselves and the discipline of scrutiny of the reliability of these sources, ‛ilm al-rijāl (‘science of trustworthy authorities’). The authenticity of traditions and, for that matter, the authenticity of the matn (the report proper) could be evidenced by weighing the conditions. The reliability of the transmitters and an uninterrupted chain of trustworthy transmitters was far more an element of scrutiny than the contents of the report itself, which hardly could be verified, asserted, or rejected.

The study of rijāl resulted in the compilations of books with lists of names of authorities and transmitters of ḥadīth , the reliability of whom was either affirmed or suspect, the so-called kutub al-jarḥ wa-l-ta‛dīl (the ‘books of disparaging and authentication’). The information given in these works was when and where they lived, with whom they studied, who were their students, and when and where they died. The instigator of this criticism of transmitters is considered to be Shu‛ba al-Hajjāj (d. 777), a highly praised ḥadīth transmitter himself, living in Basra, who studied and collected traditions with numerous masters. 8 He was famous for his expertise in classifying ḥadīth transmission and distinguishing between false ( kādhib ) and trustworthy ( ṣādiq ) reports.

One of the many surviving such works is the Kitāb al-Jarḥ wa-l-Ta‛dīl by ‛Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 938). He arranged the names of the ḥadīth transmitters alphabetically, in sequence of their first name, followed by the patronymic. The biographical information is often succinct and where necessary provided with a critical note. About a man called Aḥmad ibn Ibrahīm al-Ḥalabī, for example, al-Rāzī writes:

He transmits [Traditions] on the authority of ‛Alī ibn ‛Āṣim and al-Haytham ibn Jamīl and Qubayṣa and al-Nufaylī on whose authority [also] transmits Aḥmad ibn Shaybān al-Ramlī. We were told by ‛Abd al-Raḥman that he said: I asked my father about him [the above Aḥmad] and I presented him with what he [Aḥmad] had told me and he said: I don’t know him and his ḥadīth -transmissions are false and the whole issue is baseless, and his words show that he is a liar. (al-Rāzī, ed. Anonymous 1952: 1.40)

Biographical Dictionaries

In this context of tireless listing, classifying, assessing, and collecting, the discipline of biographical writing opened new ground. Most noticeable in this respect is the genre of biographical dictionaries, a discipline which began in the ninth century and continued to flourish well into the nineteenth century. This kind of literature evolved, as Wadād al-Qāḍī ( 1995 : 97) points out, ‘at the time when [Islamic] civilization was beginning to develop a clear self-image’. Smaller, average-sized, and sizable dictionaries of different content, motivation, method, and selection of topics all appeared.

Particularly during the Abbasid period (750–1258) and later, an extensive corpus of biographical dictionaries was written. This enormous field cannot be covered here in its entirety (see Khalidi 1973 ; Young 1990 ; al-Qāḍī 1995 ; Jaques 2007 ). Rather, I will highlight a small selection. One of the oldest extant works in this genre is the celebrated Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kabīr ( The Great Book of Classes ) by Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d (d. 845; ed. Lippert 1906 ). It consists of a compilation of 4250 biographical entries, among them some 600 about women. The book was concerned with collecting biographies of ṭabaqāt —‘generations’ or ‘classes’—of people involved in forwarding, and being part of, religious tradition. Ibn Sa‛d collected biographical records of all the known ḥadīth transmitters of roughly two centuries, from the beginning of Islam up to his own time. Preceding the entries of transmitters, the book opens with a lengthy biography of the Prophet, the ultimate source of Islamic Tradition. Subsequently, the book surveys the biographical information on the Prophet’s Companions and the Successors of the next generation. Together they constituted the most important personae in the early history of Islamic civilization.

Ibn Sa‛d’s organization of the material reveals the pioneering stage of the genre. 9 There is no alphabetical order of names, as in the above-mentioned Book of Disparaging and Authentication by al-Rāzī from approximately a century later. In the arrangement of the entries various criteria alternate. Sometimes the compiler applies the so-called sābiqah criterion, which means that the earlier date and order of conversion to Islam of the biographee rule the order of the biographical notices. In the last part of the book, in which the Successors and later generations are treated, the entries are grouped according to city, starting with Medina and Mekka and, subsequently, fourteen other cities and centres of religious learning.

The biographical dictionaries were not confined to the predominant discipline of ḥadīth and traditionists studies, but they focused on a wide range of fields. In the course of time they involved compilations of professionals and famous people in the classes of jurists, Qur’ān-reciters, judges, exegetes, but also in the disciplines of the ‘humanities’: poetry, philology, grammar, belles lettres , wisdom literature, philosophy, music, and scientists and physicians.

Biographical Dictionaries of Professionals

A specific type of dictionaries are those presenting professionals or specialists excelling in their field, for example, in criticism of poetry. It was the polygraph Ibn Qutayba (d. 889) who set new standards of quality, which are expressed in the introduction to his anthology, Kitāb al-Shiʿr wa al-Shu’arā’ ( The Book of Poetry and Poets ; ed. Shākir 1945–1950 ). He states that poetry of his own time was not necessarily always less in quality than that of the ancients. He also provides information about the poets which sketches their entourage and poetry: nicknames and genealogy, quality and methods, stories, events, and anecdotes, in short, ‘illustrative material’ (Fahndrich 1973 : 438). In his Kitāb al-Shi‛r Ibn Qutayba applies chronological order. This, theoretically, opened possibilities for later generations to add new entries of poetry and poems to the compilation he made up to his day.

Some centuries later the philologist Ibn al-Anbārī (d. 1181) composed the biographical history of philologists Nuzhat al-Alibbā’ fī Ṭabaqāt al-Udabā’ ( Amusement of the Intelligent about the Classes of Authors ), in which he devotes a concise entry to his celebrated predecessor, Ibn Qutayba. After the personal details he adds a touching anecdote about the author’s death:

Ibn Qutayba ate harissa [a dish] and he became feverish and gave a loud scream. Then, he lost consciousness until noon; then he became in a state of restless shaking and then calmed down. Then, he continuously pronounced the credo ‘lā ilāha ill' Allāh’ until dawn, when he passed away. This was on the first night of the month Rajab of the year two hundred and seventy-six, and he died during the caliphate of al-Mu‘tamid ‘Alā 'Llāh, God is Almighty.’ (ed. Abū al-Faḍl 1998: 185–186)

Another interesting development within the category of professionals and specialists are the dictionaries dedicated to physicians and philosophers. The combination of the two professions or competences is very common and probably goes back to the compilations of wisdom literature containing the biographies of various ancient philosophers and physicians, such as Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscurides, and others. A remarkable example is the Ṭabaqāt al-Aṭibbā’ wa ’l- Ḥukamā’ ( The Classes of Physicians and Philosophers ). It was composed by the Andalusian Abū Dāwud Sulaymān ibn al-Ḥassān, known as Ibn Juljul (d. after 994). He was trained in grammar and ḥadīth studies and at the same time was a respected physician. His work was probably the first dictionary focusing on this professional group of physicians and sages, for which he apparently also used the Latin works by Orosius, Jerome, and Isidore of Seville (Sayyid 1955 : 9).

Ibn Juljul divided his biographies into nine classes, six of which group physicians and philosophers from ancient and pre-Islamic times, and three of which are dedicated to men excelling in these disciplines in the Islamic era (in particular in the Maghreb and al-Andalus). Other than this vague chronological order and topographical arrangement, there is no systematic organization of the subjects. Ibn Juljul’s biographical notes are not complete biographies; often the information is quite concise and eclectic. However, the author seems to have a predilection for amusing anecdotes, which give a vivid portrait of special characteristics of the biographees and their medical practices (Álvarez Millan 2004 ). An example: about Isḥāq ibn Sulaymān al-Isrā’īlī, an eloquent physician from Egypt, specializing as an eye doctor and living in the Maghreb, Ibn Juljul reports that he was at least 100 years old. However, he adds, the man did not have a wife or any offspring, but wrote unsurpassed books, like his Book about Urine , books on diets, nutrition, medicine, philosophy, logic, and other topics. People asked him: ‘Would you be pleased to have a son?’ He said: ‘Well, no, when my Book of Diets was born that pleased me more.’ He means, Ibn Juljul points out, that his memory would be sustained through the Book of Diets , rather than through offspring (Sayyid 1955 : 87).

Ibn Juljul’s book, containing less than sixty biographies, was elaborated on by later compilers in much more complex forms. One such work was the ‛Uyūn al-Anbā’ fī Ṭabaqāt al-Aṭibbā’ ( The Best Tidings, about the Classes of Physicians ) by Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‛a (d. 1270) from Damascus (Savage-Smith et al. 2020). It consists of 380 biographies, arranged according to generations and classes of nations and regions. Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‛a also revised much material from the works of his predecessors such as Ibn al-Qifṭī’s (d. 1248) Tarīkh al-Ḥukamā’ ( History of Wise Men ; ed. Lippert 1903 ). He highlights medical sciences and the philosophy of the ancients: Asclepius, Hippocrates, Galen, the school of Alexandria, Christians, Arabs, Syrians, the translators of Greek works, and from Mesopotamia, Diyarbakir, Persia, India, the Maghreb, Egypt, and Syria.

Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‛a has an entirely different approach to life-writing. He tends to present a complete biography of his subject, including witty anecdotes and poetry. His Life of Aristotle runs for more than twenty pages, whereas that in Ibn Juljul’s work hardly covers two. He also used and named sources other than Ibn Juljul and Ibn al-Qifṭī: Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (d. 873), Abū ’l-Ḥasan ‛Alī al-Mas‛ūdī (d. 956), and Al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik (d. c .1100). The biography contains Aristotle’s genealogy and provenance, his career, many events in his life, anecdotes, his physical appearance, his affiliations with other philosophers, his tutorship of Alexander the Great, his testament, his statements and sayings and the titles of his works and treatises with data based on different sources. Extensive as these compilations of biographical data may be, the narrations never transcend the character of prosopography (Jaques 2007 ).

Biographical Dictionaries of Local Orientation

Local dictionaries related to places and regions list particular individuals who had in some way played a significant role in their local context. Aḥmad al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 1071) composed an impressive work, Tārīkh Baghdād ( The History of Baghdad ; ed. al-Khānǧī 1931), which had 7,800 entries on scholars, ḥadīth transmitters, and other people connected to the city, among them women, who had played a role in its cultural and political life. Although it concerns a biographical dictionary, the use of the term tārīkh (history) in the title points to its literal meaning of ‘dating’, which in this case implies the registration of dates of birth and death of the people mentioned in the biographical entries. It may also give an indication of al-Baghdādī’s opinion that history is built on what individuals contribute to society. In the introduction to his book, he explains it as follows:

This is the book of the history of Madīnat as-Salām [City of Peace, i.e. Baghdad] and the report of its construction and the commemoration of its great residents and settlers and listing the names of its learned men…We were told by ‛Abd al-‛Azīz ibn Abī al-Ḥasan al-Qarmīsīnī that he said: I heard Umar ibn Aḥmad ibn ‛Uthmān saying: I heard Abū Bakr al-Nīsābūrī say that he heard Yūnus ibn ‛Abd al-A‛lā saying: al-Shāfi‛i said to me: Oh Yūnus did you enter Baghdad? He said: I said no. He said: Then it is as if you have seen nothing of this world (or its people). (vol. 1: 3)

This anecdote shows that the author’s approach to historiography of the city is not to write about events but to recollect the well-being and woes of notable people and present their biographies. Immediately after this introduction he starts discussing legal aspects of the property market in Baghdad, in particular the questionable practice of selling and buying houses on illicitly usurped ground. Several small chapters follow with miscellaneous information about the city. All the data and anecdotes in these chapters are presented with long chains of transmitters. It shows that the author observed the ruling method of ḥadīth transmission and considered that system just as compelling for this more or less kindred discipline of biographical historiography. The structure of the work also reveals the religiously oriented approach of al-Baghdādī: he opens his systematic compilation of biographical entries with the name ‘Muḥammad’.

His work was continued by a later fellow-citizen, named Ibn al-Najjār al-Baghdādī (d. 1245; Caesar 1990 ). After more than 150 years, this historian and important muḥaddith of the Shāfi‛ī school wrote his Dhayl Tārīkh Baghdād aw Madīnat al-Salām , in which he continued the biographies of people in the category of al-Baghdādī’s book up to his own time. The method of writing an extension ( dhayl ) to earlier biographical dictionaries first originated in the west of the Islamic world, Andalusia and the Maghreb (al-Qāḍī 1995 : 103, n. 43).

Another such local ‘history’ is the Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq ( The History of the City of Damascus ), composed by the famous ‛Alī ibn Asākir (d. 1176). It is a voluminous work, of which the printed compendium extends to 29 volumes. The beginning of the book has introductory chapters devoted to the history of the world and the local history of Damascus, but for the main part the work is a biographical dictionary. It arranges all the people of importance, who were in some way connected to the city, in alphabetical order. The biographical entries mostly have a systematic structure, starting with genealogy, often even variant versions, followed by pronouncements of people about the biographee, anecdotes, and a death date.

Combinations of different types of dictionaries also occur. The Classes of Magistrates in Egypt written by Al-Kindī (d. 961), is an example (Gottheil 1908 ). It is arranged in a sequence of successions and appointments of the Egyptian judges by a certain caliph. It starts with an editorial declaration of intent, after which follows the entry of the first magistrate appointed in Egypt. The entry includes a number of reports preceded by long chains of transmitters, giving various, and sometimes subsidiary, information about this appointment, its starting date and duration. Various notices follow. The judges are portrayed in the sequence of the chronological order of their period of duty. The biographical data of each of the magistrates are presented in a survey of reports and anecdotes, always accompanied by a chain of transmitters. Only sporadically, personal or family matters are involved. In general, it concerns factual matters, such as the name of the caliph under whose reign the biographees were appointed. Sometimes we are given information about their situation or profession before they were called to the magistracy; about their salary, various readings of events, about their ways of working or judicial issues they introduced, about their cases and verdicts and, at the end of an entry, regularly the date of death and years of office are mentioned. There is no rubric to the entries. In fact, the tasmīya (naming) of the qāḍī s (magistrates) is integrated into the chronological framework.

Later Developments: Variegated Biographical Dictionaries

A later development of the genre of biographical dictionaries is the format of ‘a wide range of fields and classes’. There are several important and authoritative works of this kind. In the first place the sizable dictionary by Shams al-Dīn ibn Khallikān (d. 1282), Wafayāt al-A‘yān wa-Anbā’ Abnā’ al-Zamān (Obituaries of Eminent Men and Tidings of the Sons of the Epoch) . His book is a treasure-trove for information about all kinds of ‘men of intelligence and of general excellence’ of all walks of life in the different regions of the Islamic world. He did not include the biographies of the Prophet, the Companions, the Successors, and the caliphs because their lives had many times been documented by others. He also, exceptionally, left out chains of transmitters. Ibn Khallikān’s Wafayāt has been much appreciated, not only as source of information, but also as a work of refined informative literary writing. It was ‘continued’ by Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī (d. 1361), who compiled Fawāt al-Wafayāt (Beyond the Obituaries) . His contemporary, al-Ṣafadī (d. 1361), combined the two dictionaries in his even more extensive compilation Al-Wāfī bi ’l-Wafayāt (Completion of the Obituaries) .

Another work in this category was written by the historian and theologian Shams al-Dīn al-Shāfi‘ī al-Dhahabī (d. c . 1350) and was entitled Ta’rīkh al-Islām (History of Islam) . It covers the period from the beginning of Islam until the year 1300, arranged in classes of seventy decades. For each year general historical information is given in different paragraphs, as well as ‘strange events’. For example, an affair happening in the year 623 of the Hijra (1226 ad ) is described thus:

The change of a girl into a man. Ibn al-Athīr said: ‘I was in the Peninsula [Mesopotamia] and we had a neighbour who had a daughter, named Ṣafīya. She was a girl until she became about fifteen years old. All of a sudden she got male genitals and she developed a growth of beard. She had the appearances of a female and the sexual characteristics of a male.’(al-Tadmūrī 1998: 16)

Al-Dhahabī presents the names of the biographees in alphabetical order of their first name, arranged according to their year of death ( wafayāt ). It concerns the lives of the caliphs, local rulers and functionaries in the military and administration, jurists and theologians, scholars and poets. It was al-Dhahabī’s intention to be all-embracing, including history and biography of the entire Islamic world—also the rulers of the western caliphate—and the different schools of law ( madhāhib ).

In the later Middle Ages, the genre of biographical dictionaries continued. Prominent scholars excelled in this discipline of centennial dictionaries, like Shihāb al-Dīn ibn Ḥajar al-‛Asqalānī (d. 1449), who wrote Al-Durar al-Kāmina fī A‘yān al-Mi’a al-Thāmina ( Hidden Pearls about the Eminent Men of the Eighth Century ). He arranged the biographical notices of ‘eminent men’ of all sorts who died in the 8th century of the Islamic calendar (14th century) in alphabetical order, year by year. Another great scholar and biographer was Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 1505). His contribution to Islamic intellectual civilisation is unsurpassed. He was a prominent scholar, traveler, and prolific writer in the wide range of religious sciences, philology and medicine and one of the two compilers of the Tafsīr al-Jalalayn , the Qur’ān commentary by the men both named Jalāl al-Dīn. His contribution to the biographical tradition is his Tārīkh al-Khulafā’ ( History of the Caliphs ). Despite the word Tārīkh (history) in the title, he has a clear view about the distinction between the function of annalistic history and biography (Cooperson 2000: 19). His work covers the lives (and history) of all the caliphs, from Abū Bakr (632) until Abū al-Sabr Ya‘qūb al-Mustamsik bi-’Llāh, al-Suyūṭī’s contemporary, who was called to the sultanate of Egypt in 1497, and it includes an overview of the Umayyad dynasty of Spain. In one of his very extensive and full biographies he records a citation spoken by a Kufan in favour of the fourth caliph, ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib: ‘By Allāh, Amīr al-Mu’minīn [commander of the faithful], you have ornamented the caliphate and it has not ornamented you. You have raised it up and it has not raised you up. It was in more need of you than you were in need of it.’ (A. Clarke 1995: 199)

As the genre of biographical dictionaries expanded more and more, also the different schools of law, the Shāfi’ite, Hanbalite, Malikite, Hanafite, Shi’ite, Sūfī, Mu‘tazilite, Ash’arī schools and other groups like ascetics and mystics had their own biographical dictionaries, dedicated to their specific religious communities (Grimwood-Jones et al. 1977: 78–100).

Individual Biography

Apart from the extensive genre of biographical dictionaries, there are also single biographies on individuals. There are the historically based siyar (biographies) such as, for instance, about Maḥmūd of Ghāzna (d. 1030), Salāḥ al-Dīn (d. 1193), the famous Saladin, and sultan Baybars (d. 1277), to mention just a few. The great scholar Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 1201) dedicated a huge work in hundred chapters to Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 855), the founder of the Ḥanbalī school of law, which stands midway between biography and hagiography (Cooperson 2013 ). Also, a remarkable work has been devoted to al-Iskandar (Alexander the Great, d. 323 bc ). Although he was a historical figure preceding Islamic times, Arabic literature possessed a full biography of him, which ultimately harks back to Ps.-Callisthenes’ Greek Alexander Romance (on which see Chapter 16 in this volume). It was an exemplary and influential text which has been reworked, adapted, and translated from Arabic several times for many purposes (Doufikar-Aerts 2010 : 13–91).

As in the case of Ps.-Callisthenes, the Arabic Alexander biography is partly legendary. In the Arabic tradition, there are also epic texts, referred to in modern literary criticism as ‘popular romances’, siyar sha‛abīya . These long texts (sometimes extending to thousands of pages) have as their subject the sīra —biography—of a historical figure, but the ‘biographies’ hardly contain any historical or ‘genuine’ information about the protagonist. Nevertheless, they form part of a long-standing narrative tradition, which represents a shared cultural heritage; the commemoration of, and identification with, the lives of Islamic and pre-Islamic heroes from the past (Lyons 1995 ; Canova 2003).

Christian and Islamic Hagiography

It should be noted that Arabic-speaking Christian communities from old had a rich tradition of hagiography. Apart from the oral transmission, much hagiographical material has been recorded in written form, much of which has not yet been edited. The extensive field of Christian Arabic hagiography has been examined by some scholars, but it has remained a relatively untrodden field. Many hagiographical texts were not written in Arabic originally, but translated from Greek, Syriac, and Coptic, the languages of the older Christian communities in the Middle East. Arabic hagiographies in their turn gave way to translations into Ethiopic and conversions into Garshuni (Arabic in Syriac script), and formed a ‘catchment field’, as it was called by Swanson ( 2011: 346 ).

Broadly speaking, there are separate Lives of individual saints, martyrs and Church Fathers, monks, and ascetics, on the one hand, and collective hagiographical texts, on the other. The vast quantity of vitae of saints and martyrs originated in line with the traditions of the Melkite, Coptic, and other oriental Orthodox churches, often written or transmitted in Arabic. The vitae have many different forms and recensions and the tradition is still very much alive, not least because martyrology is a characteristic feature in the liturgy of the eastern churches. The synaxarions used in the eastern churches contain the vitae of martyrs, saints, and Church Fathers attached to the day of the calendar on which their names and lives are celebrated. They mostly present the saints’ lives in summaries. A fine sample of a complete hagiography devoted to an individual saint is the Life of Kolouthos (see Zanetti 2004 ).

Another part of the corpus consists of Lives in the Liber Pontificalis or Book of the Lives of the Patriarchs , 10 a work on the Coptic Church Fathers from the first-century Saint Mark up to the fifty-second patriarch, in the middle of the ninth century, named Joseph. (On its Coptic background, see Chapter 31 in this volume.) The evangelist Mark’s biography ( sīra ) is a typical martyr’s Life, and it is much longer than the short notices of the subsequent eleven patriarchs. The twelfth patriarchate, from ad 189–231, was held by Demetrius, to whom a long chapter is devoted. It describes the way in which he miraculously became patriarch, although he was married, but to a holy woman, for that matter, and they lived together as brother and sister. Many events happen during his life as a patriarch, such as his involvement in, for instance, the excommunication of Origen of Alexandria. His holiness is corroborated by the fact that he ‘displayed much learning and wisdom, although he had formerly been ignorant and unable to read or write; and all his spiritual children were continually admonished by him’ (Evetts 1907 : 169).

Islamic hagiography, for its part, has been covered to some extent by the above survey of the biographies of the Prophet. However, one other genre has not yet been dealt with. First, the category of vitae prophetarum , the Lives of pre-Islamic prophets and saints. These are transmitted in the compilations of Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyā’ ( Tales of the Prophets ). One of the most celebrated compilations is ‘Arā’is al-Majālis fī Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyā’ (The Highlights–‘Brides’–of the Enlightening Sessions on the Tales of the Prophets) by the theologian al-Tha‛labī (d. 1036). It starts with the story of Creation, followed by the stories about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the angels, and subsequently the vitae of pre-Islamic prophets—according to the Muslim tradition—starting with Noah, Hūd, Abraham, and many others, including Jesus the son of Mary and Ğirğīs (St George).

The Life of Ğirğīs is a typical martyr’s Life (Brinner 2002 : 715–725). The chain of transmitters goes back to the well-known Wahb ibn Munabbih, mentioned above, and the report contains specifics about Ğirğīs’s confrontation with his oppressor, tortures, and miracles which are reminiscent of some details in the life of Saint George in the Arabic Synaxarion used in the Coptic church. 11

The Shi’ite communities also developed a strong tradition of martyrs and miracles, with its own specialized vocabulary. It focused from the start on the martyrdom of al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī Ṭālib, the grandson of the Prophet Muḥammad, and on the latter’s family ( ahl-al-bayt ) and the heirs of the Imamate. In the field of vitae prophetarum Shi’ite works regularly give prevalence to other characters in their collections of prophets’ Lives, and on certain points stress other qualities and events. For example, a Shi’ite compiler, ‘Abd Allāh al-Ḥusaynī, portrays the young Daniel in the role of a saviour, as known from Susanna and the Elders in the Septuagint. 12

The above synopsis gives an impression of the rich tradition of biographical writing in Arabic. It shows a particular brand of cultural expression of self-awareness within a primarily religious paradigm. The selection of examples is not exhaustive, but it has been illustrative of the main features.

Further Reading

With the focus on four prominent historical figures in Islamic history, Cooperson ( 2000 ) gives a valuable overview. Besides her many contributions to literary history Wadād al-Qāḍī dedicated her farewell address (2009) once more to the spectrum of biographical dictionaries and in particular their reputation. A recent contribution from a more specialized but highly important perspective is Winet ( 2017 ). In the specialist field of medieval and Near Eastern hagiography, the volume by Papaconstantinou, Debié, and Kennedy (2010) stands out. Arabic autobiography, which is not dealt with in the current chapter, is covered in an informative volume by D.F. Reynolds ( 2001 ).

A biographee in Ibn Saad (ed. Lippert 1906 : 67).

Aspects like authenticity, reliability and historicity of the sources of the Sīra and their transmission, are under a long-term debate and will not be discussed here. I refer to Görke, Motzki, and Schoeler (2008; 2012).

The earliest surviving fragments of Sīra literature are preserved in the Wahb papyrus. See Khoury ( 1972 ) and Kister ( 1974 ; 1983 ).

al-Ḥāfiẓ (1997: 39) and Lippert (1906: 2).

Ibn Hishām, ed. al-Dābūlī (1995: 1.113).

A grandson of a companion of the Prophet.

Translation Anthony ( 2014 : 177).

Juynboll ( 1983 : 20).

See C.F. Robinson ( 1996 ) and Jaques ( 2007 : 399–400) on this early stage.

The work is known under several titles ( History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria , Liber Pontificalis , Historia Ecclesiastica ) and ascribed to Sawīrus (Severus) Ibn al-Muqaffa‛, bishop of al-Ushmūnayn (tenth century), but was probably compiled by Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij (eleventh century). See den Heijer (1989; 1990; 1996).

Summaries of these Lives are found in O’Leary ( 1974 ).

Book Daniel (13). Al-Ḥusaynī’s compilation refers to early Shi’ite sources. See Aichele (1915) and Doufikar-Aerts (2011).

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ISBN: 3447059338

ISBN13: 9783447059336

Essays in Arabic Literary Biography: II: 1350-1850

The three volumes of Essays in Arabic Literary Biography contain entries by leading specialists in the field of Arabic literature studies devoted to the major representatives of the literary heritage... This description may be from another edition of this product.

Recommended

Format: Paperback

Condition: New

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• Modern Arabic Biography

Modern Arabic Biography: Home

Summary links.

Catalog Searches

Specific Biographical Works

Catalog searches -- subject headings.

The best way to find biographical dictionaries or biographies of specific modern Arabs is to search the catalog using subject headings.   If you are working in the UW-only Catalog, change the default “Keyword” in the first box under Search to: “LC Subject”.   If you are working in the Worldcat interface, precede your search by: "su:"   " su:" forces Worldcat to search your phrase within subject headings instead as a group of separate keywords.

For individuals, use the formulas:

Name – Bio-bibliography

Nasser, Gamal Abdel

Bio-bibliography means the book will contain not only a biography, but a full bibliography of the person's works.   Few exist for the Arab world, but those few are very useful.

For biographical dictionaries, use these headings as a starting point.

Authors, Arab – Biography

Authors, Arab – Bio-bibliography

Arab countries – Biography

Arabs – Biography

Lebanon - Biography (for Lebanon, substitute the region, i.e. Middle East, country, region within a country, i.e. Amil Mountains, Lebanon, or city of your choice)

Muslims – Biography

Poets, Arab – Biography

Politicians – Lebanon (substitute geographical entity) – Biography

The last two examples represent the category of “Profession” – Geographical entity – Biography.  Feel free to substitute other professions.

Campbell, Robert B., 1926-

Aʻlām al-adab al-ʻArabī al-muʻāṣir : sīrah wa-sīrah dhātīyah / iʻdād Rūbirt B. Kambill al-Yasūʻī

al-Ṭabʻah 1

Bayrūt, Lubnān : al-Maʻhad al-Alamānī lil-Abḥāth al-Sharqīyah, 1996

2 v. (1420 p.) : ports. ; 25 cm

Szref, szstx    PJ7521 .C36 1996

Contemporary African writers / edited by Tanure Ojaide.

Detroit : Gale Cengage Learning, c2011.

xxiv, 432 p. : ill. ; 29 cm.

Dictionary of literary biography ; v. 360

Szref  PN41 .D484 1978 v.360

Crosshatching in global culture : a dictionary of modern Arab writers : an updated English version of R.B. Campbell's ‪"Contemporary Arab Writers" / edited by John J. Donohue and Leslie Tramontini.

Beirut : Orient-Institut der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft ; Würzburg : Ergon in Kommission, 2004.

2 v. ‪(xxiii, 1215 p.) ; 24 cm.

Szref, szstx    PJ7521 C76 2004

Essays in Arabic literary biography / general editor, Roger Allen.

Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 2009.

3 v.   ; 25 cm.

Vol. 3 covers 1850-1950

Szstx    PJ7521 .E87 2009 v. 3

Moss, Joyce, 1951-

African literature and its times / Joyce Moss, Lorraine Valestuk

Detroit : Gale Group, c2000

xlv, 544 p. : ill. ; 29 cm

Boref, szref, taref    PL8010 .M65 2000

Middle Eastern literatures and their times / Joyce Moss

Detroit : Thomson Gale, 2004

liii, 585 p. : ill., ports. ; 29 cm

Szstx, ugstx    PJ307 .M67 2004

Twentieth-century Arab writers / edited by Majd Yaser Al-Mallah and Coeli Fitzpatrick.

Detroit : Gale Cengage Learning, c2009.

xxii, 391 p. : ill. ; 29 cm.

Dictionary of literary biography ; v. 346

Szref    PN41 .D484 1978 v.346

• Last Updated: Sep 30, 2020 2:48 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/modarabbio