IBN KHALLIKAN `Abbas Ahmad ibn Khallikan] (1211-1282), Arabian biographer, was born at Arbela. When eighteen he went to Aleppo, where he studied for six years, then to Damascus, and in 1238 to Alexandria and Cairo. In 1261 he became chief cadi of Syria in Damascus, from 1271 to 1278, he was professor in Cairo, and from 1281 to his death, professor in Damascus.
His great work, the Kitab Wafaydt contains in alphabetical order the lives of the most celebrated persons of history and literature, except those of Mahomet, the four caliphs and the com panions of Mahomet and their followers (the Tabidn). It was pub lished by F. Wiistenfeld (Gottingen, , in part by McG. de Slane (Paris, 1838-42) , and also in Cairo (1859 and 1882) . An English translation by McG. de Slane was published in 4 vols. (London, 1842-71) . Thirteen extra biographies from an Amsterdam ms. were published by Pijnappel (Amsterdam, 1845) . The best known supple ment to the book is that of Mahommed ibn Shakir (d. 1362) , published in Cairo 1882. A collection of poems by Ibn Khallikan is also extant. See E. V. Lucas, A Boswell of Baghdad (I.K.) (1917) .