İbn Hallikân

İbn Hallikân, who lived in the 13th century, is one of the leading biographers and qadis of the Islamic world. His lineage goes back to the Bermekîs, the famous vizier family of the Abbâsîs, and he takes his name from his great-grandfather Hallikân (Cilt 1, s. 182).

Qadi Duties

In 638/1240, İbn Hallikân served as the deputy (nâib) responsible for marriage affairs for his relative Bedreddîn Yusuf, who was appointed chief qadi of Mısır's Vechü'l-Kıblî region. A year later, upon Qadi Bedreddîn's appointment as chief qadi of the Kahire and el-Vechülbahrî region, he became the chief qadi's Kahire deputy (nâib). İbn Hallikân, who served as qadi in Mısır until 659/1260, was appointed chief qadi of Şâm by the Memlük ruler Baybars, upon the recommendation of Emir Cemâleddîn Aydoğdu, after this date (Cilt 1, s. 183).

With this duty, the administration of all mosques, hospitals, and madrasas in Şam was also entrusted to him. İbn Hallikân, who managed all these institutions through his deputies (nâibs), appointed muîds to the Âdiliyye, Nâsıriyye, Azrâviyye, Felekiyye, Rükniyye, İkbâliyye, and Behesniyye madrasas, for which he was responsible for education; and in 663, he reformed Mısır's judicial (kaza) system (Cilt 1, s. 183).

Vefeyâtü'l-Aʿyân

İbn Hallikân's most renowned work is Vefeyâtü'l-Aʿyân, which is among the earliest examples of the biography genre written in its field in Islamic history. While biographies compiled before him were mostly dedicated to specific groups (tabakat) such as sahâbe, tâbiîn, exegetes, jurists, poets, and grammarians, Vefeyât covers numerous engineers, philosophers, astronomers, astrologers, physicians, literati, poets, historians, geographers, genealogists, and musicians specialized in their fields. This broad content and the numerous poems, as well as educational and entertaining anecdotes it contains, have also given the work the identity of an important literary piece (Cilt 1, s. 184).

İbn Hallikân states that he wrote his work with the aim that future generations after him would know their predecessors; in his book, he includes biographies of famous people whom he personally saw or about whom he had information, even if he did not have the opportunity to meet them during his lifetime (Cilt 1, s. 184).