Ismail Pasha al-Babani
- Died
- 1339 AH
- Born in
- Baghdad
Ismail Pasha al-Babani (d. 1339 AH / 1920 CE) was an Ottoman Iraqi bibliographer, historian, and scholar of books and authors, best known for his bio-bibliographical reference works Idah al-maknun and Hadiyat al-arifin.
Biography and Scholarly Contributions
Ismail Pasha was the son of Muhammad Amin ibn Mir Salim (also recorded as Amir Salim) al-Babani al-Baghdadi. He belonged by ancestry to the Kurdish Baban family and was born and resided in Baghdad.
Later in life, he relocated to the Ottoman capital, settling for a considerable period in the nearby village of Makriköy (Bakırköy), outside Istanbul. There, he devoted his efforts to compiling and expanding Islamic bibliographical records. In 1330 AH, he completed his major two-volume supplement to Katib Chalabi’s Kashf al-zunun, entitled Idah al-maknun fi al-dhayl 'ala Kashf al-zunun, which was subsequently published in 1346 AH. He also authored Hadiyat al-arifin: asma' al-mu'allifin wa-athar al-musannifin, a comprehensive two-volume biographical dictionary cataloging authors and their writings.
Death
Ismail Pasha al-Babani died in Istanbul in 1339 AH (1920 CE).
Answer updated
List of Works
Hadiyat al-Arifin Asma al-Muallifin wa Athar al-Musannifin is a two-volume Arabic bio-bibliographical dictionary cataloging Muslim scholars and their writings from early Islam down to the compiler's era. It records authors by their given names, agnomens, titles, death dates, and works, encompassing entries for approximately 10,000 authors and mentioning around 50,000 book titles across Islamic disciplines.
Idah al-Maknun fi al-Dhayl ala Kashf al-Zunun is a two-volume Arabic bibliographical dictionary designed as an extensive supplement to the classical bibliographical encyclopedia Kashf al-Zunun by Katib Chalabi. It expands the original work by adding approximately 19,000 titles, covering earlier omissions as well as later Arabic, Persian, and Turkish writings arranged alphabetically by book titles and disciplines.