Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli
- Died
- 1396 AH
- Born in
- Beirut
Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli (1310–1396 AH / 1893–1976 CE) was a Syrian historian, diplomat, and poet, best known for his biographical dictionary al-A'lam (The Notable Figures) .
Lineage and Early Life
Khayr al-Din ibn Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Faris al-Zirikli hailed from a Kurdish tribal background rooted in the Kurdish family of Mardin . He was born on the night of 9 Dhu al-Hijjah 1310 AH (25 June 1893 CE) in Beirut, where his father was engaged in commerce, though both of his parents were natives of Damascus .
Raised in Damascus, he studied in its traditional private schools under local scholars, learning Arabic grammar, rhetoric, jurisprudence, and history . He completed the scientific curriculum at al-Madrasah al-Hashimiyyah in Damascus and subsequently taught there . During this period, he founded the weekly periodical al-Asma'i, which was shut down by the Ottoman administration after publishing an illustration identified as the "Arab Caliph" al-Ma'mun . He subsequently moved to Beirut to study French literature at the Collège Laïque, where he also taught Arabic history and literature .
Political Activity and Exile
Following World War I, al-Zirikli returned to Damascus and participated in editing daily newspapers, including Lisan al-'Arab and al-Mufid . After the Battle of Maysalun and the French occupation of Damascus in 1920, he fled through Palestine and Egypt to the Hejaz, prompting the French authorities to sentence him to death in absentia and seize his property .
In 1921, Sharif Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz granted him Arab nationality and dispatched him to assist Prince Abdullah I of Jordan in establishing the first administration in Amman, where al-Zirikli served as inspector general of education and head of the governmental diwan until 1923 . When the French suspended his death sentence, he retrieved his family from Damascus and settled in Cairo in late 1923, establishing the Arab Printing Press (al-Matba'ah al-'Arabiyyah) . During the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925, he supported the insurgency through nationalistic poems, leading French authorities to issue a second death sentence against him in absentia .
Diplomatic Service
In 1934, Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud appointed al-Zirikli counselor to the Saudi legation in Cairo . He served as a Saudi representative in the preliminary consultations that created the Arab League and signed its founding pact . In 1946, he was entrusted with administering the Saudi Foreign Ministry in Jeddah in alternating turns with Yusuf Yasin, and represented Saudi Arabia in various international assemblies .
He became minister plenipotentiary and permanent delegate to the Arab League in 1951, and was appointed Saudi ambassador to Morocco from 1957 until 1963, where he served as dean of the diplomatic corps .
Scholarly Standing
Al-Zirikli was elected to several major linguistic academies, including the Arab Scientific Academy in Damascus in 1930, the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo in 1946, and the Iraqi Scientific Academy in Baghdad in 1960 . Scholars praised his classical poetic style, with Muhammad al-Khidr Husayn noting his affinity for the philosophical tone of Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri .
His lasting reputation rests on his biographical encyclopedia al-A'lam, compiled and refined over nearly six decades, in which he indexed thousands of historical and modern figures alphabetically by given name and year of death . He also compiled a detailed historical account of the reign of King Abdulaziz, titled Shibh al-Jazirah fi 'Ahd al-Malik 'Abd al-'Aziz (The Arabian Peninsula in the Reign of King Abdulaziz) .
Illness and Death
In 1963, ill health prompted his retirement from active diplomatic service, and he resided primarily in Beirut . After suffering cardiovascular illness and undergoing treatment in Beirut in early 1976, he briefly visited Damascus and the resort town of Bludan before moving to Cairo in late September .
His condition deteriorated, and he died in Cairo on 3 Dhu al-Hijjah 1396 AH (25 November 1976 CE)—though one Moroccan record noted an initial report of Shawwal before confirming the end of Dhu al-Hijjah—and was buried in Cairo . He bequeathed his personal library to the University of Riyadh .
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List of Works
al-A'lam: Qamus Tarajim li-Ashhar al-Rijal wa-al-Nisa' min al-'Arab wa-al-Musta'ribin wa-al-Mustashriqin (The Notable Figures: A Biographical Dictionary of the Most Famous Men and Women among the Arabs, Arabists, and Orientalists) is a multi-volume biographical encyclopedia. It serves as a comprehensive reference work covering prominent figures across Arabic and Islamic history from the pre-Islamic era down to 1395 AH (1975 CE).
Tarajim al-Awail wal-Khulafa (al-Aalam al-Sughra) (Biographies of the Early Figures and Caliphs: The Minor al-A'lam) is a biographical work containing approximately 150 concise biographies of pre-Islamic Arabian figures, early notables, and Islamic caliphs.