Dhayl Ibn al-Iraqi ala al-Ibar
- Author died
- 826 AH
- Editions
- Mu’assasat al-Risālah
al-Dhayl ʿala al-ʿIbar fī khabar man ʿabar (Arabic: ذيل ابن العراقي على العبر / الذيل على العبر) is a biographical chronicle by the Shafiʿi scholar and chief judge Abu Zurʿah Wali al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim al-Iraqi (762–826 AH / 1361–1423 CE), covering historical events and obituaries from 762 AH to 786 AH .
Background and Scope
The work belongs to a chain of continuations (dhuyūl) attached to al-Dhahabi's (d. 748 AH) al-ʿIbar fī khabar man ʿabar, which al-Dhahabi had abridged from his larger work Taʾrīkh al-Islām and brought up to the year 700 AH, before composing his own continuation (Dhayl al-ʿIbar) through the year 740 AH . Several scholars subsequently wrote continuations, including Zayn al-Din Abd al-Rahim al-Iraqi (d. 806 AH), who covered the years 741 AH to 763 AH .
Abu Zurʿah al-Iraqi composed his book as a medium-length chronicle (taʾrīkh mutawassiṭ) continuing his father's work . He commenced his coverage from his own birth year—recording his birth at dawn on Monday, 3 Dhu al-Hijjah 762 AH—and concluded at the year 786 AH .
Structure and Method
The book is arranged annalistically by year . Under each year, the author notes key events and compiles obituaries of distinguished contemporaries, including scholars, hadith memorizers (ḥuffāẓ), judges, rulers, and state officials . Biographical notices typically provide the individual's titles and full lineage, exact dates of death when known, details of their teachers and what texts they heard or missed (fawt), their students, and their written works .
Historiographical Clarifications and Editions
A misunderstanding occurred in the works of Ibn Qadi Shuhbah, al-Sakhawi in al-Iʿlān bi-al-Tawbīkh, and subsequently Hajji Khalifa in Kashf al-Ẓunūn, who reported that Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi had written a continuation on the Wafayāt of Ahmad ibn Aybak al-Dimyati and that Abu Zurʿah had appended to that work . However, Abu Zurʿah explicitly stated in his opening text that his work is a continuation of his father's Dhayl upon al-Dhahabi's Dhayl al-ʿIbar .
The text was edited and annotated by Salih Mahdi Abbas and published by Muʾassasat al-Risalah in 1989 .
Answer updated