Durrat al-Hijal fi Asma al-Rijal
- Author died
- 1025 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Turāth
Durrat al-Hijal fi Asma al-Rijal (The Pearl of the Bridal Canopies on the Names of Men) is a biographical dictionary by the Moroccan historian and jurist Ibn al-Qadi (960–1025 AH / 1553–1616 CE), composed as a supplement (dhayl) to Ibn Khallikan's Wafayat al-A'yan .
Background and Purpose
Ibn al-Qadi intended the book to extend the chronological coverage of Wafayat al-A'yan, opening the work with a biography of Ibn Khallikan himself to mark it as a continuation . The work also grew out of his historical treatise al-Muntaqa al-Maqsur 'ala Ma'athir al-Khalifah Abi al-Abbas al-Mansur, where he had digressed to mention several distinguished figures; because al-Muntaqa could not encompass all of them, he compiled Durrat al-Hijal to preserve those figures retained in his memory .
Scope and Content
The work spans more than four centuries, documenting notables who lived between the late 7th century AH and the late 10th and early 11th centuries AH . Ibn al-Qadi did not restrict the compilation to a single profession or scholarly discipline, such as jurists or grammarians, but included figures across various fields whose names and renown were widely celebrated .
A prominent feature of the dictionary is its literary emphasis . Ibn al-Qadi frequently incorporates extensive poetic specimens for his subjects; in his entry on Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, for example, he recorded ninety-five lines of his poetry while providing only a concise summary of his scholarly life and teachers . In several entries, he also includes substantial digressions on major historical events that coincided with a biographee's year of death, such as appending a detailed narrative of the siege of Almería by King James II of Aragon to the entry of Ahmad al-Judhami al-Iskandari under the year 709 AH .
Editions
Durrat al-Hijal was edited by Muhammad al-Ahmadi Abu al-Nur and published in three volumes (Cairo: Dar al-Turath / Tunis: al-Maktaba al-'Atiqah, 1391 AH / 1971 CE) .
Answer updated