Fawat al-Wafayat
- Author died
- 764 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ṣādir
Fawat al-Wafayat (The Omissions of the "Obituaries", also entitled Fawat al-Wafayat wa-al-Dhayl 'Alayha) is an Arabic biographical dictionary by the Damascene bookseller and historian Ibn Shakir al-Kutbi (d. 764 AH / 1363 CE) . Composed as an alphabetical supplement and continuation to Ibn Khallikan's biographical work Wafayat al-A'yan, it supplies omitted historical figures and extends biographical coverage through the mid-eighth century AH .
Purpose and Composition
In his preface, Ibn Shakir states that upon reading Ibn Khallikan's Wafayat al-A'yan, he admired its extensive benefits but observed that the author had excluded the caliphs and omitted notable figures of his own era as well as earlier periods, whether through inadvertence or a lack of access to their biographical accounts . Ibn Shakir therefore set out to compile a dictionary encompassing the caliphs and scholars omitted by Ibn Khallikan, while also serving as an appendix covering figures from the time of Ibn Khallikan's death in 681 AH up to his own day . Modern commentators note that this critique involved a misunderstanding of Ibn Khallikan's stated methodology, as Ibn Khallikan had deliberately excluded caliphs and restricted his scope by design rather than through oversight .
According to the colophon in the author's surviving autograph manuscript, the compilation was completed in the first ten days of Muharram 753 AH (February 1352 CE) .
Structure and Scope
The dictionary is arranged alphabetically by given name (the mu'jam system) . The text begins with the early ascetic and warrior Ibrahim ibn Adham (d. 161 AH) and concludes with the Ayyubid ruler Yunus ibn Mawdud (al-Malik al-Jawad, d. 637 AH) . Chronologically, the latest contemporary figure covered is the poet 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ghalib (known as Majd al-'Arab), who died in Mosul in 753 AH .
The bulk of the entries are devoted to scholars, poets, and literati, alongside caliphs, rulers, and notable figures from al-Andalus . It also includes biographical notices for prominent women, such as Nafisa bint al-Hasan, the Andalusian poet Hamduna, the pre-Islamic and early Islamic poet Layla al-Akhyaliyya, the Abbasid princess 'Ulayya bint al-Mahdi, and Fadl, the poetess and concubine of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil .
The total number of biographical entries varies across manuscripts, printed editions, and bibliographical accounts:
- The scholar and proofreader Nasr Abu al-Wafa al-Hurini and the bibliographer Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli recorded 572 biographies, with al-Hurini noting that around six or seven of these were duplicate entries already present in Ibn Khallikan's work .
- A count of 483 biographies appears in certain copies and comparative literary studies .
- Muhammad Muhyi al-Din 'Abd al-Hamid stated in the introduction to his 1951 edition that the work contained 846 biographies .
Method, Sources, and Reception
Ibn Shakir drew heavily upon contemporary biographical compilations, chief among them al-Wafi bi-al-Wafayat by his contemporary al-Safadi (d. 764 AH) . From al-Safadi's expansive entries, Ibn Shakir extracted and condensed historical narrative details while notably expanding on poetic selections and literary excerpts, which occupy a substantial portion of many entries .
Scholars examining the autograph manuscript have observed that Ibn Shakir's prose reflects the informal, simplified style typical of late Mamluk-era compilations, occasionally incorporating conversational phrasing and demonstrating a simple grasp of Arabic grammar and syntax rather than elite literary refinement .
Manuscripts and Editions
The primary surviving manuscript witness is an autograph preserved at the Ahmet III Library in the Topkapi Palace (MS 2921) in Istanbul, originally composed in four parts, though the third part (covering much of the names starting with Muhammad) is missing .
The text was printed in two volumes at the Amiriya Press in Bulaq during the reign of Khedive Isma'il in 1283 AH (1866 CE) . It was later edited by Muhammad Muhyi al-Din 'Abd al-Hamid and published in two volumes in Cairo in 1951 . Subsequent critical editorial work identified that earlier printings suffered from transposed biographical entries, omitted entries, interpolated biographies copied directly from Ibn Khallikan, and unauthorized grammatical corrections and omissions of non-Arabic phrases present in the author's original manuscript .
Answer updated