معجم المؤلفين 1/4

معجم المؤلفين – عمر رضا كحالة (المتوفى ١٤٠٨هـ / ١٩٨٧م)

This is one of the foremost modern works on biographies of the authors in the Arabic language – even non-Muslims – throughout Islamic history, including poets.

The entries are concise and to the point, making the book very comprehensive yet brief – the book contains 18,615 entries in only four volumes, starting from the tabi’een up until modern times.

Each entry starts with the name, year of birth and death, both Hijri and Gregorian (or at least mention of their time period), other famous names or titles, their field of expertise, a succinct description of their life achievements and career and, finally, titles of no more than five of their written works. After each entry comes the sources for each biography, complete with volume and page numbers.

The author made it a point to diligently verify whatever he wrote down, causing him to discover some errors in other similar works in this genre, such as Kashf al-Zunoon.

Its very concise format makes it less bulky than many other works in this field. It is now generally one of the most popular references for students researchers in this genre.

Ismaeel Books 📚