Abu-l ‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Khallikan was a Kurdish Muslim scholar of the 13th century. He was born in Arbil, in 1211. His most famous work is "Wafayat al-Ayan" (The Obituaries of Eminent Men) known as "The Biographical Dictionary". Wikipedia
Britannica online encyclopedia article on Ibn Khallikan: Muslim judge and author of a classic Arabic biographical dictionary. Ibn Khallikan studied in Irbil, Aleppo, and Damascus. www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041924
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Ibn Khallikan. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Khallikan