Description
Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary has always been considered as a work of the highest importance for the civil and literary history of the Muslim people. On the left back of the Tigris, opposite to the southern part of the province of Mosul, lies an extensive territory, bounded, on the north, by the greater Zab, on the east by the chain of mountains which separates that part of the Ottoman empire from Persia, on the south by a line which may be supposed to have extended from the town of Kefri to the Tigris, and, on the west, by the waters of that river. Arbela, the capital of this region, lies at the distance of twenty hours, or leagues, to the N. N. E. of Mosul. During upwards of forty years, from A. H. 587 (A. D. 1191) to A. H. 630 (A. D.1233), the principality of Arbela was governed by a brother-in-law of the sultan Salih ad-Din (Saladin), and enjoyed, under that chieftain's sway, a period of continual prosperity (a). His name was Kukubilri, an alteration of the words Ghitik-Biiri, which, in the Jaghat&i dialect of the Turkish language, mean the blue wolf. The titles by which he was generally designated, in conformity to the custom of the age, were al-Malek al-Moazzam Muzaffar ad-Din (the exalted prince, the triumphant in religion).