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. From its first appearance till tin present day, its reputation has continued undiminished, and the judgment of the author's countrymen has been confirmed by the unanimous voice of Oriental scholars. If the later Arabic historians filled their pages with extracts drawn from it as from a pure and abundant source,—if rhetoricians, grammarians, and compilers of anecdotes have culled from it the choicest passages, — if learned men essayed to complete it by supplements, or to condense it by abridgments with the design of rendering its utility more general,—we find, nearer home, an equally valid testimony borne to its merit by the suffrage's of the illustrious Pococke, Schultens, Reiske, and De Sacy.