This book examines the life and milieu of the thirteenth-century northern Syrian statesman and author Ibn al-‘Adīm, as reflected in his principal work, the dictionary of people associated with his native Aleppo, the Bughyat al-ṭalab fī ta’rīkh ḥalab.
The book is an examination of the text, in particular Ibn al-‘Adīm's biographies of his contemporaries, and a discussion of topics suggested by the material. These include the influence of different groups within Aleppo, why and how the dictionary was written, and the personality of the author himself.
The study adds social, literary and human dimensions to our knowledge of the place and period. It is also a lucid guide to a long neglected source, the extant Arabic text which has only recently been published in full.