JOURNAL 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
| New Series. 
Vol. VIIL—1912: 
— pe 
1. Kitab al-Wafayat of Ibn al-Khatib. 
Edited by Mawtavi M. Hrpayar Husar, 
Lecturer, Presidency College, Calcutta. 
INTRODUCTION. 
There are many biographical books in Arabic by eminent 
authors. The one I bring to notice is a unique manuscript. 
The author has divided this work into centuries, and the cen- 
turies again into decades, each of which contains, in turn, the 
h 
Traditions of the Prophet. The author is Aba al-‘Abbas 
Ahmad B. Husayn B. ‘Ali known as Ibn al-Khatib al-Qusantini. 
I have not been able to discover any thing concerning the 
life of the author in any biographical work,but from the peru- 
sal of this treatise it seems that he belonged to a respectable 
amily. His grandfather was first a Khaltb for some time and 
750 a.H. (a.D. 1349). The author visited foreign countries for 
the acquisition of knowledge. He was the pupil of many emi- » 
nent scholars. At Cordova he read with Shaikh Muhammad B. 
Ahmad al-Sharif, at Morocco with Aba Muhammad ‘Abd Allah, 
at Tunis with Abi al-Hasan B. Muhammad in 777 a.n. (aD. 
1375), and with others. At the end of the book the author 
has enumerated all his writings, but unfortunately the copyist 
