Seer A'lam Al-Nobala 1/30 - Al-Resalah Foundation

This great book is considered one of the greatest biographical dictionaries that have reached us from the heritage of the ancients. It demonstrates the author's, رحمه الله, extensive knowledge of all previous writings on the subject, and his full awareness of the conditions of the biographees, and everything said about them. It also shows a remarkable ability to sift through news, scrutinize it, critique it, and clarify its status. Its distinction from other books written in its field is that it is the first general biographical book in our heritage, covering all eras preceding the author's time, and including biographies of notable figures from all over the Islamic world. Its biographies encompass all social classes, but it favors the hadith scholars over others because he greatly revered them and was deeply attached to them. It has biographed noble figures from the beginning of Islam until approximately the year 700 AH, dividing it into forty sections, each covering twenty years. The first and second volumes are dedicated to the noble biography, but he did not revise their wording; instead, he referred to his book "History of Islam" to be used and incorporated into the biographies.