We must pass over the minor historians and biographers of this period--for example, ‘Utbí († 1036 A.D.), whose _Kitáb al-Yamíní_ celebrates the glorious reign of Sultan Mahmúd of Ghazna; Khaṭíb of Baghdád († 1071 A.D.), who composed a history of the eminent men of that city; ‘Imádu ’l-Dín of Iṣfahán († 1201 A.D.), the biographer of Saladin; Ibnu ’l-Qiftí († 1248 A.D.), born at Qifṭ (Coptos) in Upper Egypt, whose lives of the philosophers and scientists have only come down to us in a compendium entitled _Ta’ríkhu ’l-Ḥukamá_; Ibnu ’l-Jawzí († 1200 A.D.), a prolific writer in almost every branch of literature, and his grandson, Yúsuf († 1257 A.D.)--generally called Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzí--author of the _Mir’átu ’l-Zamán_, or 'Mirror of the Time'; Ibn Abí Uṣaybi‘a († 1270 A.D.), whose history of physicians, the _‘Uyúnu ’l-Anbá_, has been edited by A. Müller (1884); and the Christian, Jirjis (George) al-Makín († 1273 A.D.), compiler of a universal chronicle--named the _Majmú‘ al-Mubárak_--of which the second part, from Muḥammad to the end of the ‘Abbásid dynasty, was rendered into Latin by Erpenius in 1625. [Sidenote: Ibnu ’l-Athír († 1234 A.D.).] A special notice, brief though it must be, is due to ‘Izzu ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-Athír († 1234 A.D.). He was brought up at Mosul in Mesopotamia, and after finishing his studies in Baghdád, Jerusalem, and Syria, he returned home and devoted himself to reading and literary composition. Ibn Khallikán, who knew him personally, speaks of him in the highest terms both as a man and as a scholar. "His great work, the _Kámil_,[672] embracing the history of the world from the earliest period to the year 628 of the Hijra (1230-1231 A.D.), merits its reputation as one of the best productions of the kind."[673] Down to the year 302 A.H. the author has merely abridged the Annals of Ṭabarí with occasional additions from other sources. In the first volume he gives a long account of the Pre-islamic battles (_Ayyámu ’l-‘Arab_) which is not found in the present text of Ṭabarí; but De Goeje, as I learn from Professor Bevan, thinks that this section was included in Ṭabarí's original draft and was subsequently struck out. Ibnu ’l-Athír was deeply versed in the science of Tradition, and his _Usdu ’l-Ghába_ ('Lions of the Jungle') contains biographies of 7,500 Companions of the Prophet. [Sidenote: Geographers.] An immense quantity of information concerning the various countries and peoples of the ‘Abbásid Empire has been preserved for us by the Moslem geographers, who in many cases describe what they actually witnessed and experienced in the course of their travels, although they often help themselves liberally and without acknowledgment from the works of their predecessors. The following list, which does not pretend to be exhaustive, may find a place here.[674] [Sidenote: Ibn Khurdádbih.]