IBN ATHTR  , the family name of three brothers, all famous in Arabian literature, born at Jazirat ibn 'Umar in Kurdistan . The eldest brother, known as MAJD UD-DiN (1149-1210), was long in the service of the amir of Mosul, and was an earnest student of tradition and language . His dictionary of traditions (Kitdb un-Nihdya) was published at Cairo (1893), and his dictionary of family names (Kitdb ul-Murassa') has been edited by Seybold (Weimar, 1896) . The youngest brother, known as DIVA UD-DIN (1163-1239), served Saladin from 1191 on, then his son, al-Malik ul-Afdal, and was afterwards in Egypt, Samosata, Aleppo, Mosul and Bagdad . He was one of the most famous aesthetic and stylistic critics in Arabian literature . His Kitdb ul-Mathal, published in Bulaq in 1865 (cf . Journal of the German Oriental Society, xxxv . 148, and Goldziher's 1 The name " Ibis was selected as the title of an ornithological magazine. frequently referred to in this and other articles, which made its first appearance in 1859 . Abhandlungen, i . 161 sqq.), contains some very independent criticism of ancient and modern Arabic verse . Some of his letters have been published by D . S .

Margoliouth " On the Royal

Correspondence of Diya ed-Din el-Jazari " in the Actes du dixihme congas international des orientalistes, sect . 3, pp . 7-21 . The brother best known by the simple name of Ibn Athir was ABU-L-HASAN 'IZZUDDIN MAHOMMED IBN UL-ATHIR (116o-1234), who devoted himself to the study of history and tradition . At the age of twenty-one he settled with his father in Mosul and continued his studies there . In the service of the amir for many years, he visited Bagdad and Jerusalem and later Aleppo and Damascus . He died in Mosul . His great history, the Kamil, extends to the year 1231; it has been edited by C . J . Tornberg, Ibn al-Athiri Chronicon quod perfectissimum inscribitur (14 vols., Leiden, 1851-1876), and has been published in 12 vols. in Cairo (1873 and 1886) . The first part of this work up to A.H . 310 (A.D .

923) is an

abbreviation of the work of Tabari (q.v.) with additions . Ibn Athir also wrote a history of the Atabegs of Mosul, published in the Recueil des historiens des croisades (vol. ii., Paris); a work (Usd ul-Ghdba), giving an account of 7500 companions of Mahomet (5 vols., Cairo, 1863), and a compendium (the Lubab) of Sam'ani's Kitdb ul-Anskb (cf . F . Wustenfeld's Specimen el-Lobabi, Gottingen, 1835) . (G . W .