Chapter Two: Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ—its Methodology and Significance

First—The book’s title and its composition:
Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī (1) and Ibn Duqmaq (2) called it “Tārīkh al-Nubalāʾ” (History of the Nobles); Ibn Shākir al-Kutbī (3) referred to it as “Tārīkh al-ʿUlamāʾ al-Nubalāʾ” (History of the Noble Scholars); Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī (4) named it “Kitāb al-Nubalāʾ” (The Book of the Nobles); and Sibṭ Ibn Ḥajar (5) called it “Aʿyān al-Nubalāʾ” (Notables among the Nobles).

Al-Ḥusaynī (6), Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn (7), Ibn Ḥajar (8), and al-Sakhāwī (9) all designated it “Siyar al-Nubalāʾ” (Biographies of the Nobles).

As for the title “Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ,” it appears in manuscript on the fly-leaves of the volumes housed in the Sultan Ahmed III Library under catalogue number 2910/A, and it is the earliest copy that