Nawawi, Mohieddin Abu-zakariah Yahiah, El

Nawawi, Mohieddin Abu-Zakariah Yahiah, el an Arabian historian and doctor, was born in 1233 at Nawas, a borough near Damascus, in which city he died in 1277. He belonged to the Sofite sect of the Mohammedans. Nawawi composed a Commentary on the Koran; Critical Rulesfor History, etc. These writings, however, still remain in manuscript. The principal work of Nawawi is his Mussulnam Biographical Dictionary, entitled Kalib tehasib al-ansah (Book of the Concordance of Names). The first section of it was published, with the Latin translation, under the title Liber concinnitatis nominum, sive vitae illustrium virorum, with notes, by H.F. Wustenfeld (Gottingen, 1832, 4to). This first section contains, besides the preface, only the life of the prophet Mohammed. M. Wustenfeld afterwards published, in English, the first six parts, under the title The Biographical Dictionary of Illustrious Men, chiefly at the beginning of Islamisms (Gottingen, 1841-44, 8vo). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gen. s.v.