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-Ni/zdya) 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 Baghdad . He was one of the most famous aesthetic and stylistic critics in Arabian literature. His ''Kitb ul-Matlial'', published by the Bulaq Press in 1865 (cf. ''Journal of the German Oriental Society'', xxxv. 148, and Goldziher 's ''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 dixieme congres international des orientalistes'', sect. 3, pp. 7-2 I.
The brother best known by the simple name of Ibn Athir was Ali Ibn Al-Athir (1160-1234), 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 Baghdad and Jerusalem and later Aleppo and Damascus . He died in Mosul. His great history, the Kamil (''al-Kamil fil Attarikh''), extends to the year 1231; it has been edited by C. J. Tornberg , ''Ibn al-Athin Chronicon quod perfectissinum 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 Tabar with additions. Ibn Athir also wrote a history of the Atabeg s of Mosul, published in the ''Recucil 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 ''Lubdb'') of Samnis Kitdb ui-A n.~db (cf. F. Wustenfeld 's ''Specimen el-Lobabi'', Gottingen, 1835).
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