It observes and honours the holiness of Syria, with Damascus being its center by recording the lives and achievements of known figures, both men and women including religious figures, scholars, politicians, poets, etc who lived in the region or merely passed through, from the era of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs all the way down to the era of Ibn 'Asakir.

It is one of the most valuable medieval historiography in that it preserves extensive historical data from hundreds of now-lost books authored by Muslim historians and scholars before Ibn Asakir's age.

In his introduction to his abridged version, he writes: "However, the author has made it too long by including every chain of transmission, and a repetition of events which was acceptable in his own time.

[3] Ibn Khallikan quotes his teacher: "Our sheikh, the Hafiz Zaki al-Din Al-Mundhiri, said to me, and this date was mentioned and the hadeeth was long in his matter: (I do not think that this man except that he determined to put this date from the day he reasoned on himself and he started collecting from that time, otherwise the age is too short to collect People like this book.

How can any man find the time to write such a book, considering that he only composed it after having made a number of drafts which he revised and corrected.