Career
He has written in several areas, history, literature and language. His masterpiece is a four volumes book of (History of Arbil). Ibn Khallikan said about him in his book "Wafayat al-Ayan": He was a dignified person, he had great humility, broad generosity, every virtuous person visited Arbil hastened to visit him, he had great virtues, Knowledgeable of many arts.
He studied the science of talk, and learned everything related to it, and was interested in science of language and literature, and worked on presentations and rhetoric. He was a poet and minister in Arbil, in the era of Muzaffar al-Din Abu Sa’eed al-Kawkaboori governor of Arbil in the reign of Sultan Saladin. In the year 1236 Ibn al-Mustawfi moved to Mosul after the Tatars occupied Arbil and lived there until his death in 1239.
