Biographical Compendia

An elogium (Latin, plural: elogia) was an inscription in honour of a deceased person, which was placed on tombs, ancestral images and statues during the Roman age.

Tabaqat (Arabic: طبقات ṭabaqāt) is a genre of Islamic biographical literature that is organized according to the century in which the notable individuals (such as scholars, poets, etc.) lived.

Al-sīrah al-nabawiyya (Arabic: السيرة النبوية), commonly shortened to sīrah and translated as prophetic biography, are the traditional biographies of the Islamic prophet Muhammad written over centuries by Muslim historians, from which, in addition to the Quran and hadith literature, most historical information about his life and the early history of Islam is derived.

Vida (Old Occitan) is the usual term for a brief prose biography, written in Old Occitan, of a troubadour or trobairitz.

Tezkire (Arabic: تذکرة), from Arabic tadhkirah meaning "something that causes one to remember" or "memorandum", is a form of bibliographical dictionary or bibliographical compendium which flourished in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire.