Finding biographies of Arabic individuals can be a very complex process. The process differs greatly for modern vs pre-modern individuals. Please see the links below for detailed help.

The following bibliography is a helpful introduction to Arabic biographical dictionaries in that it lists many of the major dictionaries, at least up to 1987, and states their coverage.

Auchterlonie, Paul

Arabic biographical dictionaries : a summary guide and bibliography / by Paul Auchterlonie

Durham : Middle East Libraries Committee, 1987

iv, 60 p. ; 24 cm

(Research guides / Middle East Libraries Committee, 0269-0233 ; 2)

Modern Arabic Biography

Medieval Arabic Biography

Arabic Music

Foundation for Arab Music Archiving and Research
Umm Kulthum
Extensive website on Umm Kulthum.

Arabic Papyrology

Arabic Papyrology Database
Arabic documents written on different material such as papyrus, parchment or paper. Total of 12773 documents.

Arabic Poetry

adab.com
Large online collection of Arabic poetry from all countries and periods.

Arabic Video Clips and Films

Aflam
YouTube channel for Arabic films
Telescope Films, Arabic
Arab Films and Where to Find Them!

Iraq

Iraq Memory Foundation
Since many of the Iraqi participants could be in danger from the Iraqi government for their testimony, many of the documents can only be viewed by visiting the Foundation.

Judeo-Arabic

Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society
Includes Judeo-Arabic manuscripts and a Judeo-Arabic bibliography.

Kuwait

Memory of Kuwait
Digitized materials from the National Library of Kuwait

Literary Networks

An Egyptian Sheikh’s Literary World
Reconstruction of the large book collection of Sheikh Mustafa Salamah al-Najjari (d. 1286/1870), an important intellectual in late Ottoman Egypt, and the networks through which the titles arrived in Cairo.

Manuscripts

Arabic Papyrus, Parchment, and Paper
Collection at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. It contains 770 Arabic documents on papyrus and more than 1300 Arabic documents on paper, as well as several pieces on parchment.
Cambridge Digital Library, Islamic Manuscripts
Digitisation of manuscripts at the Al-aqsa Mosque Library, East Jerusalem
a collection of 119 rare manuscripts that span over several Islamic periods from the 12th to the 19th century AD, constituting approximately 33000 pages. The selection includes the manuscripts from the collections of well-known Palestinian scholars, such as Fayd Allah al-‘Alami and the Shaykh Khalil al-Khalidi and from the private collection of Shaykh Muhammad al-Khalili, who died in 1734.
Garden of Islamic Manuscripts
Links to catalogs and digitized manuscripts, including Arabic
Historical collections of manuscripts located at Al-Jazzar mosque library in Acre
The manuscript collection contains 50 Arabic language titles that span over several Islamic periods from the 14th century A.D. to the end of the Ottoman rule in Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the manuscripts relate to aspects of the Islamic religion, but also cover Arabic literature, the Arabic language, logic, math, and Sufism and provide a unique insight into centuries of Arabic culture in Palestine.
Jāmiʻ al-Makhṭūṭāt al-Islāmīyah
Site that compiles and offers direct links to an extensive collection of Arabic and Islamic Manuscripts
Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library
See: Digitized Manuscripts, Manuscript Catalogues and Hand Lists.
Major project to digitise and preserve the manuscripts of Djenné, Mali
Eventually digital images of some 3000 Arabic manuscripts, mostly from around 1700 to 1900, now held in family libraries will appear on this site. Some of the manuscripts may go back to the 1200s.
Manuscripts of the Muslim world
Hosted at the University of Pennslyvania
Minassian Collection of Qur'anic Manuscripts
Digitized images of Qurans in the Minassian Collectiona at Brown University.
Orient-Digital
Database and catalogs of some 43,000 Oriental manuscripts at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Preservation of historical periodical collections (1900-1950) at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Library in East Jerusalem
13 newspapers and 11 journals and magazines, were converted into digital format. Most of the periodicals were published in Palestine during the British Mandate Period (1917-1948), but among the titles selected for the project there was also a publication from the time of the Ottoman Empire, Al-Jinan (1874), and a few publications from the pre-war period, such as Al-Mahaba (1901), Al Hasna (1909-1912), Tazwir Afkar (1909), and Al-Muqtabas (1908-1916).
Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts
Begins with 200 of Princeton's approximately 9,500 volumes of Islamic manuscripts.
Princeton Geniza Project
Text-base of transcribed documents from the Geniza chamber of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo and tools to help scholars with an interest in the life of the medieval Middle East.
VECMAS Tombouctou
Manuscripts from Timbuctoo
Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Project
Digitization of the codices of three private libraries in Yemen.

Palestine

Eltaher Collection
History of the Arab world from 1912 to 1974, with a focus on the life of a well-known Palestinian Arab journalist and newspaper editor, Muhammad Ali Eltaher (1896-1974); includes more than 100 Palestinian pamphlets from 1917-1948.

Prizes

International Prize for Arabic Fiction

Seals

Chester Beatty Seals Project
Seals from manuscripts.
Iraqi Library Stamps
Ownership stamps from books in Iraqi libraries.
Seal impressions (Islamic Manuscripts Collection, University of Michigan)

Statistics

Arab Barometer
Central resource for quantitative data on the MENA Region