Al-Maqrizi

Life A direct student of Ibn Khaldun, al-Maqrīzī was born in Cairo to a family of Syrian origin that had recently relocated from Damascus. When he presents himself in his books he usually stops at the 10th forefather although he confessed to some of his close friends that he can trace his ancestry to al-Mu‘izz li-Dīn Allāh – first Fatimid caliph in Egypt and the founder of al-Qahirah (Cairo) (the victorious) – and even to Ali ibn Abi Talib. He was trained in the Hanafite school of law. Later, he switched to the Shafi'ite school and finally to the Zahirite school. Maqrizi studied theology under one of the primary masterminds behind the Zahiri Revolt, and his vocal support and sympathy with that revolt against the Mamluks likely cost him higher administrative and clerical positions with the Mamluk regime. The name Maqrizi was an attribution to a quarter of the city of Baalbek, from where his paternal grandparents hailed. are concerned with Egypt. al-Mawāʻiẓ wa-al-Iʻtibār bi-Dhikr al-Khiṭaṭ wa-al-āthār (Arabic, 2 vols., Bulaq, 1853); French translation by Urbain Bouriant as Description topographique et historique de l'Égypte (Paris, 1895–1900; compare A. R. Guest, "A List of Writers, Books and other Authorities mentioned by El Maqrizi in his Khitat," in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1902, pp. 103–125). Itti‘āz al-Ḥunafā’ bi-Akhbār al-A’immah al-Fāṭimīyīn al-Khulafā’ Kitāb al-Khiṭaṭ al-Maqrīzīyah Kitāb al-Sulūk li-Ma‘rifat Duwal al-Mulūk History of the Fatimites; extract published by J.G.L. Kosegarten in Chrestomathia (Leipzig, 1828), pp. 115–123; History of the Ayyubit and Mameluke Rulers; French translation by Etienne Marc Quatremère (2 vols., Paris, 1837–1845). Muqaffa, first sixteen-volumes of an Egyptian biographic encyclopedia arranged in alphabetic order. The Egyptian historian, al-Sakhawi, estimated that the complete work would require eighty volumes. Three autograph volumes exist in manuscript in Leiden and one in Paris.

Smaller works Mahomeddan Coinage (ed. O. G. Tychsen, Rostock, 1797; French translation by Silvestre de Sacy, Paris, 1797) Arab Weights and Measures (ed. Tychsen, Rostock, 1800) Arabian Tribes that migrated to Egypt (ed. F. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen, 1847) Account of Hadhramaut (ed. P. B. Noskowyj, Bonn, 1866) Strife between the Bani Umayya and the Bani Hashim (ed. G. Vos, Leiden, 1888) Historia Regum Islamiticorum in Abyssinia (ed. and Latin trans. F. T. Rink, Leiden, 1790).

Books al-Mawa'iz wa al-'i'tibar bi dhikr al-khitat wa al-'athar (about the planning of Cairo and its monuments) A. R. Guest, p. 103ff: A list of Writers, Books and other Authorities mentioned by El Maqrisi in his Khitat al-Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk (about Mamluk history in Egypt) Ette'aaz al-honafa be Akhbaar al-A'emma al-Fatemeyyeen al-Kholafaa (about the Fatimid state) al-Bayaan wal E'raab Amma Be Ard Misr min al A'raab (about the Arab Tribes in Egypt) Eghathatt al-Omma be Kashf al-Ghomma (about the famines that took place in Egypt) al-Muqaffa (biographies of princes and prominent personality of his time)

(pp. 115 −123: Al-Maqrizi, an extract of History of the Fatimites.)

A. R. Guest, 1902, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 103–125: "A List of Writers, Books and other Authorities mentioned by El Maqrizi in his Khitat" (Notes on the 1853-edition)

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