Ibn Zunbul

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Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Zunbul or Ibn Zanbal ( Arabic أحمد بن علي بن زنبل, DMG Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. Zunbul orابن زنبل, DMG Ibn Zunbul ; *? in Mahalla al-Kubra / Egypt ; † ~ 1574 / 75 or 1653 ), called Al-Mahalli (المحلي, DMG al-Maḥallī 'from Mahalla'), ash-Shafi (الشافعي, DMG aš-Šāfiʿī 'the Shāfiʿit '), al-Munaddschim (المنجم, DMG al-Munaǧǧim 'the astrologer '), ar-Rammal (الرمال, DMG ar-Rammāl 'the geomantic '), with full nameأحمد بن أبي الحسن علي بن أحمد نور الدين المحلي الشافعي ابن زنبل المنجم الرمال / Aḥmad b. Abī ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Aḥmad Nūr ad-Dīn al-Maḥallī aš-Šāfiʿī b. Zunbul al-Munaǧǧim ar-Rammāl ' , was by his own account a geomantic advisor and confidante of a Mamluk sultan and several Ottoman governors in Egypt. If one assumes the year of death 1653 as correct, then he can by no means have been a contemporary witness of the events he mentioned.

Life

According to historiographical tradition, Ibn Zunbul was a member of the inner circle around Sultan Qansuh al-Gawri of Egypt (r. 1501-1516) and eyewitness to the Ottoman campaign of Sultan Selim I in 1516 against the Mamluk Burjiyya dynasty . Brockelmann calls him a civilian employee of the Ministry of War ( diwan al-dschaisch ), Babinger calls him the court astrologer who accompanied the campaign against the Ottomans. He is said to have been a contemporary of Ibn Iyas († ~ 1524). Some authors put the time of his death after 1552, Doris Behrens-Abouseif names the beginning of the 17th century as the date of his chronicle, Brockelmann even assumes the year 1653.

Verification of the information is difficult because the authors mentioned hardly mention any sources. For example, from the fact that Ibn Zunbul wrote a very detailed first-person report on al-Gawri's campaign, it is concluded that he was there as an eyewitness. Another source for this was not found, not even whether he was actually the geomantic al-Gawris, whom the latter asked about his successor, as he himself notes. A passage in his work al-Qānūn fī d-dunyā , in which he tells of a dream apparition of a-Gawri, who asked him to write in this way, makes real personal contacts appear questionable.

In later Ottoman sources Ibn Zunbul is mentioned as a geomantic advisor to the governors Osman Beg, Mahmud Pasha, Husrev Pasha and others. His first trip to Istanbul is said to have taken place between 1537 and 1538, he accompanied al-Gawri's son Muhammad, who had been invited by Selim I. Ibn Zunbul said he was in contact with the Chancellor ( nişāncı ) Celalzade Mustafa († 1567). For the second time he is said to have visited Istanbul from 1554 to 1555 and was, as in the first stay, a guest in the house of Kara Ahmed Pasha (executed in 1555 during the " rule of women "), the "conqueror of Timisoara " ( Temeşvar fātihi ), who was the first Time Janissary Saga and Mir-i alem was Grand Vizier on the second visit .

According to an Ottoman version of al-Qānūn fī d-dunyā by Abdurrahman al-Shayh, published in Cairo in 1962 and 1998, Ibn Zunbul is said to have been alive around 1574/75.

Works

  • Infisāl al-āwān wa ittisāl dawlat Banī 'Utmān (for example: "The dissolution of the temporary state and the connection to the Ottoman Empire"), also Fath Misr (Taʾrīch aḥḏ Miṣr min al-Jarākisa) (for example: "The story of the taking of Egypt from the Circassians "), report on the war between the Ottomans and Mamluks (1516/17)
  • al-Qānūn fī d-dunyā (roughly: “Law in the world”), geography, astrology, fortune-telling art
  • Wāqiʿāt as-Sulṭān Selīm Chān (for example: "The events of Sultan Selim Khan"), popular novel in the style of pre-Islamic Arab Antar heroic epics
  • Tuḥfat al-mulūk waʾr-raghāʾib limā fī ʾl-barr waʾal-baḥr min al-ʿajāʾib waʾl-gharāʾib (for example: "The treasures of kings and the desires for that which exists in the land and in the sea in terms of wonders and peculiarities") , general geography
  • al-Maqālāt fī ḥall al-muškilāt , also al-Maqālāt wa ḥall al-muškilāt (for example: "The articles on solving problems"), the secret sciences of Cairo
  • Ghazawāt as-Sulṭān Selīm Chān maʿa as-Sulṭān al-Ghāwrī (for example: "The campaigns of Sultan Selim Khan against Sultan al-Ghawri")

Translations

There are French translations of the campaign report by Avenal de Beauville (1734), who used the Ottoman version by Ahmed Süheyli Ta'rīh-i Misr-i cedīd (1730) as a basis, and by Jean-Paul Tercier (1754?) Histoire de la conquête d l'Egypte par le sultan Sélim, traduite de l'arabe , both in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris .

literature

  • Benjamin Lellouch: Ibn Zunbul Aḥmad b.'Alī , June 2006. In: C.Kafadar / H.Karateke / C.Fleischer: Historians of the Ottoman Empire. Harvard University. Center for Middle Eastern Studies, ISBN 978-0-9762727-0-0 , pp. 97-99. [1]
  • Franz Babinger: The historians of the Ottomans and their works. Leipzig 1927.
  • Carl Brockelmann: History of Arabic Literature. Leiden 1937-49 [1. Edition: 1898–1902], Volume 2, Supplementary Volume 2.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Benjamin Lellouch: Ibn Zunbul. In: C.Kafadar / H.Karateke / C.Fleischer: Historians of the Ottoman Empire. June 2006, p. 1 f.
  2. ^ A b c Carl Brockelmann: History of the Arabic literature. Leiden 1937-49, vol. 2, p. 384.
  3. ^ Franz Babinger: The historians of the Ottomans and their works. Leipzig 1927, p. 56.
  4. ^ Doris Behrens-Abouseif: Egypt's Adjustment to Ottoman Rule. Institutions, Waqf and Architecture in Cairo 16-17th centuries. Leiden 1994, p. 9.
  5. ↑ 'Abdulmun'im' Amir: Āhirat al-mamālīk. Cairo 1998, p. 82.
  6. ↑ Abdussamed Diyarbekri : Tercumen-i en-nüzhe es-seniyye fi zikr el-hulefa ve'l-mülük el-mısriyye. (Eng. “Translation of the sublime edition in the mention of the caliphs and the Egyptian kings”) British Library London , Add. 7846, p. 348a f.
  7. ↑ Lexicon entry "Antarroman"
personal data
SURNAME Ibn Zunbul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ahmad ben Ali Ibn Zunbul; Ibn Zanbal; al-Mahallî; al-Shafi; al-Munajjim; al-Rammal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ottoman chronicler and geomancer
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Mahalla al-Kubra , Egypt
DATE OF DEATH 1574 or 1575