al-Maqrīzī

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Taqī ad-Dīn Abū l-ʿAbbās Ahmad ibn ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī ( Arabic تقى الدين أبو العباس أحمد بن على المقريزى, DMG Taqī ad-Dīn Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī ; * 1364 in Cairo ; † beginning of February 1442 ) was an outstanding Arab historian and writer, of whom about 200 works are known.

Life

Al-Maqrizi, whose father (d. 1378) came from Baalbek in what is now Lebanon , was born into a wealthy family of scholars. He received thorough training from such well-known teachers as Ibn Khaldun . In 1385 he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca for the first time , after his return he was secretary for some time and in 1399 became market inspector for Cairo and Northern Egypt. Finally, in Cairo, but also in Damascus , where he lived for about ten years from 1408, he was deputy judge (like his father, he was a Shafiite ), Muhtasib , preacher (in the Amr and Sultan Hasan mosques ), and imam , Professor and administrator. However, since these activities did not satisfy him, he decided while he was still in Syria to devote himself entirely to historical studies. His focus was on the Ismaili Fatimid dynasty.

Works

  • Al-Maqrizi's main work Chitat (full title: al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-'l-iʿtibār fī ḏikr al-ḫiṭaṭ wa-'l-ʾāṯār ) is a history and description of Cairo, but also of Egypt , which begins with and with the Pharaonic period its time ends.
  • Another work entitled Admonition to Muslims with the News of the Fatimid Imam Caliphs. ( Ittiʿāẓ al-ḥunafāʾ bi-aḫbār al-aʾimma al-Fāṭimīyīn al-ḫulafāʾ ) is one of the most important sources for the history of the Fatimids . As sources al-Maqrīzī used many older works that have been lost, such as the Sīrat al-Maʾmūn by the Fatimid author Ibn al-Maʾmūn († 1192).
  • as-Sulūk li-maʿrifat duwal al-mulūk. History of Egypt from 1181 to 1436. The modern edition by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā (Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmīya, Beirut, 1997) comprises eight volumes ( digitized version ).
  • al-Muqaffā al-kabīr. - an alphabetical collection of biographies of rulers and famous men who lived in or visited Egypt.
  • Shuḏūr al-ʿuqūd fī ḏikr an-nuqūd. - a treatise on the history of Islamic coins. Oluf Gerhard Tychsen edited the work in 1797 and translated it into Latin. Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy translated it into French under the title Traité des monnoies muselmanes in the same year
  • Kitāb al-Auzān wa-l-akyāl aš-šarʿīya. - a treatise on Islamic weights and measures. Edited by OG Tychsen under the title Tractatus de legalibus Arabum Ponderibus et Mensuris . A French translation by Silvestre de Sacy with the title Traité des Poids et des Mesures Légales des Musulmans was published in 1798 in Paris ( digitized version ).

Although he is repeatedly accused of mistakes in dealing with the authors cited, his works are an important source of information on the Egypt of his time. In his descriptions he not only limited himself to the ruling classes, but also included the common people with their festival culture.

As a contemporary witness

In one of his books, Al-Maqrīzī reports that the devout sheikh of a Cairo Sufi monastery, Mohammed Saim el-Dar (Muhammad Şā'im ad-Dahr, German: "Someone who fasts all the time"), as a fanatical iconoclast in the In 1378 the nose of the Great Sphinx of Giza was cut off and then killed by the angry crowd.

literature

  • Frederic Bauden: Taqi al-Din Aḥmad ibn ʻAli al-Maqrizi. In: Alex Mallett: Medieval Muslim historians and the Franks in the Levant (= Muslim world in the age of the Crusades: studies and texts. Volume 2). Brill, Leiden 2014, ISBN 978-90-04-27741-0 , pp. 161-200.
  • Carl Brockelmann : History of Arabic Literature. 3 volumes + 2 supplement volumes, Brill, Leiden 1938–1949; here Volume II, pp. 47-50.
  • F. Rosenthal: Al-Makrizi. In: Clifford Edmund Bosworth et al.: Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition, 2nd Edition, Volume VI: Mahk – Mid. Brill, Leiden 1991, ISBN 90-04-08112-7 , pp. 193-194 ( excerpt online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aḥmad Ibn-ʻAlī al-Maqrīzī, Muḥammad ʻAbd-al-Qādir ʻAṭā: Ittiʻāẓ al-ḥunafā bi-aḫbār al-aʼimma al-Fāṭimiyīn al-ḫulafā. Manšūrāt Muḥammad ʻAlī Baiḍūn / Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīya, Beirut 2001, ISBN 2-7451-3216-4 ( digitized version )
  2. ↑ NJG Kaptein: Muḥammad's Birthday Festival. Early History in the Central Muslim Lands and Development in the Muslim West until the 10th / 16th Century. Brill, Leiden u. a. 1993, ISBN 90-04-09452-0 , pp. 7f.
  3. ↑ Aḥmad Ibn-ʿAlī al-Maqrīzī: Kitāb al-Muqaffā al-kabīr: (tarāǧim maġribīya wa-mašriqīya min al-fatra al-ʿUbaidīya). Ed. Muhạmmad al-Yaʿlāwī. 8 volumes. Dār al-Ġarb al-Islāmī, Beirut 1991 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Aḥmad Ibn-ʻAlī al-Maqrīzī, Muḥammad ʻAbd-as-Sattār ʻUt̲mān: Šudūr al-ʻuqūd fī dikr an-nuqūd. Dār al-Maʻārif, al-Qāhira 1990.
  5. ↑ Aḥmad Ibn-ʻAlī al-Maqrīzī, Oluf Gerhard Tychsen: Historia Monetae Arabicae e codice Escorialensi: cum variis dvorvm codd. Leiden lectionibvs et excerptis anecdotis. Ex officina libraria Stilleriana, Rostock 1797 ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ A´mad Ibn-ʻAlī al-Maqrīzī; Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy: Traité des monnoies muselmanes. Fuchs, Paris 1797 ( digitized by Google ).
  7. ↑ Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Maqrīzī, Oluf Gerhard Tychsen: Tractatus de legalibus Arabum ponderibus et mensuris. Rostock 1800 ( digitized version) / Modern text edition: Takieddin al- Maqrīzī ;, Sulṭān ibn Hulaiyil .: Kitāb al-Auzān wa-l-akyāl aš-šarʿīya. Dār al-Bašāʾir al-Islāmīya, Beirut 2007 ( digitized version ).
  8. ↑ Joyce Tyldesley: Myth of Egypt. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-010598-6 , p. 46.


personal data
SURNAME al-Maqrīzī
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn' Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Maqrizi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Arab historian and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1364
PLACE OF BIRTH Cairo
DATE OF DEATH February 1442