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Al-Makrizi

Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Makrizi (or Maqrizi) (1364-1442), Arabian historian, known as al-Maqrizi because of his ancestral connexion with Maqriz, a suburb of Baalbek, was born at Cairo and spent most of his life in Egypt, where he was trained in the Hanifite school of law, though later he became a Shafi'ite with an inclination to Zahirite views.

In 1385 he made the pilgrimage. For some time he was secretary in a government office, and in 1399 became inspector of markets for Cairo and northern Egypt. This post he soon gave up to become preacher at the mosque of 'Amr, president of the mosque ul-Hakim, and a lecturer on tradition. In 1408 he went to Damascus to become inspector of the Qalanisryya and lecturer. Later he retired into private life at Cairo.

In 1430 he made the pilgrimage with his family and travelled for some five years. His learning was great, his observation accurate and his judgment good, but his books are largely compilations, and he does not always acknowledge the sources to which he is indebted.

Most of his works are concerned with Egypt. The most important is the Mawaiz wa al-'i'tibar bi dhikr al-khtitat wa al-'athar (2 vols., Bulaq, 1854), translated into French by U Bouriant as Description topographique et historique de l'Egypte (Paris, 1895-1900; cf. AR 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).

Of his History of the Fatimites an extract was published by JGL Kosegarten in his Chrestomathia (Leipzig, 1828), pp. 115-123; the History of the Ayyubit and Mameluke Rulers has been translated into French by E Quatremère (2 vols., Paris, 1837-1845).

Maqrizi began a large work called the Muqaffa, a cyclopaedia of Egyptian biography in alphabetic order. It was intended to be in 80 volumes, but only 16 were written. Three autograph volumes exist in manuscript in Leiden, and one in Paris.

Among smaller works published are the Mahomeddan Coinage (ed. OG Tychsen, Rostock, 1797; French translation by Silvestre de Sacy, Paris, 1797); Arab Weights and Measures (ed. Tychsen, Rostock, 1800); the Arabian Tribes that migrated to Egypt (ed. F Wüstenfeld, Göttingen, 1847); the Account of Hadhramaut (ed. PB Noskowyj, Bonn, 1866); the Strife between the Bani Umayya and the Bani Hashim (ed G Vos, Leiden, 1888), and the Moslems in Abyssinia (ed. FT Rink, Leiden, 1790).

For Maqrizi's life see the quotations from contemporary biographies in S de Sacy's Chrestomathie arabe (2nd cd., Paris, 1826), ii. 112 seq., and for other works still in manuscript C Brockelmann, Gesch. der arabischen Litteratur (Berlin, 1902), ii. 38-41.

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