Al-Makrizi

Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Makrizi (or Maqrizi) (1364 - 1442), is an Arabian historian, known as al-Maqrizi because of his ancestral connection with Maqriz, a suburb of Baalbek.¹ According to Paul E. Walker,

A Mamluk historian and himself a Sunni, he is remarkable in this context for his unusually keen interest in the Ismaili Fatimid dynasty and its role in Egyptian history.²

Life

Al-Makrizi was born at Cairo and spent most of his life in Egypt, where he was trained in the Hanifite school of law; however, he later became a Shafi'ite with an inclination to Zahirite views. Al-Makrizi confesed to his contemporaries that he believed that he was related to the Fatamids through the son of imam al-Muizz. Ibn Hajar preserves the most memorable account: his father, as they entered the al-Hakim Mosque one day, told him "My son, you are entering the mosque of your ancestor." However, his father also instructed al-Makrizi not to reveal this information to anyone he could not trust; Walker concludes:

Ultimately it would be hard to conclue that al-Maqrizi conceived any more than an antiquarian interest in the Fatimids. His main concern seems more likely to be the meaning they and their city might have for the present, that is, for Mamluk Egypt and its role in Islam. (p.167)

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 al-Hakim Mosque, 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.

Writings

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; 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).

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, an encyclopedia of Egyptian biography in alphabetic order. The Arab historian al-Sakhawi believed this would require 80 volumes to complete, 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.

Reference

1. This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
2. Paul E. Walker, Exploring an Islamic Empire: Fatamid History and its Sources (London, I.B. Tauris, 2002), p. 164. The material for updating this article is taken from Walker's account of al-Makrizi.