His great work, _The Breath of Perfume from the Branch of Green
Andalusia and Memorials of its Vizier Lisan ud-Din ibn ul-Khat[-i]b_,
consists of two parts. The first is a compilation from many authors on
the description and history of Moslem Spain; it was published by
Wright, Krehl, Dozy and Dugat as _Analectes sur l'histoire et la
littérature des Arabes d'Espagne_ (Leiden, 1855-1861), and in an
abridged English translation by P. de Gayangos (London, 1840-1843).
The whole work has been published at Bulaq (1863) and Cairo (1885).
For other works of Maqqari see C. Brockelmann's _Gesch. der arabischen
Litteratur_ (Berlin, 1902), ii. 297. (G. W. T.)
MAQRIZI, or MAKRIZI [Taqi ud-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali] (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
Qalanisiyya 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 _Mawa'iz
wal-I'tibar fi dhikr ul-Hitat wal-Aihar_ (2 vols., Bulaq, 1854),
translated into French by U. Bouriant as _Description topographique et
historique de l'Égypte_ (Paris, 1895-1900; cf. 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
J. G. L. 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 MS. in Leiden, and one in
Paris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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