Acknowledgments
As with any volume of the Bibliotheca Maqriziana series, the one name that surely cannot and must not be absent from the acknowledgments note is that of Frédéric Bauden. A veritable spiritus rector of this colossal cooperative scholarly endeavor, his contribution to the production of these volumes goes far beyond the role of a regular series editor. I am glad to acknowledge the profound debt that I owe Professor Bauden for several reasons: for inviting me to contribute to the Bibliotheca Maqriziana series, for his patience (should I say endurance?) that I am afraid I must have stretched to its farthest limits during the many years it took me to produce the first draft of this volume, for his meticulous editorial attention to this volume (as to the rest of the series), and for his generosity in sharing his unparalleled knowledge of all things connected with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs person, oeuvre, and times, as well as the codicology of this vast and difficult chronicle titled al-Ḫabar Ê¿an al-baÅ¡ar.
While I worked on this manuscript I often benefited from discussions with my colleagues at the Department of Arabic and Semitic Studies of Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), among whom I must specifically mention Tamás Iványi and István Hajnal. They were always ready to discuss, and if need be, challenge my ideas on various aspects of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs text and related issues of premodern Muslim culture and history, especially the role of genealogies in historiography. Conversations with members of the academic community of the Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, a delightful research center located amidst the idyllic leafy beauty of the hills of Piliscsaba (Hungary) were similarly stimulating. I wish to express my particular thanks to Miklós Maróth, founding director of the institute, whose efforts, after bringing this wonderful institution into existence in the first place, continue to ensure a supportive intellectual environment conducive to independent academic inquiry. I relied on the Avicenna Instituteâs excellent library throughout the preparation of this manuscript, and furthermore, the institute also supported my work by providing the funding for several stints of library research in Cairo. I spent a total of about five months consulting source material in the superb library of the Institut dominicain dâétudes orientales in Cairo; these were immensely rewarding periods during my preparation of the apparatus and the introductory chapter of this volume. I am glad to express my gratitude to the librarians at IDEO, as well as the other members of that learned and welcoming community. Particular thanks are due to Jean Druel, and to the management of the Scholarsâ House for making my residence and research there not just productive but always enjoyable as well.
I gratefully acknowledge my debt to the anonymous readers of my manuscript at Brill Academic Publishers for identifying the weak points of my text and for their constructive suggestions for improvements. Further thanks are due to the editors of this volume at De GruyterBrill, and to my language editor Valerie Joy Turner for improving my English prose.
It is a pleasant obligation, now as ever, to declare my profound gratitude to my family for providing, as they do, a warm and loving milieu in which to thrive and conduct my academic work. I thank everyone for their care and interest that extends even to my academic work and for surrounding me with their enduring love and support, and many thanks to the children in particular for their cheerful ebullience at all times, especially during all those family reunions. A brief word, then, to my mother and father, and to Pál, Dániel, Adél, and Krisztina, as well as to all the little ones: rest assured that your presence is deeply appreciated whatever academic undertaking I happen to be busy with.
Zoltan Szombathy
Budapest, 18Â April 2025