1 Introduction: Trends of âLiterarizationâ (âadabizationâ) in Mamluk Historiography*
Speaking of a âliterarizationâ of history writing during the Mamluk period, Ulrich Haarmann referred mainly to the increasing use of elements drawn from the literature of adab and folk romance (Volksroman), such as anecdotes or story-like reports, dialogues with direct speech, colloquial language, digressions, popular motifs, occult materials, and other adab-like elements (such as mirabiliaâmarvels or exotic stories [Ê¿ajÄʾib wa-gharÄʾib]) in the historical narrative (ḥawÄdith) in chronicles written mostly by Egyptian chroniclers related to the military institution (Ibn al-DawÄdÄrÄ« [d. after 736/1335] being the most notable example) but to a lesser degree also found in the chronicle of the Syrian religious scholar al-JazarÄ« (d. 739/1338). This process was underlied by a desire to entertain the readers and âpopularizeâ historical writing.1 The more popular elements, and especially those drawn from the Volksroman, may be seen as elements of adab âin its âlowerâ form,â2 thus the process of âliterarizationâ described by Haarmann may be seen as a process of âadabization.â After Haarmann, much attention has been given to Egyptian historians related to the military institution considered to have written âhighly literarizedâ (or âpopularizedâ and entertaining) chronicles and who were active mainly during the first half of the 8th/14th century, notably Ibn al-DawÄdÄrÄ«, al-YÅ«sufÄ« (d. 759/1358), and Qaraá¹Äy (d. after 708/1308)âIbn IyÄs (d. ca. 930/1524), active during the late Mamluk period, being the exception (see table 1.1 below). The main elements typical of this group of historians, that is, anecdotes or story-like reports, dialogues with direct speech, and colloquial language incorporated in the historical narrative of contemporary events, can be easily found also in the chronicles of other 9th/15th-century historians related to the military institution. Except for Ibn IyÄs, three other historians related to the military institution were active during the Circassian period of the sultanate (784â923/1382â1517), all of them mamlÅ«ksâ descendants: Ibn DuqmÄq (d. 809/1407),3 Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« (d. 874/1470),4 and Ê¿Abd al-BÄsiá¹ b. KhalÄ«l b. ShÄhÄ«n al-áºÄhirÄ« al-Malaá¹Ä« (d. 920/1514).5
There was not, however, only a single form of âliterarizationâ (or âadabizationâ).6 Li Guo focused on a different trend of âliterarizationâ current in chronicles written by Syrian ḥadÄ«th scholars, some of ḤanbalÄ« background, active in the first half of the 8th/14th century, notably al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ« (d. 726/1326) and al-JazarÄ« (see table 1.1 below).7 While using in the historical narrative some story-like reports or anecdotes containing dialogues, direct speech, and colloquial language, and also other adab-like materials (notably Ê¿ajÄʾib wa-gharÄʾib) typical of their Egyptian counterparts related to the military institution8 (indeed some of these elements appear in story-like reports received from Egyptian military men),9 the âliterarizationâ in the chronicles of the early Syrian writers takes a different form and is much more conspicuous in the obituary notes (wafayÄt). These chronicles are, in fact, a combination of history, biographical dictionary, and literary anthology. The obituary notes, most of them dedicated to learned men, record their adab product, mainly âhigh adab materials,â and more specifically their high-quality poetry in classical form (and sometimes poetry written on them),10 a phenomenon that can be related to the more general trend referred to by Thomas Bauer as the âadabization of the Ê¿ulamÄʾâ and the growing usage of poetry for communicative purposes.11 Much less commonly, however, it records also other adab-like materials, such as âstrange,â edifying, or entertaining stories (some of them obscene) told by the scholars (or about them), which normally contain dialogues with direct speech and colloquial language,12 and even more rarely, it records scholarsâ riddles (alghÄz, sing. lughz) or useful general knowledge (fawÄʾid, sing. fÄʾida) such as supplications (adÊ¿iya, sing. duÊ¿Äʾ) used by them.13
Some attention has also been given to the literary characteristics of works pertaining to history written mostly in the 7th/13th and 8th/14th centuries by authors with kuttÄb-udabÄʾ backgrounds or such that were more related to the tradition of the kuttÄb-udabÄʾ than to that of historiography (and, more specifically, Mamluk historiography). In general, these authors did not produce âproperâ chronicles, and their works were less subjugated to chronology and more specifically to the annalistic form. At least some of these works have been deemed works of adab rather than historiography.14
Trends of âliterarizationâ in history writing during the 9th/15th century, a period dominated by Egyptian historians who were mostly religious scholars (many of them ShÄfiÊ¿Ä«s), have received less attention. In fact, according to Haarmann, some historians who were religious scholars active in the 9th/15th century, among them al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (d. 845/1442), show a âconservative anti-literary historiographical ethos,â15 preferring a more serious, solemn, and learned outlook.16 Muhsin al-Musawi, however, noted that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« incorporated in his Khiá¹aá¹ (an archeological and monumental history of Cairo) and other works âentertaining accounts and pleasing maximsâ in order to appeal to readers and achieve entertainment and edification âin line with traditional forms of biography and historiography.â17 Martin Smith noted that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« incorporated in his Khiá¹aá¹ poetry, some of which he personally collected, thus âparticipating in what has been called the âliterarizationâ of history writing in the Mamluk period,â18 and Guy Ron-Gilboa noted that he combined anecdotes or stories of a âbelletristic-adab characterâ in his universal chronicle (or history of humanity) al-Khabar Ê¿an al-bashar in a chapter on pre-Islamic brigands, which âreflects the historiographical conventions of its timeâ19 and is âemblematic of the âliterarizationâ of MamlÅ«k historiography.â20 According to Ron-Gilboa, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« was a historiographer endowed with âa keen literary awareness,â a âclear authorial voice,â21 and âeditorial discretionâ22 who was âconstantly engaged in a double dialogue: with Arabic belletristic and historiographical tradition on the one hand and with popular literature on the other.â23 Haarmann referred to the existence of some âliterarizedâ materials in the writing of âconservativeâ authors such as al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« as a âliterarization against will,â24 that is, as an unconscious borrowing of already âliterarizedâ material existing in earlier chronicles.25 According to Haarmann, these 9th/15th-century âcompilersâ lacked a sense of critique of the historiographical sources they used and, therefore, did not realize that the materials in it were already âliterarized.â
Table 1.1
Trends of âliterarizationâ (âadabizationâ) in Mamluk chronicles and the chroniclers that received the most attention
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A. Egyptian chroniclers related to the military institution |
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(Conspicuous mainly in the historical narrative [ḥawÄdith]: in general, mainly involves anecdotes or story-like reports containing dialogues, direct speech, and colloquial language but also popular motifs, occult materials, digressions, and other adab-like materials [notably Ê¿ajÄʾib wa-gharÄʾib]) |
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1. |
Qaraá¹Äy (d. after 708/1308)26 |
all active during the first half of the 8th/14th century |
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2. |
Ibn al-DawÄdÄrÄ« (d. after 736/1335)27 |
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3. |
[less attention] al-ShujÄÊ¿Ä« (d. after 756/1356)28 |
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4. |
al-Yūsufī (d. 759/1358)29 |
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5. |
Ibn IyÄs (d. ca. 930/1524)30 |
active during the late 9th/15th century |
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B. Syrian ḥadīth scholars (Ḥanbalīs or Ḥanbalī milieu) |
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(Conspicuous mainly in the obituary notes [wafayÄt]: in general, a record of adab product, mainly high-quality poetry) |
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1. |
al-Yūnīnī (d. 726/1326)31 |
all active during the first half of the 8th/14th century |
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2. |
al-Jazarī (d. 739/1338)32 |
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In what follows, it will be argued that as a 9th/15th-century Egyptian historian and ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholar, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« combined Egyptian and (ShÄfiÊ¿Ä«) scholarly historiographical trends in a much more conscious and varied manner than Haarmann would allow. The trends of âliterarizationâ in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs historical works were dependent on genre (chronicle/biographical dictionary), the time of events or persons described (past/his own time), and sometimes also their background (military men/scholars). This will be exemplified by an examination of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs chronicle al-SulÅ«k li-maÊ¿rifat duwal al-mulÅ«k (section 2 below), his biographical dictionary al-MuqaffÄ l-kabÄ«r, dedicated mainly to notables of the past (section 3 below), and his biographical dictionary Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d al-farÄ«da fÄ« tarÄjim al-aÊ¿yÄn al-mufÄ«da, dedicated to his contemporaries (section 4 below). It will be shown that when describing past events or persons, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« chose to rely heavily on âhighly literarizedâ sources, which suggests that it is very unlikely that the âliterarizationâ in his historiographical works was against his will. Moreover, it will be demonstrated that although in such cases al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« omitted, condensed, restructured, or paraphrased some âliterarizedâ material, he did leave room for plenty of âliterarizedâ material. In fact, the omitting, condensing, restructuring, and paraphrasing actually prove that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« knew very well to recognize the âliterarizedâ material and hence that, when he chose to include such materials, it was a conscious decision. Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs consistent standardization of nonstandard usages of Arabic in his quoted sources is another indication that he was well aware of issues of language and style. Even more importantly, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs biographical dictionary of his contemporaries contains plenty of âliterarizedâ material, which must have been collected by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« himself and consciously incorporated into this work. The fact that in some cases it is clear that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« was aware of âliterarizedâ materials related to his contemporaries, but still decided not to include them in his work, is another indication that he totally controlled the process of the incorporation of âliterarizedâ material.
More specifically, it will be shown that when reporting on events in the first half of the 8th/14th century in his chronicle al-SulÅ«k, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« relied heavily on Nuzhat al-nÄáºir fÄ« sÄ«rat al-Malik al-NÄá¹£ir, the âhighly literarizedâ chronicle of the Egyptian military man al-YÅ«sufÄ« that contains countless anecdotes or story-like reports with dialogues, direct speech, and nonstandard usages of Arabic, but he transformed al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs usages into standard Arabic. When describing contemporary events, however, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs chronicle is relatively âde-literarized,â at least with respect to story-like reports with dialogues and direct speech (section 2 below). In biographical entries dedicated to amirs or religious scholars of the first half of the 8th/14th century in al-MuqaffÄ, a biographical dictionary dedicated to Egyptians who left their mark on history, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« combined anecdotes from al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir and al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs (d. 764/1363) al-WÄfÄ« bi-l-wafayÄt but tried to arrange them in chronological order as much as possible, and again got rid of nonstandard usages of Arabic (section 3 below). In al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, a biographical dictionary dedicated to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs contemporaries, the mamlÅ«k amirsâ biographies are âdryâ and contain no anecdotes on them or adab-like reports from them. In contrast, biographies of scholars or civilians contain their poetry, but to a much larger extent than in early 8th/14th-century chronicles written by Syrian religious scholars, also other âadab productâ such as âstrange,â entertaining, exotic, or fantastic stories, useful knowledge, medical prescriptions, prayers and supplications, popular beliefs, and popular wisdom sayings, sometimes in a clear istiá¹rÄd style (section 4 below).
It would seem that for al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, contemporary history was seen as a âseriousâ thing, or at least, drawing on a (ShÄfiÊ¿Ä«) scholarly historiographic tradition, he did not consider accounts of contemporary events as the suitable place for entertaining story-like reports with dialogues and direct speech. In contrast, past events and biographies of past amirs and religious scholars could be used to some degree for entertainment purposes, drawing on the tradition of Egyptian chronicles written by historians related to the military institution, and on a more general anecdotal tradition of biographical dictionaries. Still, drawing on a ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« scholarly historiographic tradition, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« standardized all the nonstandard usages of Arabic in his quoted sources. Biographies of contemporary scholars or civilians contain their âadab product.â In the tradition of historical works written by scholars, the adab product includes poetry verses. However, drawing on general popularizing trends in Mamluk literature and historiography, and possibly also on popularizing literary trends in Egyptian chronicles written by historians related to the military institution, the âadab productâ also contains to a much greater extent âpopular loreâ that now becomes part of the scholarsâ cultural heritage; however, typical for ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« scholars, it is transmitted in standard Arabic. Also typical for historians who were (ShÄfiÊ¿Ä«) scholars, contemporary mamlÅ«k amirs, it seems, are mentioned in a functional way and are not considered âinterestingâ or able to contribute to the cultural heritage of the community.
In fact, as will be argued, the trend of âliterarizationâ in biographies of contemporary scholars in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d and the incorporation of such varied adab-like, many times popular, elements in the framework of biographical entries or obituaries in a mainstream work of history has no real precedent. While chronicles written by Egyptian historians related to the military institution are filled with story-like reports, and while the obituaries in the chronicles of scholars such as al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ« and al-JazarÄ« resemble an anthology of poetry, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d resembles a (popularized) adab anthology. Therefore, if we envisage âliterarizationâ as âadabizationâ (i.e., incorporation of adab elements, including elements of adab âin its âlowerâ formâ) and take into consideration that âmany-sidednessâ is central to any definition of adab, it may be argued that Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is, in fact, the most complete example of âliterarizationâ in Mamluk traditional historiography.
2 Al-SulÅ«k li-maÊ¿rifat duwal al-mulÅ«k: Trends of Literarization in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Chronicle
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs SulÅ«k is a chronicle covering the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras in Egypt until the days of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (567â844/1171â1441; the work ends a few years before al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs death in Ramaá¸Än 845/February 1442), which is the last part of a trilogy covering the history of Egypt since the Muslim conquest.33 As has been shown by Donald Little, and is by now well known, one of the most important sources used by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« in his SulÅ«k for the reign of al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad (693â4/1293â4, 698â708/1299â1309, and 709â41/1310â41) is al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs âhighly literarizedâ chronicle Nuzhat al-nÄáºir fÄ« sÄ«rat al-Malik al-NÄá¹£ir. At least for some years during al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammadâs third reign, it is even almost an exclusive source. As Little showed, although al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« does not mention his sources in the SulÅ«k and never acknowledges his indebtedness to al-YÅ«sufÄ«, a collation of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs and al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs annals for the ḥijrÄ« years 734â7 (1333â8)âthe only years extant in toto from Nuzhat al-nÄáºirâreveals that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« based the entire annals on al-YÅ«sufÄ«, adding only a few reports, obituaries, and dates.34 The mere fact that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« chose to rely so heavily on a âhighly literarizedâ chronicle suggests that it is very unlikely that the literarization in the SulÅ«k, exemplified below, was against his will.
As noted by Little, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs version of materials from Nuzhat al-nÄáºir is condensed, and in the process of summarizing al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs reports, he transforms al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs language and recasts the passages into his own language.35 However, although al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« omits many of the story-like reports that contain dialogues with direct speech in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, and condenses and paraphrases the rest, a few story-like reports with lively dialogues and direct speech do appear in the SulÅ«k. In fact, the omitting, condensing, and paraphrasing actually prove that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« knew very well to recognize the âliterarizedâ material in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir and hence that, when he chose to include such materials in the SulÅ«k, it was a conscious decision. This is probably also attested by the fact that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, almost with no exception, standardizes the nonstandard usages of Arabic that appear in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir (occasional usages of Äsh in the SulÅ«k may be found).36 This shows a deliberate decision by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« not to include nonstandard Arabic in his writing, which shows that he was well aware of issues of language and style.
I will discuss only one example in detail. In the course of the narrative of the year 736/1335â6, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« recasts a story-like report from Nuzhat al-nÄáºir on a petition addressed to sultan al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad by a merchant claiming that the wazÄ«r al-NashÅ« forced the merchantâs slave girl to buy a piece of cloth at a high price (á¹arḥ). Table 1.2 below presents a line-by-line collation of the reports from the SulÅ«k and the Nuzha. The text in black is the SulÅ«k, and the text in red is the Nuzha. The parts of the report relevant for the discussion on language that were omitted, directly standardized, or paraphrased and standardized by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« are in orange color in both texts and are preceded by green numerals in brackets. In green brackets, after the relevant passages, it is mentioned if al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text was omitted, directly standardized, or paraphrased and thus standardized. If al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text was omitted or not directly standardized by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, the standard form appears in green brackets after the nonstandard form in al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text. It should be emphasized that my intention is not to offer a detailed linguistic analysis of the texts or linguistic usages in Mamluk historiographical texts. I leave that to scholars better qualified to do it than me. My intention is to show a general trend of standardization in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs text. Therefore, I restrict myself to the most conspicuous and clear instances of usages of nonstandard Arabic and standardization thereof. It should also be noted that I have only used printed editions and reproduced the orthography as it appears in the editions. Therefore, orthographical issues are not discussed at all in this article, and the discussion is limited to morphological, syntactical, and lexical elements.37 It should also be noted that whenever possible, I have vocalized al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text as if it is in standard Arabic, although, at least in dialogues, a colloquial reading is more appropriate.
Table 1.2
A collation of texts in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs SulÅ«k and al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir38
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â® |
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â®ÙÙاسÙتÙدÙعÙ٠اÙسÙÙÙÙØ·Ùا٠اÙÙÙÙØ´ÙÙ |
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â® |
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â®â |
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â® |
|
â®Ø§Ø³ÙÙ
Ùع٠|
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â® |
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â® |
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â® |
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â®ÙÙÙÙاÙÙ: âÙÙا Ø®ÙÙÙÙÙد ÙÙØ°Ùا Ù Ùا ÙÙØ´ÙتÙÙÙÙ Ù ÙÙ٠أÙÙ Ùر٠اÙÙÙÙ Ùاشâ¬â |
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â® |
|
â®ÙÙÙÙÙÙÙÙ٠عÙÙÙÙÙÙÙ ÙÙÙسÙÙÙÙØ·Ùا٠Ù
ÙبÙÙÙغ |
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â® |
|
â®ÙÙÙÙد٠ÙÙرÙب٠Ù
ÙÙÙÙÙ ÙÙØ£ÙÙÙا Ø£ÙتÙØ·ÙÙÙÙبÙÙÙ |
|
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â® |
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â® |
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â®ÙÙÙÙØ°Ùا اÙÙÙ
ÙبÙÙÙغ Ù
ÙÙ٠إÙرÙØ« |
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â® |
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â®ÙÙÙÙÙÙ Ù
ÙÙÙ |
|
â® |
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â®Ù ÙاتÙت٠عÙÙÙدÙÙÙ ÙÙØ®ÙÙÙÙÙÙت٠ÙÙØÙÙÙ Ù ÙائÙØ© Ø£ÙÙÙ٠دÙÙÙÙار ÙÙÙ Ùا بÙÙÙÙ٠جÙÙÙاÙÙر ÙÙغÙÙÙرÙÙÙاâ¬â |
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â® |
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â®ÙÙØ£ÙØ®Ùذ٠اÙÙجÙÙ ÙÙع ÙÙÙÙÙ Ù ÙÙظÙÙÙر٠اÙسÙÙÙÙØ·Ùا٠عÙÙÙÙ Ø´ÙÙÙØ¡âââ¬â¬â |
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â® |
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â®Ø«ÙÙ Ù٠اÙÙتÙÙÙت٠اÙÙÙÙØ´Ù٠إÙÙÙ٠اÙتÙÙاجÙر ÙÙÙÙاÙÙ ÙÙÙÙ:â¬â |
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â® |
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â®âبÙØÙÙÙاة رÙØ£Ùس اÙسÙÙÙÙØ·Ùا٠Ù
Ùا ÙÙÙÙت٠|
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â®ÙÙÙÙاÙÙ: âÙÙعÙÙ Ùâââ¬â¬â |
Here is a translation of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs report with addition of relevant parts from al-YÅ«sufÄ« in red brackets:
The sultan summoned al-Nashū in the presence of the merchant and told al-Nashū
(in anger) : â(tell me!) how many complaints do the people have on you? Listen what he has to say on you, that you were forcing him to buy this cloth in a high price(and that you want to break the people) .âSo al-NashÅ«
(quickly turned [to the sultan] and) said: âyour highness, he is not complaining because of the cloth, but rather because he owes the sultan thirty thousand dinars, but he ran away from me and I am trying to get a hold of him(but he does not fall in my hands.â The sultan said: âwhy is it that [you think] he owes [us] money?â So al-NashÅ« said: â) . The amount that he owes you comes from the estate of a slave girl that he married which had been one of the slave girls of the martyr al-Ashraf KhalÄ«l, who died under him and left behind her about one hundred thousand dinars, jewels, and other property. He took it all and did not tell the sultan about the existence of none of it.âThen al-NashÅ« turned to the merchant and told him: âswear to me on the life of the sultan [and answer me], were not you married to her?ââthat is, to the aforementioned slave girl.
So the merchant told al-NashÅ«: âyes [I was].â
As can be seen, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« omits one part of the dialogue in direct speech by al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad (no. 8 in table 1.2) and therefore has to conflate two different sentences in direct speech by al-NashÅ« into one long utterance. In addition, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« omits the emotive expression âin angerâ and the fact that after hearing al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad, al-NashÅ« âquicklyâ replied, which adds a dramatic quality to al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text. Other parts of the text omitted by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« such as âyou want to break the peopleâ and âbut he does not fall in my handsâ (nos. 5 and 7) are meant to enhance the image of al-NashÅ« as an archvillain; thus, they also have a dramatic quality in al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text. Another part of the text omitted by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« is âtell me!â (no. 2), which opens an utterance by al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad in al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text and has a mimetic quality. It imitates a spoken discourse, enlivens the text, and brings it closer to the audience. Notwithstanding this, the text of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« still contains a lively dialogue comprised of four parts given in direct speech, three participants, and three changes of speaker, and still reads like a drama.50
As for language, there is no doubt that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« put in a great effort to avoid nonstandard usages of Arabic in his text. Sometimes he avoids the nonstandard usages in al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text simply by omitting them (nos. 2, 5, 7, 8, 11). At other times he bypasses the nonstandard usages by paraphrasing al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs wording and totally changing its syntactic structure (nos. 1, 6). At other times, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« directly standardizes al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs usages (nos. 3, 4, 9, 10, 12). The existence of a text that employs nonstandard usages of Arabic and a parallel text that seems to consistently standardize it may give us a clearer perception of what was considered âstandardâ by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« and (some of) his contemporaries. The cases of direct standardization are normally straightforward. It is the more complicated instances of paraphrasing that are perhaps more significant in this respect since they have to do with perceptions of what were considered âstandardâ syntactic structures, and more importantly, âstandardâ lexical items.51 All this, however, awaits detailed research, which, as mentioned, is not the purpose of the present article.
In the annals covering al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammadâs third reign, it is relatively easy to find in the SulÅ«k story-like reports with dialogues or direct speech. When it is possible to compare them to al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, it is relatively easy to see that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« omits parts of the report, condenses or paraphrases the rest, and standardizes the language but still retains parts of its dialogues in direct speech and its dramatic character.52 In some cases, it seems that except for standardizing the language, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« also cleans up the bad language from al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text.53
This situation changes, starting from the description of the post-al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad period in the SulÅ«k and, more conspicuously, starting from about 760/1359, the time when al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir ended. Starting from that period, there is a decrease in the number of story-like reports with dialogues in direct speech that can be found in the SulÅ«k. As has been shown by Massoud, at least regarding the accounts of events of the last quarter of the 8th/14th century in the SulÅ«k, the most important source is Ibn al-FurÄtâs (d. 807/1405) chronicle TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k. Almost all the reports that appear in TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k also appear in the SulÅ«k. However, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« invested a lot of effort into condensing and rewriting the reports and recasting them in his own words.54 It should be added that in the process of rewording, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« consistently standardized Ibn al-FurÄtâs reports, which are full of nonstandard usages of Arabic.55
Massoud has also established Ibn al-FurÄtâs extensive reliance on Ibn DuqmÄqâs Nuzhat al-anÄm, at least in accounts of events of the last quarter of the 8th/14th century.56 Specifically, Massoud showed that Nuzhat al-anÄm forms the backbone of TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«kâs narrative for the year 778/1376â7 and that TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k contains almost all the reports from Nuzhat al-anÄm, sometimes quoting them almost word for word.57 While it was not possible to compare the accounts of the later years of the 8th/14th century in TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k and Nuzhat al-anÄm,58 Massoud found in the account of the events of the year 793/1390â1 in TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k several quotations with explicit references to Ibn DuqmÄq that bear a resemblance to materials in Ibn DuqmÄqâs al-Nafḥa al-miskiyya (which is normally a summary of events reported in Nuzhat al-anÄm).59 Therefore, a continuing reliance of Ibn al-FurÄt on Ibn DuqmÄq is very probable, at least for the entire last quarter of the 8th/14th century, and possibly for earlier periods as well. The heavy reliance of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« on Ibn al-FurÄt in that period accounts for the fact that âal-SulÅ«k ultimately bears the mark of Ibn DuqmÄq.â60
In accounts of contemporary events, Ibn al-FurÄtâs chronicle generally does not contain many story-like reports with dialogues employing direct speech.61 Still, in some of the cases where Ibn DuqmÄq is quoted, one does find long story-like reports with dialogues or utterances in direct speech (and nonstandard Arabic).62 Sometimes such dialogues are omitted altogether in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs report;63 however, at other times, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« preserves in his report at least an utterance in direct speech.64 At other times, the fact that reports with dialogues and direct speech in Ibn al-FurÄt that find their way into the SulÅ«k originate in fact from Ibn DuqmÄq can be corroborated by a comparison of the materials in Ibn al-FurÄt with materials in al-Nafḥa al-miskiyya.65
So, through the filter of Ibn al-FurÄt, generally, not many dialogues or utterances in direct speech are left in the SulÅ«k in accounts of events of the last part of the 8th/14th century. In accounts of events that occurred in the 9th/15th century and after the death of Ibn al-FurÄt, when the reports of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« are generally his own, the number of dialogues or utterances in direct speech decreases even further. I have checked in detail the years 825â7/1421â4, and not even a single dialogue or case of direct speech is found in the SulÅ«k. However, in these years the SulÅ«k is not totally âde-literarized.â One finds four verses of poetry incorporated in the historical narrative,66 reports with a moral lesson (nÄdira fÄ«-hÄ Ê¿ibra/mawÊ¿iáºa),67 and mainly reports on âstrangeâ or extraordinary, mostly weather-related or natural, phenomena (some defined as nawÄdir, or phenomena that cause wonder [taÊ¿ajjub/Ê¿ajab]).68
One may legitimately wonder at this point if all this does not, in fact, support Ulrich Haarmaanâs thesis of âliterarizationâ against will. After all, when the reports in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs SulÅ«k become his own, we hardly find reports with dialogues or utterances in direct speech, and only as long as al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« relied on earlier sources, did he combine such reports in a significant manner. However, as already argued, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« controlled the process of omission or incorporation of story-like reports into his chronicle. He chose deliberately to rely on a highly literarized chronicle such as Nuzhat al-nÄáºir as the main and almost exclusive source for events in the first half of the 8th/14th century. He continued to incorporate such reports (apparently mainly of DuqmÄqian origin) also in accounts of events of the second half of the 8th/14th century, however, in a gradually decreasing manner. More importantly, as we will see in section 4 below, in his biographical dictionary of his contemporaries, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« consciously incorporated âliterarizedâ material. All this suggests that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« did not object to âliterarizationâ in principle but rather, as an Egyptian historian with a scholarly background, he simply chose his own trend of âliterarization.â It seems that for al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, contemporary history was seen as a serious thing, or at least, drawing on a ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« scholarly historiographic tradition (see section 2.1 below), he considered accounts of contemporary events as a less suitable place for a certain kind of literarized materials (i.e., story-like reports with dialogues and direct speech). This is in contrast to 9th/15th-century Egyptian historians related to the military institution, who gladly incorporated story-like reports with dialogues and direct speech as an integral part of their account of contemporary events.
2.1 A Note on Language and Style in Mamluk Chronicles
Before moving on to discuss trends of âliterarizationâ in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs biographical dictionaries, I would like to make some general notes on language and style in Mamluk chronicles.69 In order to check usages of Arabic in detail, it is necessary to consult manuscripts and autographs when they exist; however, as already mentioned, this is not the intention here. The intention is to show a trend of standardization in the works of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« and situate it in more general trends of language use in Mamluk historiography. Using the existing printed editions should allow a preliminary investigation of such trends. The observations in section 2 on the language of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« are based on printed editions that are not based on autographs (there are no autographs of the relevant parts of the SulÅ«k).70 Regarding al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, however, we have Frédéric Baudenâs research on the language in an autograph manuscript of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs notebook, materials from which were incorporated into al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs historical works.71 Bauden found some minor deviations from standard Arabic (mainly related to orthography), probably due to lack of attention and the speed of writing that are typical of drafts (musawwadÄt, sing. musawwada) and notebooks.72 It shows, as Bauden noted, that in contrast to historians related to the military institution that did not hesitate to include nonstandard usages of Arabic in their historical works, âscholars who wrote history, were very careful not to allow themselves such deviationsâ from standard Arabic.73 I would qualify Baudenâs observation and restrict it mainly to ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholars.
As discussed in detail in chapter 2, in order to better understand trends of language use in Mamluk historiography, a differentiation should be made between subgroups of historians who were religious scholars. Usages of nonstandard Arabic are typical of historians related to the military institution and non-ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholars. On the other hand, because of the importance of âArabnessâ and the Arabic language in their ethos, ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholars refrained from using nonstandard Arabic and standardized nonstandard usages in their quoted sources. Examining language use in tandem with the stylistic element of the incorporation of story-like reports with dialogues and direct speech in accounts of contemporary events in the historical narratives in chronicles allows a more nuanced differentiation between trends of language use and style prevalent among chroniclers of the three aforementioned major groups of historians. It seems that in terms of the tendency to incorporate story-like reports in accounts of contemporary events, the non-ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholars took a middle ground between historians related to the military institution, who gladly incorporated such reports, and historians who were ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholars, who did not tend to incorporate such reports.
It should be emphasized that the discussion here does not concern historians who were officially affiliated with the ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« school of law; however, they specialized as udabÄʾ-kuttÄb. Naturally, udabÄʾ-kuttÄb were strongly related to the adab tradition; thus, they were more willing to incorporate adab elements into their historical writing. However, authors with such backgrounds did not tend to produce âproperâ chronicles, and their works were less subjugated to chronology, and more specifically to the annalistic form.74 The tendency of udabÄʾ-kuttÄb to incorporate adab elements in their writing is conspicuous in their biographical dictionaries, a genre that, in any case, tends to be anecdotal. Biographical dictionaries written by udabÄʾ-kuttÄb, such as al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs al-WÄfÄ« bi-l-wafayÄt and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r and al-KutubÄ«âs (d. 764/1363) FawÄt al-wafayÄt, are full of anecdotes or story-like reports containing dialogues with direct speech. Moreover, in the frame of the anecdotes or story-like reports that appear in their biographical dictionaries, one finds many usages of nonstandard Arabic, although the two were officially affiliated with the ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« school. In fact, al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs biographical dictionaries are probably the most anecdotal of all Mamluk biographical dictionaries. His al-WÄfÄ« bi-l-wafayÄt was one of the most important sources used by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« in his MuqaffÄ, which brings us to a discussion of trends of âliterarizationâ in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs biographical dictionaries.
3 Al-MuqaffÄ l-KabÄ«r: Trends of Literarization in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Biographical Dictionary of Prominent Egyptians in History
In comparison to Mamluk chronicles, much less attention has been given to Mamluk biographical dictionaries with respect to the examination of sources used by their authors, the arrangement of materials in them, and trends of âliterarizationâ within them.75 A still very important work in this respect is Littleâs An introduction to Mamluk historiography, published in 1970.76 Little has made several general observations, based mainly on an examination of the biographical entries of the amir QarÄsunqur al-ManṣūrÄ« (d. 728/1327) in the biographical dictionaries of al-á¹¢afadÄ« (al-WÄfÄ« bi-l-wafayÄt and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r), Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ« (al-Durar al-kÄmina), and Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« (al-Manhal al-á¹£ÄfÄ«).77 Little noted that: 1) Biography constitutes âa distinct literary-historical genre with its own requirements and characteristics which result in the presentation of material not found in annals and a new organization.â78 According to Little, âa compiler of biographical dictionaries did not rely heavily on annals as a source for his biographies, probably for reasons of convenience. It would have been a cumbersome, laborious process for an author faced with writing a thousand or more biographies to sift through the bulky information provided by annals.â Thus, âthe biographer main source for information ⦠seems to have been not annals, but other biographies whose authors had received reports from informants.â79 Little concluded that âthough biography and annals overlap, the former is not based on the latter but on original information ⦠[f]or this reason ⦠identical material is rarely found in both.â80 2) Biographies have a penchant for anecdotal style and are, in fact, dominated by isolated anecdotes.81 This last observation is based mainly on the biographical entries of QarÄsunqur in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs al-WÄfÄ« bi-l-wafayÄt and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, in which after short introductory data comes a âsuccession of anecdotes ⦠arranged more or less chronologically.â82
The literary (and anecdotal) character of al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs biographical writing (specifically his AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r) and the literary devices that al-á¹¢afadÄ« used in it were further explored by Stephan Conermann83 and also noted by Yoni Brack84 and Christian Mauder. The latter referred to al-á¹¢afadÄ« as âa typical representative of the literarized history-writing of his time.â85 Scholars have emphasized the central role played by al-á¹¢afadÄ« in formulating the pattern of Mamluk biographical entries (short résumé followed by anecdotes)86 and established the reliance of Circassian-period historians on his biographical dictionaries.87
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs MuqaffÄ is a biographical dictionary dedicated to Egyptians who left their mark on history. Only parts of it are extant.88 Bauden suggested that âthe aim of the dictionary was to list the maximum number of biographical notices of persons who had had linksâsometimes firm, sometimes tenuousâwith the land of Egypt.â89 However, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« was not able to complete this project until his death.90 While trends of âliterarizationâ in the MuqaffÄ so far have not received attention, the sources used by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« in the MuqaffÄ and the arrangement of material in it have been partially explored. As mentioned by Bauden, in the MuqaffÄ, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« normally does not mention his sources, which may be discovered only by comparison to other extant works. Many times, however, one is left to speculate about the MuqaffÄâs sources without the possibility of corroboration.91 Based on a detailed examination of the biographies of the amir UlmÄs al-NÄá¹£irÄ« (d. 733/1333) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs works, the MuqaffÄ included, Bauden observed that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« used al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs (résumé of the) WÄfÄ« as a model for the structure of the biography of UlmÄs and added only in rare cases additional materials from al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r and al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir. The added materials, however, did not consist of new structural units of the biography but were rather incorporated into the already existing pattern of the WÄfÄ«.92 The heavy reliance of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« in the MuqaffÄ on al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs biographical dictionaries was also noted by Mauder.93
It seems that in the MuqaffÄ, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« relied on al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir to a much larger extent than Bauden would allow. This point will be exemplified in detail in what follows by an examination of the biographical entry of the mamlÅ«k amir AqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ« (d. 736/1335). First, however, it is possible to make some remarks of a more general nature concerning this issue. Except for one, all the mamlÅ«k amirs who have biographical entries in the extant parts of al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, and should have appeared in the extant parts of the MuqaffÄ, actually have biographical entries in the MuqaffÄ. In most of these biographical entries, at least some resemblance to Nuzhat al-nÄáºir may be observed,94 and some do not appear in the WÄfÄ«.95 In addition, it is possible to find in the MuqaffÄ only one biographical entry of a mamlÅ«k amir who died between 733â7/1333â7 (the years with obituary notes in the extant parts of Nuzhat al-nÄáºir) that does not have an obituary in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir.96 This suggests that at least with respect to biographies of mamlÅ«k amirs, al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir served as some basic framework for biographical entries in the MuqaffÄ. The reliance of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« in the MuqaffÄ on Nuzhat al-nÄáºir was clearly not restricted to the extant parts of Nuzhat al-nÄáºir. This may be corroborated by a comparison of materials in the MuqaffÄ with materials from the Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn of al-Ê¿AynÄ« who is known to have extensively relied on Nuzhat al-nÄáºir. For example, some information regarding the Mongol origin of some mamlÅ«k amirs is found only in the MuqaffÄ and Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn,97 and it is known that al-YÅ«sufÄ« had Mongol informants and that he took an interest in Mongol affairs.98 A comparison between quotations from Nuzhat al-nÄáºir in Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs al-Durar al-kÄmina and material in the MuqaffÄ suggests the same.99 Untypically for al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« in the MuqaffÄ, he even explicitly mentions (at least) once al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs chronicle as a source.100
Moreover, according to my count, the extant parts of the MuqaffÄ contain just over 200 biographical entries of mamlÅ«k amirs; however, only 16 of them died after the year 755/1354â5, in which Nuzhat al-nÄáºir allegedly ended,101 and only eight of them died after 764/1363, the year of al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs death (five died in the years 770â5/1368â74 and three in 802/1399â1400). This is, of course, a very uneven spread, suggesting that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« did not collect for the MuqaffÄ much material on amirs who died after ca. 760/1358â9.102 It cannot be determined, however, if this is a result of him using al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«, or both, as some basic framework for the collection of material (at least with respect to mamlÅ«k amirs), or a result of a decision, made in advance or as he moved on in his work, not to include in the MuqaffÄ notables of his own lifetime (that is, persons who died or were born after the beginning of the decade of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs birth, i.e., after 760/1358â9),103 whose biographical entries would be incorporated in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d. Importantly, however, in the extant parts of the MuqaffÄ, there are only two biographical entries of amirs who died before 678/1279â80 (clearly taken from the WÄfÄ«).104 In comparison, there are seven biographical entries of amirs who died in 678/1279â80, so, clearly, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« collected materials for biographical entries of mamlÅ«k amirs in an extensive manner only starting from that year. Interestingly, this is the year in which al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir allegedly began. Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ« writes that Nuzhat al-nÄáºir fÄ« sÄ«rat al-Malik al-NÄá¹£ir began with the reign of al-Manṣūr QalÄwÅ«n (r. 678â89/1279â90).105 In fact, when al-Ê¿AynÄ« first referred to al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs chronicle in Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn, he named it Nuzhat al-nÄáºir fÄ« dawlatay al-Manṣūr wa-l-NÄá¹£ir.106 This even more strongly hints that al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir served as some basic framework for biographical entries (at least of mamlÅ«k amirs) in the MuqaffÄ, perhaps together with al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«.
Be that as it may, it is clear that the two most important sources for biographical entries of mamlÅ«k amirs (and probably Mamluk notables in general) in the MuqaffÄ are al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir and al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«.107 Whether al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« planned in advance not to include notables of his own time in this biographical dictionary is not entirely clear,108 but the MuqaffÄ did not include many such persons and took the form of a biographical dictionary of notables of the past.109 Except for al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir and al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«, it seems that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« relied in the MuqaffÄ to some degree also on obituaries from Ibn al-FurÄtâs chronicle, especially (and possibly only) in biographical entries of persons who died in the 7th/13th century.110 This seems to confirm Baudenâs general remark that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs sources in the MuqaffÄ âare often the same as those he used for his chronographical works.â111
The obituaries in Ibn al-FurÄtâs chronicle are normally short and âdryâ and so are, naturally, the biographical entries in the MuqaffÄ that rely on Ibn al-FurÄt. However, Ibn al-FurÄt is a relatively marginal source in the MuqaffÄ in comparison to al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, whose section of obituaries is the most anecdotal (i.e., âliterarizedâ) of all Mamluk chronicles, and al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«, which is the most anecdotal of all Mamluk biographical dictionaries. As in the SulÅ«k, the mere fact that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« chose to rely so heavily on âhighly literarizedâ sources strongly suggests that it is very unlikely that the âliterarizationâ in the MuqaffÄ, to be exemplified in what follows, was against his will. The heavy reliance on Nuzhat al-nÄáºir and the WÄfÄ« and trends of âliterarizationâ in the MuqaffÄ will be exemplified by a detailed examination of the biographical entry of the amir AqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ«.112 Appendix A contains a survey of the sections and units of information that constitute his biography in one obituary note in a chronicle (al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir) and four biographical entries in biographical dictionaries (al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs MuqaffÄ, Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs al-Durar al-kÄmina, and Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs al-Manhal al-á¹£ÄfÄ«). In the case of biographical dictionaries written in the 9th/15th century, there is a mention of the source for each unit of information. First, the focus will be on the Nuzha, the WÄfÄ«, and the MuqaffÄ in order to exemplify the MuqaffÄâs heavy reliance on the Nuzha and explore the arrangement of material in the MuqaffÄ, the structure of the biography in it, and trends of âliterarizationâ within it. Then, the biography in the MuqaffÄ will be compared to biographies in al-Durar al-kÄmina and the Manhal in order to examine the general structural and literary trends in biographical dictionaries of the 9th/15th century.
The beginning of the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in the MuqaffÄ clearly relies on al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir. This is evident already from the name and appellations of AqÅ«sh that appear in the title of the entry: âAqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ« al-AmÄ«r JamÄl al-DÄ«n known as NÄʾib al-Karak (al-maÊ¿rÅ«f bi-NÄʾib al-Karak) and called (yulaqqabu) also al-BurnÄq because of his big nose (li-kibar anfihi).â The expression âknown as NÄʾib al-Karakâ was clearly taken from al-YÅ«sufÄ« and does not appear as such in the title of the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ« (see appendix A, section A in MuqaffÄ, Nuzha, and WÄfÄ«). Moreover, as far as I know, except for al-YÅ«sufÄ«, no other Turkish-period historian mentions that AqÅ«sh was called al-BurnÄq (because of his big nose). The only Circassian-period biographical dictionaries that mention this appellation in the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh are the MuqaffÄ and al-Durar al-kÄmina, which, as will be argued below, relies on the MuqaffÄ in this case.113 Only the MuqaffÄ also reproduced the explanation for the appellation, that is, âbecause of his big noseâ (li-kibar anfihi). It should be mentioned, however, that the appellation al-BurnÄq (and its explanation) does not appear in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir as part of the title of the entry (section A) but rather in the section dedicated to a general description of AqÅ«sh (section D in Nuzha).114 The moving of the appellation al-BurnÄq from the section of general description to the section of the name is part of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs attempt in the MuqaffÄ to arrange the material in as orderly a fashion as possible.
This characteristic of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs MuqaffÄ is mainly conspicuous in section B of the entry, which is a long and comprehensive life résumé ordered chronologically. Al-á¹¢afadÄ« and al-YÅ«sufÄ« give a very short and partial chronological life résumé of AqÅ«sh, pertaining only to the early stages of his career (four lines and eight lines respectivelyâsection B in WÄfÄ« and section C in Nuzha), and al-YÅ«sufÄ« adds a short general description of AqÅ«sh, including his origin (section D in Nuzha). Then, both move on to funny anecdotes and stories on AqÅ«sh (ḥikÄyÄt/nukat áºarÄ«fa) and âpeculiaritiesâ (ashyÄʾ muÊ¿jiba) related to him, which comprise about 90 percent of the entry and are not arranged chronologically, or at least have a seemingly very loose chronological order (section C in WÄfÄ« and section E in Nuzha).115 In fact, after giving the name of AqÅ«sh, and before mentioning his short life résumé, al-YÅ«sufÄ« incorporates two anecdotes pertaining to his death and his arrest shortly before he died (section B in Nuzha), exemplifying how central anecdotes were in obituaries in the Nuzha and how chronology was deemed much less important. In contrast, after mentioning the name of AqÅ«sh, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« dedicates a few pages to a chronological life résumé normally fixed in dates (section B in the MuqaffÄ). Then, following the structure and content in the Nuzha, he gives a short description of AqÅ«sh, including his origin (section C) and only then gives room for a few pages of nonchronological anecdotes and stories (section D), taken equally from the Nuzha and the WÄfÄ«.
The beginning of the chronological life résumé in the MuqaffÄ (section B1) is clearly based on the Nuzha and could not have been taken from the WÄfÄ«. However, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« added information taken from the SulÅ«k regarding the promotion of AqÅ«sh to the amirate in 685/1286â7, which is absent in the obituary in the Nuzha.116 This shows that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« wanted to create a chronological life résumé as comprehensive as possible. He preferred the Nuzha here over the WÄfÄ« (as in the case of the name of AqÅ«sh and his general descriptionâsections A and C in the MuqaffÄ), not because of any a priori preference to the Nuzha but rather because the obituary in the Nuzha provided much more information regarding the early career of AqÅ«sh than the WÄfÄ«.117 Thus, the pattern or framework of the structural units in biographical entries in the MuqaffÄ were not necessarily dictated by the pattern of the WÄfÄ«,118 and the Nuzha played in this respect at least as important of a role as the WÄfÄ«. It seems, thus, that the influence of al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs pattern has been somewhat overstated. Still, in cases when information was lacking in the obituary in the Nuzha or the biographical entry in the WÄfÄ«, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs desire to be as comprehensive as possible in the section of the chronological life résumé led him to look for information in other places, including in the historical narrative of chronicles. For example, the obituary in the Nuzha and the entry in the WÄfÄ« do not offer much chronological information about the later stages of the career of AqÅ«sh. In such cases, the most important source is al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs chronicle the SulÅ«k (see sections B1, B3, B5â11, and B13 in the MuqaffÄ).119 Even more interestingly, it may be demonstrated that, in two cases, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« took materials from the historical narrative of the Nuzha (sections B14 and B15 in the MuqaffÄ). These materials from the Nuzha take the form of story-like reports and are different from the more banal and informational reports taken from the SulÅ«k (see below). This shows that at least some Circassian-period historians were incorporating into biographies materials from the historical narrative of chronicles to a much larger extent than Little would allow120 as part of their attempt to create a comprehensive and chronological life résumé.121
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs attempt to arrange the material chronologically in the MuqaffÄ also accounted for the incorporation in the life résumé of some anecdotes from the nonchronological section of anecdotes and stories in the obituary of AqÅ«sh in the Nuzha and his entry in the WÄfÄ«. Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« dated the events related to the anecdotes or stories and incorporated them in the life résumé according to their dates (see sections B12 and B14â6 in the MuqaffÄ).122 Now, the incorporation of banal and chronologically arranged informational material from annals in the biography, and the subordination of anecdotes to chronology, may be seen as acts of âde-literarizationâ;123 however, two points should be observed. Firstly, the chronological section in the biography in the MuqaffÄ may be divided into two parts. First come approximately three pages of âdryâ and matter-of-fact information, mostly taken from the SulÅ«k (sections B1â11), and then come approximately three pages of mainly anecdotal and story-like reports from the Nuzha and WÄfÄ«, arranged chronologically (sections B12â6, section B13 being dry information; the anecdotal or story-like material is in green color). While somewhat shorter than the original, the reports in the MuqaffÄ retain their anecdotal or story-like quality. The story-like reports are very long, and although some of the dialogues and utterances in direct speech were omitted or condensed, the reports in the MuqaffÄ retain several utterances in direct speech (which, of course, were also standardized).124 Secondly, at the end of the biographical entry, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« gives room for approximately three pages of nonchronological anecdotes, stories, âpeculiarities,â and witticisms taken from the Nuzha and the WÄfÄ« (section D). While some of the anecdotes and stories were omitted and others were condensed, and two are so truncated that they became statements (the parts in red color in sections D4 and D7), the MuqaffÄ contains a lot of anecdotes and stories, and most of them retain their original quality. Some of the stories or anecdotes contain utterances in direct speech, and one has a dialogue (sections D1, D8, D9, and D12). Most of the anecdotes or stories in the MuqaffÄ that contain dialogue or utterances in direct speech are read as funny stories (D1, D8, and D9), and specifically the anecdotes on the harsh or whimsical character of AqÅ«sh, depicting him as a somewhat odd personality who made âpeculiar decisions,â are reminiscent of stories in the style of ḥukm QarÄqÅ«sh (D1 and D9).125
All this shows that while subordinating some anecdotes and stories to chronology, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« left plenty of room for âliterarizedâ material in the biographical entry. As the biographical entry progresses, the âliterarizedâ material becomes more conspicuous. After three pages of relatively banal chronological information come three pages of stories arranged chronologically, followed by a three-page, nonchronological anecdotal section. All in all, about two-thirds of the entry consists of âliterarizedâ material. The trend of âliterarizationâ in the MuqaffÄ draws on an anecdotal tradition of Egyptian historians related to the military institution (the Nuzha) and, more importantly, on a more general anecdotal tradition of biographical dictionaries (the WÄfÄ«); however, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« gave the biographical entry a new structure. The restructuring of the biographical entries in the Nuzha and the WÄfÄ« and the transferring of anecdotes to the chronological section actually prove that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« knew very well to recognize the âliterarizedâ material in the Nuzha and the WÄfÄ« and that like in the SulÅ«k, the incorporation of âliterarizedâ material in the MuqaffÄ was a conscious and deliberate decision of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«. This trend of âliterarizationâ and restructuring in the MuqaffÄ was apparently not restricted to the biographical entries of amirs. This, however, cannot be examined in detail in the scope of this article.126 It may be mentioned here, however, that in biographies of religious scholars or kuttÄb-udabÄʾ, one finds some verses of their poetry, thus, in biographical entries of civilians, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« was also drawing on a scholarly tradition of âliterarization.â127 Still, the number of biographical entries containing verses and, more importantly, the number of poetry verses presented in the biography are far less numerous than in obituaries in the chronicles of al-JazarÄ« and al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ« or the biographical dictionaries of al-á¹¢afadÄ«.128
In order to get a clearer perception of the structural and literary trends in the MuqaffÄ, it is necessary to compare the trends detected in the MuqaffÄ to other biographical dictionaries written by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs contemporaries. The two most obvious candidates for comparison are Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs al-Durar al-kÄmina and Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs Manhal because they are the most conspicuous examples of biographical dictionaries that are either dedicated to notables of the past from different social backgrounds (amirs and civilians) or contain many biographical entries of notables of the past from different backgrounds.129
The biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in al-Durar al-kÄmina is basically divided into three parts: (A) title/name, (B) life résumé, and (C) anecdotes, stories, and peculiarities (see appendix A al-Durar al-kÄmina). It is clear that many of the units of information are taken from al-á¹¢afadÄ«,130 however, apparently not from the WÄfÄ« but rather from AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r.131 It is also clear that Ibn Ḥajar generally condensed the anecdotes from al-á¹¢afadÄ« and turned them into bare statements of fact concerning events in the life of AqÅ«sh or his character. Most of the anecdotes are so truncated that they are hardly recognizable.132 There is nothing new about the observation that Ibn Ḥajar relied on al-á¹¢afadÄ« and condensed his material. Little noted that âthe main part of the biography [of QarÄsunqur] in al-Durar al-kÄmina is a summary of that in al-WÄfÄ« bi-l-wafayÄt or AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r ⦠the use of al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs pattern of episodes is ⦠obvious ⦠Ibn Ḥajar has transformed it in the process of condensation. By stripping it of the long anecdotes, and reducing them to bare statements of fact, he produced what amounts to an outline of QarÄsunqurâs career ⦠this in itself lends a factual air to the biography.â133 Still, about half the information in the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in al-Durar al-kÄmina does not seem to have come from al-á¹¢afadÄ«, and at least some of the information could not have come from him. It would seem that the source for all this information was the MuqaffÄ.
As mentioned, the title of the entry in al-Durar al-kÄmina containing the name and appellations of AqÅ«sh has information that appears only in the Nuzha and the MuqaffÄ and not in al-á¹¢afadÄ« (al-maÊ¿rÅ«f bi-NÄʾib al-Karak/al-BurnÄq). The title resembles only the title of the entry in the MuqaffÄ because al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« collected the information from different sections of the obituary in the Nuzha. It is unlikely that Ibn Ḥajar took the information directly from two sections of the Nuzha and incorporated it in the same fashion as al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« did in the MuqaffÄ. It is more likely that he used the MuqaffÄ (see section A in al-Durar al-kÄmina). The beginning of the life résumé of AqÅ«sh and its end contain chronologically arranged information that appears in the MuqaffÄ but not in al-á¹¢afadÄ« (see sections B1, B6, and B8 in al-Durar al-kÄmina). While one piece of information that appears in the MuqaffÄ also appears in the obituary in the Nuzha and, theoretically, could have been easily collected by Ibn Ḥajar from there (section B1 in al-Durar al-kÄmina), the rest of the information was collected by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« from different places in the historical narrative of the SulÅ«k (sections B1 and B6 in al-Durar al-kÄmina) or from the historical narrative in the Nuzha (section B8 in al-Durar al-kÄmina). It is practically inconceivable that Ibn Ḥajar collected the information from different places in the historical narrative of the SulÅ«k and the Nuzha and incorporated it chronologically in the same fashion and exactly in the same place as al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« did in the MuqaffÄ. Some of the truncated anecdotes in the entry in al-Durar al-kÄmina also seem to have been taken from the MuqaffÄ. A statement about the generosity of AqÅ«sh in al-Durar al-kÄmina is found only in the MuqaffÄ and the Nuzha and is not found in al-á¹¢afadÄ« (section C5 in al-Durar al-kÄmina). Since there is no unequivocal evidence of reliance on the Nuzha in the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in al-Durar al-kÄmina, it was in all likelihood taken from the MuqaffÄ. More significantly, another statement about his generosity (section C6 in al-Durar al-kÄmina) in fact repeats a statement mentioned earlier in the biography in al-Durar al-kÄmina (section C3). The first appearance (C3) draws on the wording of al-á¹¢afadÄ«; however, the second appearance (C6) reproduces the wording of the MuqaffÄ, which rephrased the wording in al-á¹¢afadÄ«. The repetition of the statement in different versions proves beyond doubt that Ibn Ḥajar used both al-á¹¢afadÄ« and the MuqaffÄ. In fact, all the information in the entry in al-Durar al-kÄmina that is absent from al-á¹¢afadÄ« may have been taken from the MuqaffÄ, and it would seem that Ibn Ḥajar did not use other sources for the entry of AqÅ«sh. It has been noted that Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ« had access to the autograph manuscript of the MuqaffÄ and even added entries to it (for his own use).134 In fact, most of the entries in the MuqaffÄ are of persons who died in the 8th/14th century, so it would have been a perfect source for al-Durar al-kÄmina, which is dedicated to persons who died in that century.
In general, it seems that most of the time, Ibn Ḥajar followed the order of presentation in the MuqaffÄ and al-á¹¢afadÄ«, while turning some anecdotes in al-á¹¢afadÄ« into statements and combining them in the chronological framework of the life résumé, basically based on the MuqaffÄ.135 As mentioned, the life résumé begins and ends with chronologically arranged information from the MuqaffÄ. It again seems, thus, that the influence of al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs pattern has been somewhat overstated. At least in the 9th/15th century, authors of biographical dictionaries were constructing a much more comprehensive chronological life résumé in biographical entries than al-á¹¢afadÄ« and were subordinating anecdotes to chronology.
In terms of âliterarization,â the biography of AqÅ«sh in al-Durar al-kÄmina is an example of a truly âde-literarizedâ biographical entry, and it seems to represent the general trend of al-Durar al-kÄmina. As mentioned, the anecdotes or stories are so truncated that they are hardly recognizable.136 There is not even one dialogue or an utterance in direct speech in the entry.137 The MuqaffÄ is definitely more âliterarizedâ than al-Durar al-kÄmina. In fact, Haarmann counted Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ« among the historians who show a âconservative anti-literary historiographical ethos.â138 Before making any general statements about Ibn Ḥajar, however, it is advised to look at some of his other biographical dictionaries.139
As for the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs Manhal, it is clearly based on the entry in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ« (see appendix A the Manhal).140 Practically all the information in the Manhal comes from the WÄfÄ«.141 Moreover, while omitting four anecdotes (see section C in the Manhal and the WÄfÄ«), Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« strictly follows al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs order of presentation. Two of the anecdotes in the WÄfÄ« turned into statements of fact (sections C4â5 in the Manhal in red color). The fact that Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« does not subordinate anecdotes to chronology may be considered as a more âliterarizedâ method of presentation than that in the MuqaffÄ. However, it may also be the result of simple laziness on the part of Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, who followed al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs pattern blindly. As we shall see, in the biographical entries of his contemporaries, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs pattern in the Manhal is reminiscent of the trends detected in the MuqaffÄ. The biography of AqÅ«sh in the MuqaffÄ contains more anecdotes or story-like reports and utterances in direct speech than his biography in the Manhal.142 Therefore, it may be argued that at least some biographical entries in the MuqaffÄ are more âliterarizedâ than some biographical entries of past notables in the Manhal. Thus, in terms of âliterarization,â the MuqaffÄ also seems to fare well in comparison to biographical entries of past notables in biographical dictionaries written by authors who are not considered âconservative.â
In biographical entries of Circassian-period notables (civilians and amirs) in the Manhal, one finds many anecdotes or story-like reports with dialogues or utterances in direct speech that are mostly based on reports from informants. Still, the trend of constructing a long and comprehensive, chronological life résumé is also apparent here. The anecdotes or story-like reports are most of the times incorporated chronologically within a comprehensive life résumé, and some appear at the end of the biography next to the general description and assessment.143 Moreover, materials in biographical entries of Circassian-period notables in the Manhal resemble materials in the historical narrative (ḥawÄdith) in Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs chronicle al-NujÅ«m.144 Again it becomes clear that Circassian-period biographers were using chronologically arranged material that also served them in their chronicles. And again, it would seem that the reliance of biographers on al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs pattern was overstated. Although in biographies of past notables in the Manhal, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« was imitating the pattern of al-á¹¢afadÄ« blindly, when constructing biographies of Circassian-period notables, he adhered to structural and chronologizing trends current among Circassian-period biographers. Such trends, thus, were not restricted to authors that are sometimes considered âconservative.â Similar trends are also found in al-MajmaÊ¿ al-mufannan, al-Malaá¹Ä«âs biographical dictionary of contemporary notables,145 and in al-á¸awʾ al-lÄmiÊ¿, al-SakhÄwÄ«âs biographical dictionary of notables of the 9th/15th century.146 The chronologizing trend in biographical entries in al-SakhÄwÄ«âs á¸awʾ is most conspicuous in biographical entries of contemporary amirs, some very long, which are normally devoid of anecdotes.147 In order to situate this trait in the á¸awʾ within more general trends of biographical dictionaries dedicated to contemporary notables written during the Circassian period, it is time to move to a discussion of Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs biographical dictionary dedicated to his contemporaries.
4 Durar al-Ê¿UqÅ«d al-FarÄ«da FÄ« TarÄjim al-AÊ¿yÄn al-MufÄ«da: Trends of Literarization in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Biographical Dictionary of His Contemporaries
In Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d al-farÄ«da fÄ« tarÄjim al-aÊ¿yÄn al-mufÄ«da, a biographical dictionary dedicated to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs contemporaries (or people who lived during his lifetime), different trends of literarization can be detected. The trends in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d may be divided in two: one concerning biographies of mamlÅ«k amirs and another concerning scholars (and, more generally, civilians), which, as we shall see, is the most unique and exciting trend of literarization in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs historical writing.
The biographical entries of mamlÅ«k amirs in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d are totally âdry.â The information is mostly banal and matter-of-fact and consists of a life résumé that is strictly arranged chronologically and normally fixed in dates. Some of these entries are relatively long but still normally do not contain even a single anecdote or story-like report on the mamlÅ«k amirs with utterances in direct speech, not to mention dialogues.148 It is very likely that much of the information in the entries of mamlÅ«k amirs comes from chronicles and, more specifically, from the SulÅ«k. For example, most of the material in the biographical entry of the amir Ashaqtamur al-MÄridÄnÄ« (d. 791/1389) in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, which is two pages long and is dotted with dates,149 must have been taken from the SulÅ«k. There are no biographical entries or obituaries of Ashaqtamur, which could have served al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« as a source for the entry (at least for some material in it).150 On the other hand, it is possible to find in the SulÅ«k bits of banal information that resemble the material in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d.151 A reliance on chronicles is also to be expected in biographical entries of sultans containing much banal chronologically arranged material and that are a few dozen pages long.152
The lack of anecdotes or story-like reports in biographical entries of mamlÅ«k amirs cannot be the result of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs withdrawal from public life circa 815/1412 and his seclusion at home, and the fact that from that time, his contact with the Mamluk elite became rare.153 Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d also contains no anecdotes or story-like reports in entries of mamlÅ«k amirs who died before 815/1412. Moreover, sometimes al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions in entries of mamlÅ«k amirs who died after 815/1412 that they were his companions, but he still does not mention anecdotes or story-like reports about them.154 In one case, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« notes that people used to tell stories about a certain amir he knew (á¹£aḥibtuhu) that are reminiscent of the stories told about QarÄqÅ«sh (tuḥkÄ Ê¿anhu ḥikÄyÄt ka-ḥikÄyÄt QarÄqÅ«sh), but he still does not mention the stories themselves.155 In another case, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions that people told wondrous stories about the gluttony of an amir (kÄna ⦠akÅ«lan ⦠yuḥkÄ Ê¿anhu fÄ« dhÄlika mÄ yutaÊ¿ajjabu minhu) but does not give the actual stories.156 In another case, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions that people told stories about the miserliness of an amir (wa-lahu fÄ« l-bukhl akhbÄr) but does not give the stories.157 All this suggests that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« deliberately decided not to include âliterarizedâ material related to mamlÅ«k amirs in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d.
This trend in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is typical in general of biographical dictionaries that contain entries of contemporary amirs and were written during the 9th/15th century by ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholars. Al-SakhÄwÄ«âs al-á¸awʾ al-lÄmiÊ¿ was already mentioned.158 It seems that Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs Dhayl al-Durar al-kÄmina also adheres to this trend;159 however, it should be taken into consideration that the biographies in it are relatively short and âdryâ in general. It is not possible to determine if this trend is typical of all historians who were religious scholars because non-ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholars did not produce significant biographical dictionaries containing biographies of amirs; however, obituaries in their chronicles should be examined. In any case, it is clear that the trend regarding biographies of contemporary mamlÅ«k amirs in biographical dictionaries written by (ShÄfiÊ¿Ä«) religious scholars is different from the trend in biographical dictionaries authored by historians related to the military institution during the 9th/15th century. It is relatively easy to find anecdotes or story-like reports with dialogues or utterances in direct speech in biographies of contemporary mamlÅ«k amirs in Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs Manhal and al-Malaá¹Ä«âs al-MajmaÊ¿ al-mufannan.160 It would seem that (ShÄfiÊ¿Ä«) religious scholars of the 9th/15th century did not consider contemporary mamlÅ«k amirs âinterestingâ enough to incorporate anecdotes or story-like reports about them in their biographical entries.
In biographical entries of scholars (and, more generally, civilians, some of a humble background) in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d we find a unique and most exciting trend of literarization. One finds anecdotes or story-like reports on the scholars that were incorporated chronologically in the life résumé or at the end of their biographical entries.161 In this respect, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is not different from al-SakhÄwÄ«âs á¸awʾ, in which anecdotes or story-like reports on contemporary scholars containing dialogues or utterances in direct speech are common enough,162 or from Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs biographical dictionaries.163 Such elements are also found in biographical entries of contemporary scholars in biographical dictionaries authored by historians related to the military institution.164 Still, in general, the content of most of the anecdotes about scholars in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is untypical of anecdotes on scholars in other contemporary biographical dictionaries. For example, it is possible to find in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d anecdotes about scholars that involve funny and entertaining stories about their beloved women165 or about their stupidity (khiffat Ê¿aql/sukhf);166 about strange, extraordinary, wondrous, or bizarre happenings and coincidences (gharÄ«b);167 about divinations168 and dreams that other people (including al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«) dreamed about them that predict the future169 or bring a lesson,170 or dreams dreamed about them after their death,171 some involving the Prophet172 and some containing advice or admonition.173 Other anecdotes have to do with the astonishing and unique (or supernatural) capabilities of the scholars174 or miracles (karÄmÄt) performed by them.175 Yet, this is not the most unique thing about the trends of âliterarizationâ in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d.176
The most unique thing about Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is that most of the âliterarizedâ material in biographical entries of scholars (and civilians in general) comes in the form of reports about what may be very loosely defined as their âadab productâ or, more properly, as their general knowledge accumulated through the generations or from their own experience, and their contribution to the cultural heritage of the community in a very broad sense.177 In general, such reports appear at the end of the biographical entry after the life résumé, but many times they constitute the bulk of the entry. Most of the times, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« received the knowledge directly from scholars (or on their authority through informants) or witnessed it in person. Many times he makes comments and contributions of his own knowledge. Sometimes his associations lead him to digressions; thus, some of the entries are structured in a way that is reminiscent of discussions in a social gathering (majlis).178 Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions poetry verses composed by the scholars.179 In that, he follows an established scholarly historiographic tradition. However, in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, the poetry product is relatively less conspicuous in comparison to other adab-like materials.180 For example, poetry product is much more common in al-SakhÄwÄ«âs á¸awʾ.181 More importantly, in other biographical dictionaries written by religious scholars who were al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs contemporaries, the adab product is practically limited to high-quality poetry verses (or inshÄʾ product).182 On the other hand, the âadab productâ or knowledge mentioned by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« in the biographical entries of scholars (and civilians in general) in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is mostly of a different quality. It consists in great part of the scholarsâ âpopular loreâ; however, as usual with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, it is presented in standard Arabic. The material covers a broad range of topics and is of a most disparate kind. The knowledge covers the useful and the entertaining, the scholarly and the trivial. There is a clear penchant for the marvelous and incredible, and even the supernatural, popular occult practices, popular wisdom, and popular beliefs.183 Just to be clear, the biographical entries of mamlÅ«k amirs do not contain such information.184 It would seem that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« did not perceive mamlÅ«k amirs as being able to contribute to the cultural heritage of the community.
In what follows, the adab-like materials (adab product) in the biographical entries of scholars and civilians will be briefly surveyed. There are many tales and stories (ḥikÄyÄt) told by the scholars and civilians. Many of the stories are about themselves or things they experienced in person. Most of the stories are about âstrange,â wondrous, or astonishing happenings or phenomena of all sorts (akhbÄr Ê¿ajÄ«ba/Ê¿ajÄ«b al-akhbÄr/Ê¿ajÄʾib/gharÄʾib).185 Some stories are patterned as stories of adventures (typically in faraway lands such as India) that begin with a journey in the sea that brings troubles (fear of water and sea travel is a recurrent theme in the stories), which eventually, however, brings fortune (i.e., the stories are patterned as stories from the genre of al-faraj baÊ¿da al-shidda).186 Some are about miracles (muÊ¿jizÄt) that happened to the Muslims187 or miracles in general.188 Some are about saints and miracles performed by them,189 and some are about magic spells.190 Some are about sorcery or magic (siḥr) and âwitches.â191 Some stories involve divination; for example, the prediction of the future with the help of spirits (jÄnn);192 in some cases, the spirits are using Quran verses to predict the future.193 Some are stories about solving mysteries that are patterned as a detective story.194 Some are edifying stories with admonitions, exhortations (mawÊ¿iáºa), or moral lessons (morality tales/cautionary tales),195 which sometimes involve occult matters and the supernatural.196 Some stories involve dreams;197 some of the dreams involve the Prophet, and some contain a lesson or admonition.198 Some are patterned as stories about a reward or punishment (desert) for pious or unreligious actions.199 There are also anecdotes (nawÄdir),200 among which are historical anecdotes.201 Some of the historical anecdotes relate to wondrous information,202 and some are again presented as edifying stories with admonitions or moral lessons203 or have the pattern of stories from the genre of al-faraj baÊ¿da al-shidda.204 Some contain lamentations of contemporary situations.205 Some of the anecdotes are about âinsaneâ people (mamrÅ«rÅ«n),206 some are philological, and some contain witty replies.207
Other materials are more directly connected to the knowledge of the scholars and civilians. On a more scholarly level, one finds some religious, theological, or legal discussions.208 There is also historical/genealogical knowledge.209 However, there are scholarly contributions of a more literary nature, such as a historical survey of the development of poetry until contemporary genres (such as zajal).210 There is also knowledge in âgeographyâ or ânatural historyâ that focuses mostly on the astonishing (Ê¿ajÄ«b), extraordinary, wondrous, exotic, folkloristic, or fantastic and magical descriptions of foreign lands, including flora and fauna, the customs of their inhabitants, and their peculiarities (thus, it overlaps to some degree with wondrous stories in general).211 There are some references to talismanic objects212 and knowledge in magic spells and astral magic or magical practices in general.213 We also have prayers and supplications (adÊ¿iya, sing. duÊ¿Äʾ)214 or verses that, if cited, protect from evil.215 Some materials involve knowledge of occult matters, such as omen interpretation or divinations and predictions of the future.216 There is also knowledge of the interpretation of dreams (Ê¿ilm Ê¿ibÄrat/taÊ¿bÄ«r al-ruʾyÄ), sometimes related to knowledge in gematria and/or prediction of the future.217 More generally, knowledge concerning gematria or numerology is sometimes related to predictions of the future or strange coincidences (gharÄ«b al-ittifÄq).218 Much related knowledge about eschatology is connected to a contemporary setting.219 There is also knowledge concerning medicine (á¹ibb) and prescriptions (medical and magic advice).220 We also find popular wisdom in the form of wise sayings,221 maxims,222 witticisms,223 witty replies,224 or advice (sometimes in the form of a testament, waá¹£iyya).225
A recurring theme is practical or useful knowledge (fawÄʾid, sing. fÄʾida) transmitted to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« by the scholars and civilians, some based on their experiences or the experiences of their community (jurriba/min al-mujarrab/min al-mujarrab Ê¿indanÄ/tajÄrib) and transmitted from generation to generation. Clearly, some of the practical knowledge reflects occult practices, popular beliefs, or superstitions.226
In order to exemplify how varied and unique are the materials incorporated in the biographical entries of civilians in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, and how these entries are structured, I will survey in detail the materials in three biographical entries. The first is the biographical entry of the religious scholar AbÅ« Bakr b. Ê¿AlÄ« b. SÄlim b. Aḥmad al-KinÄnÄ« al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« (d. 815/1412).227 After a short life résumé (eight lines), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« surveys his knowledge product (three and a half pages). Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« starts with a story (or historical anecdote) that al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« told him (akhbaranÄ) about his captivity during the occupation of Damascus by Timur. The man who captured al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« was surprised the people of Damascus did not know Timurâs army was coming. According to the captor, there are several bad omens for troubles (dalÄ«l al-fitan) that could have helped the people of Damascus in predicting the attack. Among the signs given is the crowing of roosters at the beginning of the night. At this point, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« interferes in the report and says that in 791/1389, someone who was with him at the beginning of the night told him that the roosters were crowing, and it is known from experience (jurriba) that if the roosters crow at the beginning of the night, it is a sign for troubles. Shortly afterwards, al-áºÄhir BarqÅ«q was deposed. Since then, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« started following this sign, and every time the roosters crowed at the beginning of the night, shortly afterwards the troubles came. Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« adds that a trustworthy person from the countryside told him that old women in the countryside (clearly a popular belief) expect the dismissal of the inspector if they hear the roostersâ crow at the beginning of the night.228 Such digressions and interferences by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« give some of the biographical entries in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d the structure of discussions in a social gathering (majlis). Then al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« moves on to a verse of poetry that al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« recited to him (anshadanÄ«), which is, in fact, a mnemonic device that helps to calculate the day in which every month of the ḥijrÄ« year starts according to the gematrical value (ḥisÄb al-jummal) of the first letter in each word of the verse. Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« labels it as very important, useful knowledge (min ajall al-fawÄʾid).229 Then al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions a strange thing that he experienced with al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« (min gharÄ«b mÄ shÄhadtuhu), which is actually some sort of an, apparently, popular magical practice.230 People were sitting around al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« with a finger below a man that was lying on the ground. After saying several magic words, they could lift him above their heads as if he had no weight. Everyone felt astonishment (Ê¿ajab). Al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« added that the condition for success is that no one would laugh. Indeed, when they tried again, someone laughed, and the man fell on the floor.231 The reports about the knowledge of al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« started with roosters and elegantly ended with chickens. Al-Ê¿ÄmirÄ« told al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (akhbaranÄ«) of a way to make an extraordinary yellow powder (taá¹£fÄ«ra Ê¿ajÄ«ba) based on experience (jarraba). You take seven chickens and feed them bran (nukhÄl) mixed with the blood of a goat for two weeks. You close the yolks of the eggs that they lay in a bottle of glass. The yolks will grow worms. Then you feed the worms with the splendid mixture of bran and blood of a goat until one worm eats the rest and becomes huge. Then you put the worm in the sun to die and dry, preferably in the constellation of Cancer. Then it is possible to make a yellow powder out of the worm.232
Two relatively long biographical entries in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d that contain much-varied adab product are the entries of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs mother AsmÄʾ and the maternal uncle of his mother, IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l b. Aḥmad b. Ê¿Abd al-WahhÄb (d. 803/1400), who was a religious scholar.233 In the biographical entry of his motherâs uncle, after a very short life résumé, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions that he had a lot of useful knowledge (Ê¿indahu fawÄʾid kathÄ«ra).234 First comes a piece of advice that he gave al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, which he received as a testament (waá¹£iyya) from his experienced father (qÄla lÄ« Ê¿an abÄ«hi) and followed rigorously: âMy little boy (yÄ bunayya), you will not find someone that will give you better advice than me (aná¹£aḥ), and you will not find someone more experienced in life than me (jarraba al-dahr). I advise you (aūṣīka): never get married!â235 Then comes a story that he told al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (akhbaranÄ«) about a verse of poetry he received in a dream, in which he found a bad omen (taá¹ayyartu), and indeed, a woman he loved died. This report is followed by another verse of poetry that he received in a dream.236 Then comes a report (akhbaranÄ«) about a prescription for a cyst in his hand, which he received in a dream (manÄm), and it unsurprisingly worked quickly.237 Then al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« returns to wisdom sayings and edifying advice (min kalÄmihi allÄdhÄ« kÄna yuʾaddibunÄ bi-hi), for example: âBe like a crow that pecks and flies.â238 Then come two verses of poetry that he transmitted to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (anshadanÄ«),239 followed by another wise saying and a piece of advice told to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (qÄla lÄ« ⦠yÄ ibn ukhtÄ«) upon his buying a slave girl (in a free translation keeping a rhyme): âA slave girl is a high dower, an empty shower, and a son with no uncle from the side of the motherâ (in Arabic it sounds better: al-jÄriya mahr ghÄlin wa-farsh khÄlin wa-ibn bi-lÄ khÄlin).240 Then comes a story with a lesson (Ê¿ibra)241 and two astonishing stories or anecdotes that he told to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (akhbaranÄ«).242 Then comes a story about how his father became rich trading in musk.243 And finally, a story that the uncle told al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (akhbaranÄ«) about a thief that was caught and punished.244
In the biographical entry of his mother,245 after a short life résumé, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« reports on her beliefs, which probably reflect popular beliefs (she used to visit the grave of her father with a veil because, as she used to say, the spirits of the dead are present in the vicinity of the graves [taqÅ«lu al-arwÄḥ bi-izÄʾ al-qubÅ«r]).246 Then we are told that she suffered from a migraine (á¹£udÄÊ¿) but received in a dream a prescription (given in detail) that solved the problem. Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« adds that he prescribed it many times, and it always worked.247 Then come four verses of poetry she recited to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« on the authority of her father (anshadatnÄ«).248 Then come some of her wisdom sayings or aphorisms (after her son died, as a reply for consolation, she said: âForbearance would have been wonderful if it had not consumed lifeâ [qÄlat mÄ aḥsan al-á¹£abr lawlÄ yufnÄ« l-Ê¿umr]).249 Then comes a report about a story she told al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (akhbaratnÄ«) that she had heard from one of her female friends. The friend saw a woman on the shore of the Nile in BÅ«lÄq crying and praying (duÊ¿Äʾ): âHe who brought you back to me before will bring you back to me again.â When asked about this supplication, the women pointed to a ship on the Nile and said that her son was on it and that she had an astonishing story (khabar Ê¿ajÄ«b) about it. The woman related that when she was pregnant with this son, she traveled by sea to India together with his father. The ship sank and everyone drowned except for her. She gave birth to her son on a piece of wood in the middle of the sea. The two reached an island and eventually were saved by a ship and taken to India. There she found out that the locals use monkeys as servants, so she bought a monkey. One day, as they were near the sea, the monkey saw some men diving and taking pearls out of the sea. Without anyone noticing, the monkey dove and took out several large pearls, which the woman hid. She came back to Cairo and gave her son the pearls. He sold the pearls and bought merchandise and became a rich merchant traveling by sea.250 Among other things, this wondrous story contains adventures, sea travel that brings trouble but eventually fortune (al-faraj baÊ¿da al-shidda), a supplication, and an exotic or fantastic description of a faraway land. After this story, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« reports another story that his mother had told him (akhbaratnÄ«). The second story is about a mystery. A young woman died shortly after getting married, and her mother accused the husband of killing her while trying to take her virginity away. The chief of police tortured the husband, who, being unable to suffer the pains, admitted that he killed the virgin. The chief of police decreed that he would be executed in front of the coffin of the virgin. Just before he was executed, a snake crawled out of the coffin, and it became clear that she was killed by the snake.251 After the stories, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions that she transmitted to him also some of her knowledge based on experience (akhbaratnÄ« anna min al-mujarrab), most of which clearly reflected popular beliefs and superstitions (if you put a cloth on a dead person it soon gets torn; if a circumcision and a wedding are held together, the bride and the groom will soon divorceâbecause circumcision involves separation).252 At the end of the entry, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions three verses of poetry that she had recited to him (anshadatnÄ«).253
We cannot explore in detail in the scope of this article all the potential influences on the trend of âliterarizationâ that are manifested in biographical entries of scholars (or civilians) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d. This issue deserves a special study. Still, it seems that the trend of âliterarizationâ in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is greatly connected to what has been called the âṣūfÄ«zation of Muslim societyâ or the âpopularization of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt.â254 The Mamluk period experienced an increase in the number of people who would identify themselves in some way as âṣūfÄ«s,â and Sufism became popular with the common people and the Ê¿ulamÄʾ. Sufi masters, typically from a humble background, claimed authority based on the miracles they performed and their access to religious knowledge via dreams or visions which sometimes predicted the future.255 Sufi masters were also considered authorities in dream interpretation.256 More generally, there is evidence that âSufism became a channel for embracing magic and the occult,â257 and starting from the mid-8th/14th century, the occult sciences (lettrism, astrology, and geomancy) were sanctified through association with Sufism.258 âSufi doctrines increasingly informed the production and use of amulets.â259 Also, âthe tradition of popular preaching and storytelling became [â¦] increasingly intertwined with Sufism,â and Sufi popular preachers of the Mamluk period composed collections of sermons (mawÄÊ¿iáº) and edifying pious tales (raqÄʾiq).260 Sufis also became involved in the composition of invocations, supplications, and prayers (adÊ¿iya),261 and Sufi saints were said to have received from the Prophet Muḥammad, through a mystic vision, petitionary prayers that were assembled in âsupererogatory petitionary prayer compositionsâ (duÊ¿Äʾ, ḥizb, wird).262 Some of these compositions written during the Mamluk period dedicated a chapter for a supererogatory petitionary prayer of the sea (ḥizb al-baḥr), including âmiraculous stories of the power of this prayer, which include passengers on the Nile and the Indian Ocean being saved from storms, and travelers being saved from bandits.â In addition, the sea prayer was said to âdivert the stings of scorpions.â263 It would also seem that edifying wisdom sayings are typical of Sufis and very common in Sufi literature, and more specifically, Sufi biographical literature.264 Therefore, the âṣūfÄ«zation of Mamluk societyâ may account for much of the adab product (knowledge) in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d: stories on miracles performed by saints, edifying stories, stories on sea travel and fear of water, exhortations, dreams and their interpretation, divinations, occult matters and magic, magic spells and talismans, prayers and supplications,265 medical prescriptions,266 and wise sayings or advice.267 Indeed, some of these materials appear in biographical entries of Sufis in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d as part of their knowledge268 (even the maternal uncle of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs mother is said to have had connections to Sufism).269 The âṣūfÄ«zation of Mamluk society,â however, meant that scholars who were not defined as Sufis were also looking for such materials and circulating them.270 Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« and his informants (or rather biographees) could have been inspired by Sufi literature, perhaps most easily by Sufi texts that had the quality of a literary anthology and were meant to edify and entertain;271 however, they were more likely using contemporary popular materials related to Sufis that were circulating in Cairo (some of which resemble in their themes and motifs the materials in Sufi texts, and some of which must have found their way into such texts).
At least some of the themes and motifs in stories transmitted by the scholars and civilians in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d seem to resemble materials in popular compilations of tales and stories, among them materials compiled in Alf layla wa-layla.272 Nasser Rabbat noted that the story of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs mother on a mother waiting for her son to return from sea travel273 has the âflavorâ of the stories of Alf layla wa-layla and was perhaps a popular tale (wÄḥida min tilka al-marwiyyÄt al-shaÊ¿biyya) that did not find its way into the compilation.274 Rabbat, however, did not elaborate on the themes or motifs in the story that had the âflavorâ of Alf layla wa-layla. The Arabian nights encyclopedia offers a comprehensive survey of themes and motifs in Alf layla wa-layla that allows an initial comparison with themes and motifs in some of the stories in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d. Some of the most relevant themes are merchants, money, sea travel, and wondrous lands. It has been noted that most of the stories in Alf layla wa-layla involve merchants or sons of merchants, and âare imbued with a distinct âmoral codeâ that reflects the attitude of the urban merchant class.â275 A âclear indication of the main interest of the merchant class is the fact that intrigues are often related to questions of money (loans, deposits, theft, loss of money, profits, inheritance).â276 Money and its loss or gain (or bothâmany times whoever becomes impoverished will receive money) is a recurrent theme. Money also appears in the form of treasures. Beggary, impoverishment, debt, and theft or fraud, are recurrent themes.277 A number of stories âbegin with the son of a merchant squandering his inheritance ⦠becoming impoverishedâ but then a slave girl brings him salvation.278 The âspirit of enterpriseâ is reflected in the best manner in stories on overseas long-distance trade.279 In many stories, journeys and, more specifically, sea voyages, serve to initiate the hero (normally a traveling merchant) into the secrets of the world, and in some stories, unknown lands and magic domains are explored.280 In many cases âseas constitute the setting of specific episodes that change the direction of the narrative,â and shipwreck is a recurring motif. Seas are gates to strange and miraculous worlds and âare also part of the geographical lore that is used by the narrators to enhance the adventurous character of the tales.â281 Monkeys are frequently mentioned as magical creatures and as sexual partners of women.282
Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d contains several biographies of merchants or stories involving merchants.283 Some of these stories involve theft,284 and in some, the merchant is the thief who gets caught.285 Some stories about theft do not involve merchants; one such story was transmitted to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« by the uncle of his mother.286 Interestingly, according to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, the uncle of his mother lost his money but then gained a fortune, and the uncle told al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« how his father gained a fortune trading in musk.287 Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d also contains a story of a man who lost his money (inheritance?) but then was saved by his slave girl.288 Other stories involve sea travel and merchants from India that were robbed on the ship, but then, their luck turned again.289 Some involve people whose ship drowned but then reached the shore and found a treasure.290 Some involve adventures and miraculous things or creatures.291 Among the magical creatures appear monkeys who behave like human beings and even have sex with women.292 And finally, the abovementioned story of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs mother referred to by Rabbat contains sea travel to India, which serves to initiate the hero into unknown and miraculous worlds, a shipwreck, a fantastic description of a faraway land involving monkeys that behave like men, and finally, the finding of a sort of treasure and the making of a fortune by trade (it is inferred that it happened after impoverishment).293
It should be emphasized, however, that the popular stories of Alf layla wa-layla are also strongly connected to Sufis (or Sufi-like materials). Many stories involve Sufis, popular beliefs, magic and sorcery, occult matters, demons (jÄnn, sing. jinn), amulets, and talismans, all connected to a Sufi milieu or beggars (who were associated with Sufis). The beggars are sometimes involved in theft and eat ḥashÄ«sh.294 Interestingly, some stories in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d involve merchants and Sufis/beggars. In one of these stories (told by a Sufi) a beggar that saved money to release his son from prison complained that a merchant stole his money. Eventually, however, it turned out that a ḥashÄ«sh eater was the thief.295 In another story, a thief who was a merchant was caught by a Sufi shaykh with the help of demons (jÄnn).296 Therefore, it is not possible or necessary to differentiate in a clear-cut manner between âṣūfÄ« materialsâ and âAlf layla wa-layla materials.â297 Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« and his informants were drawing on general popular materials circulating in Cairo.
Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d also has some points of resemblance with al-NuwayrÄ« al-IskandarÄnÄ«âs (d. after 775/1373) KitÄb al-IlmÄm, a work pertaining to history that is, however, very remote from traditional Mamluk historiography and has sometimes been considered a work of adab containing popular elements. There is some resemblance in the kind of materials presented (marvels, legends, tales, prophesying dreams, and typology and magic of figures) and the tendency toward digressions.298
The collection of such a varied adab product in biographical entries in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, however, perhaps most resembles adab anthologies.299 More specifically, in subject matter, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d resembles popular adab anthologies written by, and for, members of âthe new rising class of semi-instructed bourgeoisie.â300 Indeed, some of the adab materials in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d are the product of members of âintermediate classes.â301 There is some resemblance in the topics covered in the popular adab anthologies and Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d (but normally not in content or form).302 The popular anthologies âassembled a broad mixture of what the author thought was of interest to his readership ⦠[a] broad mixture of poetry and prose, of the useful and the entertaining, the pious and the playful as well as the scholarly and the trivial was intertwined.â303 It is possible to find in these anthologies âfamous poems from pre-Islamic qaṣīdas to contemporary zajal poems, medical and magic advice, prayers ⦠enigmas and arithmetical tests, and astonishing facts from all realms of life and nature.â304
Specifically, the anthology of YÅ«nus al-MÄlikÄ« (fl. late 8th/14th century) contains material ranging from âlegal and theological problems, ḥadÄ«ths, prayers, philology, historical anecdotes, geography, riddles, prescriptions, aphrodisiacs to talismans,â305 and also wise sayings (ḥikam) and supplications (adÊ¿iya).306 Thomas Herzog noted that the central idea behind every subject that the book touches on is that âthe information should be useful in a practical sense, and many of the subjects are in fact introduced by the word âfÄʾida.ââ¯â307 The usefulness of the information, as mentioned, is also a recurring theme in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d.308 Herzog suggested that YÅ«nus al-MÄlikÄ«âs work was in fact âan open ongoing collection of various materials,â resembling in subject matter the late medieval European housebooksâworks containing practical knowledge about a variety of fields collected in households of upstarts through several generationsââthat has expanded over time to such an extent that it eventually became a petit-bourgeois encyclopedic adab-compendium.â309 Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is, of course, no such thing. Notwithstanding this, as mentioned, two relatively long entries in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d that resemble YÅ«nus al-MÄlikÄ«âs work a lot in terms of subject matter are entries of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs close family members. It perhaps gives us a glimpse of how useful, practical knowledge was also collected through generations in households of highly educated scholars as part of the familial heritage. In Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs familial heritage is incorporated into the collective cultural heritage of the community.
While al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« drew on general popularizing trends in Mamluk literature (and society), the incorporation of such varied adab-like, often popular, elements in the framework of biographical entries or obituaries in a traditional work of history has no real precedent. On rare occasions, al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ« and al-JazarÄ« incorporated in obituaries of scholars some entertaining, edifying, or wondrous stories told by the scholars, and even more rarely riddles or useful general knowledge transmitted by them; however, such elements are marginal in their chronicles.310 Possibly, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« could have been inspired by chronicles written by Egyptian historians related to the military institution that incorporated in their chronicles some popular motifs and occult matters, and many wondrous stories.311 However, such elements are normally incorporated in these chronicles in the narrative line and are not presented as a contribution of specific persons to a general heritage. In any case, the dominant elements in these chronicles are anecdotes or story-like reports with dialogues incorporated in the account of events, which have no connection to occult matters or popular motifs. Therefore, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is unique.312 While chronicles written by Egyptian historians related to the military institution and biographical dictionaries in general are full of anecdotes or story-like reports, and while the obituaries in the chronicles of the scholars al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ« and al-JazarÄ« resemble an anthology of poetry, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d resembles a (popularized) adab anthology.
Far from being âliterarizedâ against his will, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« consciously and skillfully chose his own trend of âliterarizationâ according to the genre in which he was writing.313 If we envisage âliterarizationâ as âadabizationâ (i.e., incorporation of adab elements, including elements of adab âin its âlowerâ formâ), as we did in this article, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is, in fact, a fine example of âliterarization.â Truly, the literature of adab is strongly connected to anecdotal writing and high-quality poetry,314 but a central element in any definition of adab is its many-sidedness and the inclusion of a wide variety of materials.315 From this perspective, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d is probably the most complete example of âliterarizationâ in Mamluk traditional historiography.
Appendix A: Structure and Literarization in BiographiesâA Case Study: The Biography of AqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ« (d. 736/1335)
Al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat al-nÄáºir316
(seven out of eight pages = anecdotes and stories)
[A] Title/name
JamÄl al-DÄ«n AqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ« known as NÄʾib al-Karak (al-maÊ¿rÅ«f bi-NÄʾib al-Karak) [P322L2]
[B] Opening anecdotes [PP322â3]:
[1] Death in the prison of Alexandria (736/1335) [P322LL3â4] [2] Arrest in Alexandria and complaint to al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad (735/1335) [P322L15âP323L1]
[C] Short and partial life résumé (career until ca. 708/1309) [P323LL2â9]
[D] Short description: looks, origin, and character [P324LL1â4]
[E] (Apparently) nonchronological (funny) anecdotes, stories, and âpeculiaritiesâ (ashyÄʾ muÊ¿jiba/ḥikÄyÄt/nukat áºarÄ«fa)317 testifying to his character, some of them in the style of ḥukm QarÄqÅ«sh [PP324â9]:
[1] Worship place under al-Jabal al-Aḥmar [P324LL7â11] [2] An incident with the wazÄ«r concerning construction works in BÄb al-Naá¹£r (722/1322 or after) [P324L12âP325L18] [3] Bad administration of the mÄristÄn (723/1323 or after) [P325L19âP326L8] [4] Anecdotes about his generosity (generosity toward a soldier he met near the mosque he had built in the Ḥusayniyya; his charity and generosity during Ramaá¸Änâhe never sold wheat from his granaries but just gave it away) [P326L9âP327L8] [5] He was never sick [P327LL8â9] [6] He always paid the expenses of his soldiers from his own money [P327LL9â11] [7] Incident with AqbughÄ Ê¿Abd al-WÄḥid [P327LL12â22] [8] Incident with MÅ«sÄ al-á¹¢ayrafÄ« [P327L22âP328L19] [9] Inspection of the mÄristÄn (ca. 726/1326) [P328L20âP329L12]
Al-á¹¢afadÄ«, al-WÄfÄ«318
(three and a half out of four pages = anecdotes and stories)
[A] Title/name
AqÅ«sh al-AmÄ«r JamÄl al-DÄ«n al-AshrafÄ« NÄʾib al-Karak [P336L2]
[B] Very short and partial life résumé (career until ca. 715/1315) [P336LL2â5]
[C] Anecdotes, stories, and peculiarities (ashyÄʾ gharÄ«ba) with a seemingly very loose chronological order [PP336â9]:
[1] His dress and manners in the bathhouse [P336LL6â10] [2] Anecdote about his whimsical character (generosity toward a soldier he met near the mosque he had built in the Ḥusayniyya; compared to harsh treatment of another soldier) [P336LL11â9] [3] Worship place under al-Jabal al-Aḥmar [P336L19âP337L5] [4] Anecdotes about his generosity (if a horse died to one of his soldiers or slaves he compensated him; he always paid for the expenses of his servants in expeditions; his simÄá¹ in Ramaá¸Än) [P337LL6â10] [5] Appointment to the position of inspector of the mÄristÄn (723/1323); and an anecdote about its inspection (ca. 726/1326) [P337LL10â5] [6] Appointed governor of Tripoli in 734/1334, requested to move to Jerusalem, arrested in Damascus, and transferred to á¹¢afad (735/1335); and an anecdote about his arrest in á¹¢afad [P337L16âP338L3] [7] Peculiarities (ashyÄʾ gharÄ«ba) and witticisms related to him during his days in al-Karak (690â708/1291â1309) and Damascus (711â2/1311â2) [P338LL4â10] [8] His warning to Tankiz upon his arrest in Damascus (735/1335) [P338LL11â3] [9] Death in the prison of Alexandria in 736/1335 [P338LL13â6] [10] Two anecdotes about his harsh character [P338L17âP339L2] [11] His advice to Tankiz upon the latterâs appointment as governor of Damascus (712/1312) [P339LL2â16]
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, al-MuqaffÄ319
(six out of nine pages = anecdotes and stories)
[A] Title/name
AqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ« al-AmÄ«r JamÄl al-DÄ«n known as NÄʾib al-Karak (al-maÊ¿rÅ«f bi-NÄʾib al-Karak) and called (yulaqqabu) also al-BurnÄq because of his big nose (li-kibar anfihi) (Nuzha A + D) [P248LL15â6]
[B] A long and comprehensive (six pages) life résumé ordered chronologically, incorporating according to chronology few anecdotes or stories [PP248â54]:
[1] Career until 708/1309 (Nuzha C + SulÅ«k ii, 193 [lines 13â4]) [P248L17âP249L7] [2] Career 708â11/1309â11 (source not identified) [P249LL7â11] [3] Appointed governor of Damascus in 711/1311 (SulÅ«k ii, 105 [lines 6â8, 12â3]) [P249LL12â4] [4] Return to Egypt in 712/1312 (source not identified) [P249L15âP250L1] [5] Arrest in 712/1312 (SulÅ«k ii, 117 [lines 11â5], 118 [lines 8â9]) [P250LL2â5] [6] Release and iqá¹ÄÊ¿ in 715/1315 (SulÅ«k ii, 144 [lines 16â8]) [P250LL5â7] [7] Respected according to protocol in 719/1319 (SulÅ«k ii, 193 [lines 8â16]) [P250LL8â14] [8] Leading an expedition to SÄ«s in 721/1321 (SulÅ«k ii, 229 [lines 6â11]) [P250LL15â20] [9] Leading an expedition to SÄ«s in 722/1322 (SulÅ«k ii, 235 [line 15]â236 [line 2], 237 [lines 1â2, 5â6]) [P251LL1â5] [10] Appointed nÄáºir al-mÄristÄn in 723/1323 (SulÅ«k ii, 247 [lines 15â7]) [P251LL6â8] [11] The renovation of the mÄristÄn (726/1326) (SulÅ«k ii, 273 [line 19]â274 [line 3]) [P251LL8â14] [12]
[C] Short description: looks, origin, and character (Nuzha D) [P254LL15â6]
[D] Nonchronological anecdotes, stories, and peculiarities [PP254â7]:
[1] Two anecdotes about his harsh character (WÄfÄ« C10) [P254LL16â22] [2] Worship place under al-Jabal al-Aḥmar (Nuzha E1) [P255LL1â5] [3] A truncated anecdote about an incident with the wazÄ«r (Nuzha E2) [P255LL6â11] [4] Anecdote about his generosity (
Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«, al-Durar al-kÄmina322
(about half a page out of one and a half pages = truncated anecdotes and stories)
[A] Title/name
AqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ« JamÄl al-DÄ«n al-BurnÄq known as NÄʾib al-Karak (al-maÊ¿rÅ«f bi-NÄʾib al-Karak) (MuqaffÄ A) [P395L12]323
[B] Life résumé basically ordered chronologically, incorporating remnants of anecdotes or stories, which in most of the cases were turned into statements about events in the life of AqÅ«sh or his character [PP395â6]:
[1] Career until 715/1315 (in all likelihood collected and summarized from MuqaffÄ B1â6) [P395LL12â5]324 [2]
[C] Nonchronological truncated anecdotes, stories, and peculiarities:
[1] Peculiarities and witticisms (AÊ¿yÄn = WÄfÄ« C7) [P396LL6â10]331 [2] Death in the prison of Alexandria (736/1335)â
Ibn Taghrībirdī, al-Manhal337
(three out of four pages = anecdotes and stories)
[A] Title/name
AqÅ«sh b. Ê¿AbdallÄh al-AmÄ«r al-AshrafÄ« JamÄl al-DÄ«n NÄʾib al-Karak (WÄfÄ« A) [P27L3]
[B] Very short and partial life résumé (career until ca. 715/1315) (WÄfÄ« B) [P27LL4â8]338
[C] Anecdotes, stories, and peculiarities presented in an order that follows the WÄfÄ« [PP27â30]:
[1] His dress and manners in the bathhouse (WÄfÄ« C1) [P27L8âP28L4] [2] Anecdote about his whimsical character (generosity toward a soldier he met near the mosque he had built in the Ḥusayniyya; compared to a harsh treatment of another soldier) (WÄfÄ« C2) [P28LL5â13] [3] Anecdotes about his generosity (he always paid for the expenses of his servants in expeditions; his simÄá¹ in Ramaá¸Änâpart of WÄfÄ« C4) [P28L14-P29L1] [4]
I would like to thank my friend and colleague Almog Kasher for reading a draft of this paper and making some very useful comments on issues related to Arabic grammar.
For a convenient summary of Haarmannâs ideas, see Haarmann, Review of Weltgeschichte 134â5; Auflösung 55â7; Guo, Mamluk 33â6; Hirschler, Studying 168; Rabbat, Perception 164â5; Mauder, Gelehrte 23â5; Irwin, Ibn Zunbul 6; Parry, Review 148; Little, al-á¹¢afadÄ« 194. For a detailed discussion, see Haarmann, Quellenstudien 119â83 (esp. 159â83). On the process of the âpopularizationâ of reading practices, see Hirschler, Written.
Guo, Mamluk 39.
Thomas Bauer noted that in the part dealing with the beginning of the Mamluk Sultanate in his chronicle Nuzhat al-anÄm, Ibn DuqmÄq shows a âpredilection for literatureâ and that his chronicle is a âcombination of political and cultural history with a conspicuous focus on adab.â Ibn DuqmÄq shows great interest in poetry written in classical Arabic and gives judgment on the poems he quotes. On the other hand, there are no vernacular verses and he hardly shows interest in mirabilia. Bauer concludes that the role of poetry cannot be sufficiently explained by considering it as part of the âprocess of popularization,â which, according to Haarmann, underlies the process of âliterarizationâ and can be explained better by what Bauer labeled as the process of âadabization of the Ê¿ulamÄʾâ (see more on that below) and by the desire of the author to prove his professionalism and to make up for his incomplete linguistic training; see Bauer, Review 261â2; and see also Literarische 105â6. However, a quick survey of the parts dealing with Ibn DuqmÄqâs own time in his al-Nafḥa al-miskiyya reveals that there is hardly any mention of poetry verses. On the other hand, it is possible to find in the historical narrative story-like reports with dialogues or direct speech containing nonstandard usages of Arabic, elements that are typical of other Egyptian historians related to the military institution; see, for example, Ibn DuqmÄq, al-Nafḥa 212, 224. For similar elements in reports on earlier periods of the sultanate in al-Nafḥa al-miskiyya, see, for example, ibid. 90â1, 94, 102â3, 143â4, 155â6, 161; and see also at footnotes 54â8 below. On nonstandard usages of Arabic in al-Nafḥa al-miskiyya and Nuzhat al-anÄm, see chapter 2 appendix A group A (mamlÅ«ksâ descendants no. 2âfootnote 175, and no. 3âfootnote 178) and appendix A group B (no. 2âfootnote 189); and see chapter 2 table 2.1. In order to check these tentative findings there is a need to examine Ibn DuqmÄqâs Nuzhat al-anÄm (al-Nafḥa being only its summary), the relevant parts of which are still in manuscript form and have not been consulted by the author of the present article.
According to Peter Thorau, the âliterarizationâ of history writing that is already noticeable in the writing of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« (d. 845/1442) and Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« became much stronger in the historical writing of Ibn IyÄs; however, he does not elaborate on the nature of this âliterarizationâ; see Thorau, Geschichte 230. According to Donald Little, like Ibn al-DawÄdÄrÄ« and Ibn IyÄs, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« wrote a âpopularized historyâ in a âstyle influenced by the Egyptian vernacular and various literary devices.â However, Little does not go into details; see Little, Historiography 440. In the introduction to his edition of al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira, Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shams al-DÄ«n notes that in the parts that deal with the history of Egypt before Mamluk rule, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« shows a penchant for digressions (istiá¹rÄdÄt) and for âstrange,â extraordinary, and wondrous stories or coincidences (gharÄʾib/ittifÄqÄt Ê¿ajÄ«ba); see Shams al-DÄ«n, NujÅ«m i, 27. Sami Massoud noted that â[i]n addition to the tightly knit narrative and the concern for clarity, there is another aspect peculiar to al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira: the frequent use of proverbial expressions ⦠to exhort or to lament a certain state of affairs,â and that al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira âwas to serve primarily a specific function, namely, the edification and entertainment of a particular group,â which helps account for the âmelodramatic tone,â Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« imparts to some of his reports; see Massoud, Chronicles 64â5. There are reports that are peculiar to al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira, and these are accounts from people who had lived through this period, namely his fatherâs associates and acquaintances, and information he garnered from his first-hand knowledge of the Mamluk military personnel of his own era; see ibid. 63. Because Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« refers many times to his father and his reports, al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira is one of the most âpersonal historiesâ written during the Circassian period; see ibid. 172â3. It may be added that a survey of al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira easily reveals that it contains many anecdotes or story-like reports, mainly from Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs father and his associates, his relatives, and other contemporaries, or Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«âs own reports. The transmission of such reports is sometimes connected to the verb ḥakÄ and its derivatives. Such reports normally contain dialogues or direct speech and sometimes nonstandard usages of Arabic; see, for example, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, NujÅ«m xi, 378â9; xii, 60â1, 88, 182â4; xiii, 83â4, 86â7, 91â4, 111â2, 130â2, 138â40; xiv, 14â5, 111â3, 193â4, 233â4, 259, 356; xv, 46, 56, 236â7, 281â2, 401, 443â4; xvi, 234, 361. Such elements can also easily be found in reports on the Turkish period of the sultanate (648â784/1250â1382) quoted from earlier history books; see, for example, ibid. vii, 87â9; viii, 45, 250; ix, 106. On âstorytellingâ in al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira in accounts of the Turkish period, see Guo, Songs. On nonstandard usages of Arabic in al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira and al-Manhal al-á¹£ÄfÄ«, see chapter 2 appendix A group A (mamlÅ«ksâ descendants no. 3âfootnote 178) and appendix A group D (no. 2âfootnote 203); and see also chapter 2 table 2.1.
As far as I know, trends of âliterarizationâ in al-Malaá¹Ä«âs chronicles did not receive any attention. Still, it may be noted here that by a cursory survey of the historical narrative in al-RawḠal-bÄsim, a chronicle dedicated to the years covering al-Malaá¹Ä«âs lifetime, it is possible to find story-like reports (some transmitted from al-Malaá¹Ä«âs father, and some defined by al-Malaá¹Ä« as ḥikÄya) containing dialogues or direct speech and nonstandard usages of Arabic, or âstrangeâ stories, see for example al-Malaá¹Ä«, RawḠi, 168â71, 323, 341â2, 364; ii, 69â70, 102â5, 146â7, 168â9, 174â5, 219, 229â31, 233â4, 236, 239, 293â5, 375; iii, 29â30, 102, 106â7, 116â7, 182â3, 190, 192â4, 200â1, 207â12, 291â6, 336â41; iv, 43â9, 56, 95â8 (esp. 97). On nonstandard usages of Arabic in al-RawḠal-bÄsim, see chapter 2 appendix A group A (mamlÅ«ksâ descendants no. 4âfootnote 180).
Guo, Mamluk 36; and see also Irwin, Mamluk literature 16.
Guo, Introduction 81â96; Mamluk 38â9. On their ḤanbalÄ« background, see for example, Introduction 86; Irwin, Mamluk history 160â1.
Guo, Introduction 81â96 (esp. 82, 93â6); and see also the editorâs introduction in al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ«, Dhayl i, 39 (on the use of Ê¿ajÄʾib and the description of foreign lands in the historical narrative for the purpose of digression [istiá¹rÄd]).
Such reports normally open with ḥakÄ/ḥakÄ lÄ«, suggesting that it is justified to see them as belonging to the genre of âḥikÄyaâ (i.e., a âstoryâ or a âtaleâ), labeled in this article for the sake of convenience as âstory-like reportsâ; see, for example, al-JazarÄ«, TaʾrÄ«kh i, 45, 58, 109, 192â3; al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ«, Dhayl i, 93â4, 202; ii, 715â7. On Syrian historiansâ knowledge of events in Egypt, see Guo, History 451; Little, Historiography 427â8.
Guo, Introduction 81â96 (esp. 82, 85, 87â90, 96).
Bauer, Misunderstandings 108â11 (esp. 108); and see also, Communication 23â6.
Such reports normally open with ḥakÄ/ḥakÄ lÄ«/ḥakÄ lÄ« Ê¿anhu, or are referred to as a ḥikÄya; see, for example, al-JazarÄ«, TaʾrÄ«kh i, 80â1, 145, 165â7, 184â7; al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ«, Dhayl i, 226, 384â6, 491â2; ii, 757â8; and see also ibid. i, 41; Guo, Introduction 85, 94â6. Among the âstrangeâ or extraordinary stories one may find prophesying dreams; see al-JazarÄ«, TaʾrÄ«kh i, 14. Literary trends in al-MuqtafÄ«, the chronicle of al-BirzÄlÄ« (d. 739/1339), the colleague of al-JazarÄ« and al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ«, have received less attention; see Guo, Introduction 81â96. Guo noted that al-BirzÄlÄ« did not incorporate in his chronicle the literary product (most notably poetry) of the deceased scholars; see ibid. 85. It may be added that al-BirzÄlÄ« sometimes mentions that a deceased scholar wrote poetry (sometimes transmitted to al-BirzÄlÄ«) but still does not quote actual verses; see, for example, al-BirzÄlÄ«, al-MuqtafÄ« iii, 15â6, 20, 41, 90, 102, 254. For rare cases in which al-BirzÄlÄ« incorporates poetry in obituaries, see ibid. iv, 291, 314â5. It may also be added that al-BirzÄlÄ« generally does not incorporate anecdotes or story-like reports in the historical narrative (or obituaries), and thus his chronicle practically contains almost no dialogues including direct speech or colloquial language. This observation is based on a survey of the third volume of al-MuqtafÄ«. For what may be considered minor anecdotes incorporated in obituaries of deceased scholars, see ibid. iii, 143, 170. Relatively rarely, however, one finds in the historical narrative reports on unusual weather phenomena, or extraordinary phenomena in general (Ê¿ajÄʾib); see, for example, ibid. iii, 213â4, 230. On usages of nonstandard Arabic in the chronicle of al-BirzÄlÄ«, see chapter 2 appendix A group C (exceptionâfootnote 200).
See al-YÅ«nÄ«nÄ«, Dhayl i, 321â2; al-JazarÄ«, TaʾrÄ«kh i, 183.
For some notes on general trends of language use and style in works pertaining to history written by kuttÄb-udabÄʾ, see chapter 2 section 6.1. The works of kuttÄb-udabÄʾ pertaining to history (not including biographical dictionaries) may be divided into several categories: (1) Most attention has been given to al-NuwayrÄ« al-IskandarÄnÄ«âs (d. after 775/1373) KitÄb al-IlmÄm and Ibn á¹¢aá¹£rÄâs (d. after 799/1397) al-Durra al-muá¸Ä«Ê¾aâtwo works that are very remote from âtraditionalâ Mamluk historiography and have sometimes been considered works of adab rather than historiography. Al-NuwayrÄ« al-IskandarÄnÄ« was a manuscript copyist and his KitÄb al-IlmÄm, which purports to be a history of the Crusader attack on Alexandria in 767/1365, contains very little factual historical information and employs nonhistoriographic adab genres in the istiá¹rÄd (digressional) framework in the nature of a literary compendium. Among other things it contains marvels, legends, anecdotes and tales (ḥikÄya), âwitty repliesâ (ajwiba muskita), fictitious speeches and dialogues, prophesying dreams, and typology and magic of figures (jafr); see Holt, Review 131; Guo, Mamluk 36â7; Irwin, Mamluk history 165; Mamluk literature 16. Ibn á¹¢aá¹£rÄ probably hailed from a family of religious scholars. Al-Durra al-muá¸Ä«Ê¾a is basically an account of events during the reign of al-áºÄhir BarqÅ«q (784â801/1382â99). However, it is not strictly bound to a chronological sequence and does not conform with contemporary norms of history writing. It is written in an unconventional style and format. It draws more on literary nonhistoriographical materials than on history books and makes almost no use of Mamluk history books. It makes use of stories, anecdotes, direct speech, hortatory passages, rhymed prose, fables, proverbs, poetry, moralizing advice, and colloquial language. It is a didactic work, âhistory as a morality playâ; see Brinner, Chronicle, xiiâxvii, xxv; Massoud, Chronicles 119â21; Irwin, Mamluk history 165; Ibn Zunbul 6; Mamluk literature 17; and see also chapter 2 section 6.1 at footnote 160. (2) Although much more related to âtraditionalâ Mamluk historiography, the âliterarizationâ in the chronological-historical sections of the (adab) encyclopedias or manuals for Mamluk clerks produced by the bureaucrats ShihÄb al-DÄ«n al-NuwayrÄ« (d. 733/1333) and Ibn Faá¸l AllÄh al-Ê¿UmarÄ« (d. 749/1349) has received relatively little attention (in the case of al-NuwayrÄ«âs NihÄyat al-arab) or almost no attention at all (in the case of al-Ê¿UmarÄ«âs MasÄlik al-abá¹£Är). On the categorization and character of the works and the authorsâ backgrounds, see, for example, Herzog, Composition 107; Irwin, Mamluk literature 8; Mamluk history 166; Guo, Introduction 93; Mamluk 16, 30â2; Little, Historiography 430â1; Muhanna, Encyclopaedism 190; Why was 346â7. On âliterarizationâ in al-NuwayrÄ«, see Guo, Introduction 93; Mamluk 36, 39; Amitai, Chinggis 702; Muhanna, Encyclopaedism 190; and see also chapter 2 section 6.1 at footnote 161. On âliterarizationâ in al-Ê¿UmarÄ«, see Lohlker, Al-Ê¿UmarÄ«âs 342. (3) Attention has also been given to royal biographies written by âcourt historiansâ working in the chancery (dÄ«wÄn al-inshÄʾ), produced mainly during the early Mamluk period by authors such as Ibn Ê¿Abd al-áºÄhir (d. 692/1292) and his nephew ShÄfiÊ¿ b. Ê¿AlÄ« (d. 730/1330). The treatises written by them are normally seen as âofficial biographiesâ written under patronage and supervision of sultans that are designed to be presented at court and legitimize their rule by praising them and, therefore, are only partially subjugated to the annalistic form, see, for example, Irwin, Mamluk history 162â3; Little, Historiography 421â3; Guo, Mamluk 30. According to Muhsin al-Musawi, royal biography is a genre that âsits at the very centre of the tradition of belles-lettresâ; see al-Musawi, Pre-modern 123. It has been noted that such treatises are written in a florid and ornamented language and contain poetry, âboastful rhymed prose,â and documents drafted by the authors, some of which are written in âbombastic rhymed prose,â see Irwin, Mamluk history 162â3; Mamluk literature 7; and see also Hirschler, Islam 269. The rhymed prose and florid and impeccable Arabic employed in these treatises were probably considered powerful stylistic tools that are suitable for the function of these treatises, i.e., praising the rulers and their military achievements against the enemies of Islam, and legitimizing their rule; see al-Musawi, Pre-modern 107. While it is still not entirely clear to what extent the classical rhetorical device of rhymed prose had found its way into the historical writing in the Mamluk period (see Guo, Mamluk 43), it would seem that in part its usage was dictated by genre (royal biographies) and background of the author (kuttÄb-udabÄʾ and more specifically the inshÄʾ tradition). On inshÄʾ and rhymed prose, see, for example, Bauer, Misunderstandings 125â6; on court officials or secretaries and rhymed prose, see Hirschler, Islam 269; Åen, Ottoman 335â6. Normally, however, literary aspects of these treatises have not been discussed in the context of the discourse on the âliterarizationâ of Mamluk historiography. This must be due to the fact that the literary elements in these treatises (most notably rhymed prose) are considered âtraditional,â âhigh,â or âpragmaticâ; see Bauer, Misunderstandings 125â6. On documents as literary texts, see Northrup, Documents 121â36. For a detailed discussion on âliterarizationâ in these treatises, see chapter 13, the article of Gowaart Van Den Bossche in this volume. For later âroyal biographiesâ considered by some to be âessentially literary works,â âpseudo-historical texts,â or âliterary panegyricsâ (or âliterary offeringsâ) containing sparse historical data, âa conglomeration of insignificant facts which are not held together by any attempt of biographical or historical characterization,â and contrasted to the aforementioned earlier biographies deemed as âhistorical biographies,â see Holt, Review 131â2; Irwin, Mamluk literature 16; Holt, Literary 3â16; Van Steenbergen, QalÄwÅ«nid 6â7.
Haarmann, Auflösung 54; and see also Ron-Gilboa, Pre-Islamic 13 (footnote 23).
Haarmann, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« 151 (al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« is described as a âseriousâ historian), and see also 163â4; Rabbat, Perception 165 (relying on Haarmannâs research, Rabbat writes that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« âpreferred a more serious, solemn, and learned outlookâ).
Al-Musawi, Pre-modern 121; on the Khiá¹aá¹, see Bauden, TaqÄ« al-DÄ«n 171â3.
Smith, Finding 143â4.
Ron-Gilboa, Pre-Islamic 12â4. On al-Khabar Ê¿an al-bashar, see Bauden, TaqÄ« al-DÄ«n 196â8.
Ron-Gilboa, Pre-Islamic 26.
Ibid. 11â2.
Ibid. 26.
Ibid. 29; and see also Beaumont, Literary 1 (referring to the [historical?] work of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« as âanecdotal workâ); Thorau, Geschichte 230 (refers to a âliterarizationâ of history writing that is noticeable in the writing of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, however, he does not elaborate about the nature of this âliterarizationâ); Herzog, What they saw 32â3 (on âscenic dramatizationâ as a narrative strategy in the narration of the death of Shajarat al-Durr in Mamluk chronicles, among them al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs SulÅ«k).
Haarmann, Auflösung 54; and see also Ron-Gilboa, Pre-Islamic 13 (footnote 23).
See Haarmann, Auflösung 54.
Irwin, Image 236â40; Mamluk history 164â5; Ibn Zunbul 6; Eddé, Ḳaraá¹Äy 511.
Haarmann, Quellenstudien 167â81; Auflösung 55; Turkish 105â6; and see also Irwin, Mamluk history 164; Little, Historiography 425, 440; Guo, History 452; Mamluk 34â7; Robinson, Islamic 167.
Haarmann, Auflösung 55; Schäfer, Chronik 9â14. Because the literary trends in the chronicle of al-ShujÄÊ¿Ä« received relatively little attention, it is perhaps appropriate to make clear that it is easy to find in the historical narrative in his chronicle anecdotes or story-like reports containing dialogues with direct speech and nonstandard usages of Arabic; see, for example, al-ShujÄÊ¿Ä«, TaʾrÄ«kh 48â9, 52, 98â101, 126â7. On nonstandard usages of Arabic in the chronicle of al-ShujÄÊ¿Ä«, see chapter 2 appendix A group A (mamlÅ«ks no. 3âfootnote 170) and appendix A group E (no. 4âfootnote 211); and most importantly, see chapter 2 appendix C.
Little, Recovery 48, 53â4; Historiography 426â7; Guo, History 452; and see also Little, Introduction 81â4.
Haarmann, Auflösung 55; and see also Little, Historiography 440; Massoud, Chronicles 71â6 (esp. 75â6), 138, 195â7; Beaumont, Literary 1 (referring to the [historical?] work of Ibn IyÄs as âanecdotal workâ); Irwin, Mamluk history 164; Guo, History 452; Thorau, Geschichte 230â1; Havemann, The chronicle of Ibn IyÄs 89; al-Musawi, Pre-modern 121.
Guo, Introduction 81â96; and see also Irwin, Mamluk history 160.
Haarmann, Quellenstudien 167â81; Auflösung 54â5; Guo, Introduction 81â96; and see also Irwin, Mamluk history 161; Little, Historiography 428â9; Eychenne, al-JazarÄ« 131.
On the SulÅ«k, see Bauden, TaqÄ« al-DÄ«n 171, 176, 181â5 (esp. 181).
Little, Recovery 44â6; and see also, Introduction 81â5 (esp. 83â5), 95; Analysis 252â61 (esp. 252â3, 260â1). Little established the reliance of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« on al-YÅ«sufÄ« for some years during the early reign of al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad through a collation of materials from the SulÅ«k with materials from al-Ê¿AynÄ«âs (d. 855/1451) Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn, in which materials from al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir are quoted extensively. Little noted that it may be assumed that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« relied on Nuzhat al-nÄáºir extensively, also in years that he did not check. On al-Ê¿AynÄ«âs reliance on Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, see also Nakamachi, al-Ê¿AynÄ«âs 152â3.
Little, Recovery 45; Analysis 260â1.
See, for example, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 365 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 147); and see also al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 393â4 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 294). Note that Äsh (or ayy shayʾ) has superseded mÄ as interrogative pronoun starting from a very early period, and it is attested in historiographical texts already in the days of al-ṬabarÄ« (d. 310/923); see Blau, Handbook 36 (no. 30); and see on that also the linguistic introduction in Zetterstéen, Beiträge 27; and see also Schen, Usama Ibn Munqidh (Part II) 65â6; Guo, Introduction 94â5. On Äsh in the writing of Mamluk literati normally writing only in classical Arabic, see Rabbat, Representing 69. On al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs efforts to restrict himself to classical Arabic, see also Haarmann, Quellenstudien 179.
In the absence of a historical dictionary of Arabic, a dictionary of Mamluk Arabic, and clear definitions of what are âclassicalâ or âpost-classicalâ lexical usages, it is many times difficult to judge if lexical usages were considered âstandard.â There is reason to believe, for example, that al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs usages of bi-ḥaraj (in anger), muzawwaj (married), and bi-l-ghÄlÄ« (for a high price) are ânon-classicalâ (i.e., they do not appear in dictionaries of Arabic language at least until LisÄn al-Ê¿arab, including LisÄn al-Ê¿arab, and normally also not in texts written during the first four centuries of Islam that are generally considered to have been written in standard Arabic). Seemingly, muzawwaj and bi-l-ghÄlÄ« were standardized by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« with mutazawwij and bi-aghlÄ al-athmÄn, respectively, and bi-ḥaraj was omitted. These cases, however, are not in orange color in table 1.2. In another place, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« replaces bi-ḥaraj in al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs text with derivatives of ghaá¸iba, suggesting that he was not very fond of the expression; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 361â2 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 132).
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 390â1; al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 284â5.
On the absence of the accusative alif in Middle Arabic in cases where in standard Arabic it appears (here in the case of a circumstancial adverb), see Blau, Handbook 44 (no. 74). For the phenomenon in Mamluk historiographical texts, see the introductions in Haarmann, Kanz 37; Zetterstéen, Beiträge 20.
On long vowels occurring in final closed syllables (in the imperative and jussive) in Middle Arabic, see Blau, Handbook 30 (no. 6); Lentin, Levant 186. For Mamluk historiographical texts, see Brinner, Chronicle, xxiv; Zetterstéen, Beiträge 28; Haarmann, Kanz 36.
Due to the disappearance of the mood endings in Middle Arabic, imperfect forms in all moods may terminate with and without the ending n; see Blau, Handbook 45 (no. 77). Verbs preceding subjects that designate several persons stand in the plural, see ibid. 45 (no. 79). On these phenomena in Mamluk historiographical texts, see Brinner, Chronicle, xxiv; Zetterstéen, Beiträge 31; Haarmann, Kanz 36.
Note that Äsh is normally used in Middle Arabic as an interrogative pronoun, see Schen, Usama Ibn Munqidh (part II) 65â6; however, here it may be seen as a relative pronoun.
On subordinate asyndetic clauses in Middle Arabic, see Blau, Handbook 52â3 (no. 128). For the phenomenon in Mamluk historiographical texts, see Haarmann, Kanz 37.
On the supersession of the casus rectus by the obliquus in the sound masculine plural in Middle Arabic, see Blau, Handbook 44 (no. 74). For the phenomenon in Mamluk historiographical texts, see Zetterstéen, Beiträge 21; Haarmann, Kanz 36.
On subordinate asyndetic clauses in Middle Arabic, see Blau, Handbook 52â3 (no. 128).
On the word wÄḥid preceding a noun and used as indefinite article in Middle Arabic, see Blau Dictionary 754; for the phenomenon in a 9th/15th-century Mamluk literary text, see Vrolijk, Bringing 152.
On the shortening of a long vowel in an unstressed syllable in Middle Arabic, see Khan, Judaeo-Arabic 155. On jawÄr(i) in the definite form instead of the standard jawÄrÄ«, see Smith, Language 334; in Mamluk historiographical texts, see Haarmannâs introduction in al-MaqdisÄ«, Duwal 32; and see also chapter 2 footnote 38.
On the disappearance of cases and on the prevalence of the ending -ū in abū in Middle Arabic, see Blau, Handbook 44 (no. 74); on akhū instead of akhī in Mamluk historiographical texts, see Zetterstéen, Beiträge 22; Brinner, Chronicle, xxiii.
On the absence of the accusative alif in Middle Arabic (here in the case of khabar kÄna), see Blau, Handbook 44 (no. 74).
On the dramatic quality of al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, see Little, Historiography 426â7.
See footnote 42 above.
For conspicuous examples, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 361â2 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 132ânote that al-YÅ«sufÄ« uses the verb ḥakÄ to describe the act of the transmission of the report from his informant); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 384â5 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 261â3); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 386 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 269â71); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 393â4 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 293â4); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 395 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 298â9); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 399â400 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 308); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 412â3 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 350â3).
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« omits the word qawwÄd (pimp), see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 382 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 249); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« replaces al-walad al-zinÄ (the son of a bitch; note the nonstandard genitive construct) with the less vulgar kadhdhÄb (liar), see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 386 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 270); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« replaces an accusation that some people are the enemies of Muslims with the general âhe spoke very bad wordsâ (bÄlagha fÄ« l-sabb); see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 387 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 271); and see also al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 398â9 (compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 305â6).
Massoud, Chronicles 49, 99, 112â3. This has been specifically established for the years 778/1376â7 and 793/1390â1. However, it is reasonable to assume that this was also the case in accounts of other years in the last quarter of the 8th/14th century, and possibly also in accounts of the third quarter of the 8th/14th century. Note that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« is known to have extensively relied in the SulÅ«k on TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k also in accounts of events from the second half of the 7th/13th century and the early 8th/14th century; see Massoud, Chronicles 5 (footnote 29).
At least in the parts dealing with Ibn al-FurÄtâs time, practically every page of TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k contains numerous usages of nonstandard Arabic. In what follows I will give only a few examples of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs standardization of Ibn al-FurÄtâs reports, which happens almost on every page in the SulÅ«k relying on Ibn al-FurÄt: 1) Absence of accusative alif, compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 33 (line 5: nufiya ilÄ á¹¢afad baá¹á¹Äl) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 581 (line 13: nafÄhu ilÄ á¹¢afad); and compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 37 (line 9: Ê¿ishrÄ«n sayf) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 585 (line 1: Ê¿ishrÄ«n sayfan); and compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 120â1 (page 120 line 22: nakÅ«nu shayʾ wÄḥid; line 25: lam yuÊ¿á¹Ä«nÄ« shayʾ; page 121 line 2: yuqÄ«mu sulá¹Än) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 644 (lines 8â9: nakÅ«nu shayʾan wÄḥidan; lines 10â11: lam yuÊ¿á¹inÄ« shayʾan; line 13: yuqÄ«mu sulá¹Änan). 2) Usage of the obliquus in the sound masculine plural instead of the casus rectus, compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 38 (line 8: ḥaá¸ara al-mubashshirÄ«n) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 585 (line 16: qadima mubashshirÅ« al-ḥajj). 3) Usage of the fourth verbal theme instead of the first verbal theme (on this phenomenon in Middle Arabic, see Blau, Handbook 38 [no. 40]; on the phenomenon in Mamluk historiographical texts, see Zetterstéen, Beiträge 2), compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 49 (lines 3 and 6: ukhliÊ¿a) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 589 (lines 6 and 8: khalaÊ¿a); and compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 56 (line 3: aÊ¿raá¸a) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 593 (line 4: Ê¿araá¸a); for the opposite phenomenon (seemingly a hypercorrection), compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 75 (line 22: nafaqa) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 607 (line 10: anfaqa). 4) Disappearance of the mood endings (imperfect forms in all moods may terminate with and without the ending n), compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 52 (lines 1â2: bi-annahumÄ yaá¹£á¹aliḥÄ) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 591 (line 2: an yaá¹£á¹aliḥÄ). 5) Accusative alif in nouns in singular form that should have been in the nominative (on this phenomenon, see Zetterstéen, Beiträge 19), compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 75 (lines 18â9: an lÄ yataʾakhkhara ⦠aḥadan) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 607 (line 8: an lÄ yataʾakhkhara aḥadun). 6) The active participles of tertiae yÄʾ verbs appear with final yÄʾ also in indefinite forms of the nominative/genitive (on this phenomenon in Middle Arabic, see Blau, Handbook 41 [no. 57]; in Mamluk historiographical texts, see Brinner, Chronicle xxiv), compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 112 (line 12: mÄá¸Ä«) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 637 (line 7: mÄá¸in). 7) The last (radical) vowel of the suffixless forms of the jussive of verbs III w/y is lengthened (see on that Blau, Handbook 41 [no. 54]; and see also Haarmann, Kanz 36), compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 120 (line 25: lam yuÊ¿á¹Ä«nÄ«) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 644 (line 10: lam yuÊ¿á¹inÄ«).
On Ibn al-FurÄtâs extensive reliance on Ibn DuqmÄqâs Nuzhat al-anÄm, see Massoud, Chronicles 5 (footnote 36), 34.
Ibid. 29, 36.
The extant parts of Nuzhat al-anÄm dealing with events in the second half of the 8th/14th century cover only the years 768â79/1366â78 and are still in manuscript form, see Massoud, Chronicles 30. The relevant extant parts of TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k cover only the years 789â99/1387â97, thus a comparison between the accounts of the year 778/1376â7 in the SulÅ«k, Nuzhat al-anÄm, and TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k was made possible only by consulting al-MuntaqÄ min TaʾrÄ«kh Ibn al-FurÄt by Ibn QÄá¸Ä« Shuhba (d. 851/1448), also still in manuscript form, which covers the years 773â93/1371â91, see Massoud, Chronicles 19 (footnote 32), 28â38; Ibn QÄá¸Ä« Shuhba 65.
Ibid., Chronicles 104â6, 110. In fact, references to Ibn DuqmÄq appear in TaʾrÄ«kh al-duwal wa-l-mulÅ«k already in 789/1386â7, i.e., the first year in the relevant extant part of the chronicle, and continue to appear until 799/1396â7, i.e., the last year in the relevant extant part; see Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 10, 457â8; and see references to Ibn DuqmÄq in the index, ibid. ix, 481. At other times, Ibn al-FurÄt says that he quotes from one of âour brothers the historians that are well familiar with the ruling eliteâ (baʿḠal-ikhwÄn min Ê¿ulamÄʾ al-taʾrÄ«kh mimman la-hu iá¹á¹ilÄÊ¿ Ê¿alÄ aḥwÄl arbÄb al-dawla), a reference to Ibn DuqmÄq who is sometimes referred to as âour colleague the amir á¹¢Ärim al-DÄ«n IbrÄhÄ«m Ibn DuqmÄq one of the historians who was well familiar with the ruling eliteâ (á¹£ÄḥibunÄ al-amÄ«r á¹¢Ärim al-DÄ«n IbrÄhÄ«m Ibn DuqmÄq aḥad Ê¿ulamÄʾ al-taʾrÄ«kh wa-kÄna la-hu iá¹á¹ilÄÊ¿ Ê¿alÄ aḥwÄl al-dawla), see for example, ibid. ix, 52, 125.
Massoud, Chronicles 29 (footnote 77).
In fact, Haarmann listed him among the conservative historians and specifically labeled him as a âpuristâ; see Haarmann, Auflösung 54. Given the fact that his chronicle is filled with nonstandard usages of Arabic, it is perhaps better not to regard him as a purist.
See, for example, Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 52â3, 104â5, 140, 193, 255, 347â8, 457â8. For example, in all the historical narratives of the year 793/1390â1 in Ibn al-FurÄtâs chronicle (almost 30 pages), there is only one report with a dialogue in direct speech, and it is taken from Ibn DuqmÄq; see ibid. ix, 255. Except for this, one finds one utterance in direct speech, which is actually presented as a quote from a letter, see ibid. ix, 271 (lines 8â9).
See, for example, ibid. ix, 255 (compare with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 741); and see Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 457â8 (compare with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 873).
See, for example, Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 52â3 (compare with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 591â2 [esp. 592 line 1]); and see Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 104â5 (compare with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 629â30 [esp. 630 line 5]).
Compare, for example, Ibn al-FurÄt ix, 86â7 (esp. 86 line 22) with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 614 (esp. line 16), and with Ibn DuqmÄq, al-Nafḥa 252 (the utterance in direct speech, which in all likelihood originated in Nuzhat al-anÄm, is omitted, but the resemblance is clear enough). For material of DuqmÄqian origin containing an utterance in direct speech that found its way into the SulÅ«k, see also chapter 2 table 2.1 (no. 2). This is not to say that all cases of dialogues or utterances in direct speech that appear in reports in Ibn al-FurÄt originated in Ibn DuqmÄq. Few reports are transmitted from authorities other than Ibn DuqmÄq; see, for example, Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 73â4. Other reports are transmitted without mentioning a source, and its origin could not be ascertained (of course it is quite possible that these reports also originate in Ibn DuqmÄq). Some of these utterances in direct speech found their way into the SulÅ«k. Compare, for example, Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 112 with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 637 (esp. lines 7â8); and compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 120â1 with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 644; and compare Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 121â2 with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 645. There are also cases of dialogues with direct speech in the SulÅ«k whose origin is not necessarily Ibn al-FurÄt.
Al-Maqrīzī, Sulūk iv, 616, 643.
Ibid. iv, 607, 618, 624.
Ibid. iv, 602, 616â8, 625, 632, 634, 639, 647. On âstrangeâ events and weather-related or natural phenomena in the SulÅ«k, see Wijntjes, Daily 543â56. On accounts of earthquakes in the SulÅ«k (which occurred, however, during the Turkish period of the sultanate), see Hirschler, Erdbebenberichte 134â9.
The issue of language and style in Mamluk historiography is discussed in detail in chapter 2. Here, I only summarize some relevant points for the discussion of trends of âliterarizationâ in the works of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« as a ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« religious scholar and situate it in more general trends. For references, see chapter 2.
Bauden, Taqī al-Dīn 182.
On the notebooks, see ibid., Maqriziana I 21â68 (esp. 21â4); Maqriziana II 51â118 (esp. 76â86).
Ibid., Maqriziana VIII 21â36; and see also Maqriziana II 84â6.
Ibid., Maqriziana VIII 36â7.
See footnote 14 above.
And see Mauderâs remark regarding the almost exclusive focus of scholars on âliterarizationâ in Mamluk chronicles, Mauder, Gelehrte 23 (footnote 60); and see also Gharaibeh, Narrative 51â2. More generally, as noted by Fedwa Malti-Douglas, collections of biographies of scholars have been considered for a long time as lacking any âliterary ambitions,â Malti-Douglas, Dreams 138.
Massoudâs monograph is of course restricted to chronicles, see Massoud, Chronicles.
Little, Introduction 102â9.
Ibid. 101.
Ibid. 134. On al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs sources and informants, see ibid. 103â4; al-á¹¢afadÄ« 199â206; and see also Abu-Ê¿Uksa, Lives 84â5.
Little, Introduction 135. More generally, Stephen Humphreys noted that chronicles and biographical dictionaries âare very distinct genres as to sources, methods, and subject matter, and they convey very different kinds of informationâ; see al-QÄá¸Ä«, Biographical dictionaries 26. WadÄd al-QÄá¸Ä« added that â[t]he element of chronology or time [â¦] is crucial for chronicles while it is irrelevant to biographical dictionaries in principleâ; see ibid.
Little, Introduction 135. On the âanecdotal natureâ of biographies, see also Van Steenbergen, YalbughÄ 428.
Little, Introduction, 102â6 (esp. 104). On this pattern in other biographical entries in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, see Brack, Mongol 333; and see also ibid. 342.
See Conermann, Tankiz. On anecdotes and dialogues, see ibid. 16â9.
Brack referred to al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs âpassion for lively and exciting anecdotes,â and his incorporation of âcolorful storiesâ and âcolorful anecdotesâ in biographies; see Brack, Mongol 357. Brack suggested that in some cases the stories incorporated by al-á¹¢afadÄ« may have drawn on popular genres and were meant to entertain and satisfy the demands of his audience, see ibid. 355â8.
Mauder, Gelehrte 44â5. On âintroductory lines of rhymed proseâ at the openings of biographical entries in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, see Little, al-á¹¢afadÄ« 197; Introduction 105â6. On poetry product of the deceased incorporated in the biographical entries, see Bauer, Communication 109; Abu-Ê¿Uksa, Lives 85.
Khalidi, Islamic 63â4; â[m]ost biographers followed al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs plan of presentation ⦠according to al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs formula ⦠a short résumé of ⦠career, with a few anecdotes to illustrate ⦠virtuesâ; and see Abu-Ê¿Uksa, Lives 85.
Little, Introduction 112. On the reliance of Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ« and Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« on al-á¹¢afadÄ«, see ibid. 106â9 (esp. 107âregarding Ibn Ḥajar: âthe use of al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs pattern of episodes is ⦠obviousâ; and 108âregarding Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«: â[h]aving made a generous use of al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs biographyâ). On the reliance of Ibn Ḥajar on al-á¹¢afadÄ«, see also Brack, Mongol 358.
Bauden, TaqÄ« al-DÄ«n 192: âthe letters alif, bÄʾ, tÄʾ, thÄʾ, jÄ«m, ḥÄʾ, and khÄʾ, part of the letters á¹Äʾ and Ê¿ayn, a tiny part of the letters kÄf and lÄm, and finally the letter mÄ«m.â
Ibid. 194.
Ibid. 192.
Ibid. 194â5.
Bauden, Maqriziana XI 126â31 (esp. 131).
Mauder, Gelehrte 61. Mauder mentions that only further research will determine if the materials were taken from the WÄfÄ« or AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, see ibid. 61â2. Still, based on Baudenâs research and my findings (see below, footnote 105), the default assumption should be that materials were taken from the WÄfÄ«.
For example, in the biographical entry of Baktamur al-SÄqÄ« (d. 733/1333) in the MuqaffÄ, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« refers to him as mamlÅ«k QaramÄn as in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, and this appellation does not appear in the WÄfÄ«; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 468; al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 148. Compare also the biography of Aytamush al-MuḥammadÄ« (d. 736/1336) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 335â42 (esp. 342) with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 329â34 (esp. 329â30, 332).
See the biographical entry of Aydamur (DuqmÄq), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 370 (no. 892); al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 215â6. See also the biographical entry of Ṭughluq al-AshrafÄ« (d. 735/1335), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ iv, 26 (no. 1417); al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 277. And see also the biographical entry of BalabÄn al-BaysarÄ« (d. 736/1335â6), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 491 (no. 968); al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 337.
The biographical entry of BalabÄn al-ḤusÄmÄ« (d. 736/1336), see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 490.
For example, the information regarding the Mongol origin of BaydarÄ al-ManṣūrÄ« (d. 693/1293) and KaratÄy (d. 698/1298â9), see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 562; iv, 31; al-Ê¿AynÄ«, Ê¿Iqd iii, 216â7, 486.
Little, Recovery 49, 52.
Little (following Rosenthal) mentions five references to the work of al-YÅ«sufÄ« in Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs al-Durar al-kÄmina (one in the biographical entry of al-YÅ«sufÄ« and four quotations), see ibid. 43, 45. In fact, there are ten references (one in the biographical entry of al-YÅ«sufÄ« and nine quotations). For the quotations, see Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 270, 367, 544; ii, 52, 161, 248, 404; iv, 5, 76. Four persons, whose biographical entries in al-Durar al-kÄmina contain a quotation from al-YÅ«sufÄ«, have also a biographical entry in the MuqaffÄ. Materials in three of these biographical entries in the MuqaffÄ show resemblance to the quoted materials from al-YÅ«sufÄ«. Significantly, al-á¹¢afadÄ«, one of the most important sources in al-Durar al-kÄmina and the MuqaffÄ, could not have been the source in any of these three cases. Compare the biography of the religous scholar Ibn al-ZamalkÄnÄ« in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vi, 316 (lines 3â10, esp. lines 7â8) with Ibn Ḥajar, Durar iv, 76 (lines 10â6, esp. lines 13â4); significantly, Ibn al-ZamalkÄnÄ« has no biographical entry in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«, and the biography in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r does not seem to have been the source; see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, AÊ¿yÄn iv, 632 (lines 1â4). Compare also the biography of IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l al-KurdÄ« in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 87 (lines 12â7, esp. 12â5) with Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 367 (lines 14â9, esp. 16â8); significantly, IsmÄÊ¿Ä«l al-KurdÄ« has no biographical entry in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ«, and the biography in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r does not seem to have been the source; see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, AÊ¿yÄn i, 499. And compare the short biography of Jawhar al-ṬawÄshÄ« in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ iii, 112 with Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 544 (no. 1471); significantly, Jawhar al-ṬawÄshÄ« has no biographical entries in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs biographical dictionaries.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 130. Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« refers to information mentioned by the author of the biography of al-NÄá¹£ir (jÄmiÊ¿ al-SÄ«ra al-NÄá¹£iriyya), and the information is actually found in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, see al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 221. So far, explicit references to al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs chronicle in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs works were found only in the Khiá¹aá¹ where al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« often mentions his sources; see Little, Analysis 261. In the Khiá¹aá¹, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« refers to al-YÅ«sufÄ« as jÄmiÊ¿ al-SÄ«ra al-NÄá¹£iriyya or as jÄmiÊ¿ SÄ«rat al-NÄá¹£ir Muḥammad b. QalÄwÅ«n, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Khiá¹aá¹ i, 92, 166; ii, 240; iii, 255, 289, 348. Once, he refers to him by name: muʾallif al-SÄ«ra al-NÄá¹£iriyya MÅ«sÄ b. Muḥammad b. YaḥyÄ aḥad muqaddamÄ« al-ḥalqa; see ibid. iv, 60. It may be added that in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions that he found some information regarding an event that happened in 702/1302â3 in al-SÄ«ra al-NÄá¹£iriyya Muḥammad b. QalÄwÅ«n, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d iii, 45â6. All these references should also make clear that references in Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn to SÄ«rat al-NÄá¹£ir are in fact references to Nuzhat al-nÄáºir; see Little, Introduction 81 (footnote 5); Recovery 43. In fact, Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ« refers to al-SÄ«ra al-NÄá¹£iriyya written by al-YÅ«sufÄ« (al-SÄ«ra al-NÄá¹£iriyya lil-YÅ«sufÄ«); see Ibn Ḥajar, Durar ii, 52.
Little, Recovery 47.
It should be mentioned here that I was working with the printed edition of the MuqaffÄ. Bauden noted that the editor of the MuqaffÄ did not realize that dozens of notices were added in the autograph manuscript of the work, probably after the death of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, by his colleague Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«; see Bauden, TaqÄ« al-DÄ«n 193â4. Since I did not consult the manuscript I do not know if some of the biographical entries of amirs who died after ca. 760/1358â9 were in fact added by Ibn Ḥajar.
See ibid. 171, 191.
The biographical entry of Aydamur al-ḤillÄ« (d. 667/1269), see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 352 (no. 878); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« x, 5 (no. 4457); and the biographical entry of Aydamur al-Ê¿AlÄʾī (d. 676/1277â8), see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 361â2 (no. 883); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« x, 6 (no. 4458).
Little, Recovery 47.
Al-Ê¿AynÄ«, Ê¿Iqd iii, 29. As far as I know, this has gone unnoticed so far. In fact, Little thought that the first reference to Nuzhat al-nÄáºir in Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn was in the year 690/1291; see Little, Recovery 50. The reference to Nuzhat al-nÄáºir fÄ« dawlatay al-Manṣūr wa-l-NÄá¹£ir in Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn was in the year 689/1290.
In the extant parts of Nuzhat al-nÄáºir there are fewer obituaries of religious scholars than of amirs, and not many of them appear in the extant parts of the MuqaffÄ. Still, the biographical entry of the religious scholar Ibn Sayyid al-NÄs (d. 734/1334) in the MuqaffÄ relies heavily on his obituary in Nuzhat al-nÄáºir; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 130â1; al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 217â24. The reliance of the MuqaffÄ on Nuzhat al-nÄáºir in biographical entries of religious scholars is also suggested by a comparison between quotations of Nuzhat al-nÄáºir in al-Durar al-kÄmina and material in the MuqaffÄ; see footnote 92 above. For examples of biographical entries of amirs in the MuqaffÄ that rely on the WÄfÄ«, see the biographical entry of BaktÅ«t al-MuḥammadÄ« (d. 686/1287â8), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 479 (no. 947); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« x, 201 (no. 4682). See also the biographical entry of Baktamur al-SÄqÄ«, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 468â74 (no. 939); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« x, 193â7 (no. 4677). For examples of biographical entries of civilians in the MuqaffÄ that rely on the WÄfÄ«, see the biographical entry of the kÄtib Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Hibat AllÄh al-ShÄ«rÄzÄ« (d. 682/1283â4), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 98â9 (no. 3182); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 201â2 (no. 126). See also the biographical entry of the wazÄ«r Ibn ḤannÄ (d. 707/1307), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 111â7 (no. 3202); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 217â28 (no. 146). See also the biographical entry of the religious scholar Ibn DaqÄ«q al-ʿĪd (d. 718/1318â9), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 123â4 (no. 3212); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 247â8 (no. 160). And see the biographical entry of the religious scholar Ibn al-QawbaÊ¿ (d. 738/1338), al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 38â42 (no. 3108); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 238â47 (no. 159).
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions in the SulÅ«k that in the MuqaffÄ one may find a biographical entry of the amir Ashaqtamur al-MÄridÄnÄ« (d. 791/1389); see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k iii, 238. However, it is not to be found there, although the extant parts of the MuqaffÄ contain names that start with alif-shÄ«n. On the other hand, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d contains a biographical entry of Ashaqtamur al-MÄridÄnÄ«; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 426â7 (no. 347). This perhaps suggests that at first, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« planned to include in the MuqaffÄ also biographical entries of notables who lived during his lifetime but eventually moved them to Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d.
The number and percentage of Mamluk civilians who died after ca. 760/1358â9 is also relatively low; however, their percentage is perhaps somewhat higher than that of mamlÅ«k amirs. According to my count, in the index of the first volume of the MuqaffÄ (notably containing the names Aḥmad and IbrÄhÄ«m) there are about 240 biographical entries of civilians who died during the Mamluk period. Among them, 22 died after 764/1363 (one in 773/1371â2, one in 775/1373â4, 15 in the years 790â806/1388â1404, and five in 815/1412â3 or after). The spread is somewhat different than that of amirs. Whereas about nine percent of Mamluk civilians died after 764/1363, only about four percent of mamlÅ«k amirs died after that year.
For example, compare the biography of AqÅ«sh al-ShihÄbÄ« (d. 678/1279â80) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 235 (no. 809) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 164; the biography in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ« could not have been the source; see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 324 (no. 4259). Compare also the biography of Alá¹unbÄ/Alá¹unbughÄ al-Ḥimṣī (d. 678/1280) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 283 (no. 834) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 164; note that Alá¹unbÄ/Alá¹unbughÄ has no biographical entry in the WÄfÄ«. Compare also the biography of Aybak al-Shaykh (d. 678/1280) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 326 (no. 858) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 164; note that Aybak has no biographical entry in the WÄfÄ«. Compare also the biographical entry of BalabÄn al-NawfalÄ« (d. 678/1279â80) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 484 (no. 952) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 164; the biography in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ« could not have been the source, see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« x, 281 (no. 4785). Compare also the biographical entry of BalabÄn al-MushrifÄ« (d. 678/1279â80) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 484 (no. 951) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 165; the biography in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ« could not have been the source, see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« x, 281 (no. 4786). Compare also the biographical entry of al-ḤÄjj Azdamur (d. 680/1281) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 34â5 (no. 707: esp. 34 line 9 and 35 lines 1â4) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 236â7 (esp. 236 lines 11â2, 15 and 237 lines 1â3); the biography in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs WÄfÄ« could not have been the source, see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« viii, 370 (no. 3803). And compare also the biographical entry of Baybars al-RashÄ«dÄ« (d. 680/1281) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 530 (no. 1000) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 237; note that Baybars has no biographical entry in the WÄfÄ«. And compare also the biographical entry of BaktÅ«t al-KhazandÄr (d. 680/1281) in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 475 (no. 941) with Ibn al-FurÄt, TaʾrÄ«kh vii, 237; note that BaktÅ«t has no biographical entry in the WÄfÄ«.
Bauden, Taqī al-Dīn 194.
There are not too many signs for a reliance on AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r in the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh al-AshrafÄ« in the MuqaffÄ. There are no anecdotes in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r that do not appear in the WÄfÄ«. On the other hand, there is one anecdote in the WÄfÄ« (appendix A, the WÄfÄ« section C11) that appears in the MuqaffÄ (appendix A, the MuqaffÄ section D12) but does not appear in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r. In a few cases there is a variance in the wording in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r and the WÄfÄ«, and the MuqaffÄ has the versions from the WÄfÄ«; see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 338 (line 20); AÊ¿yÄn i, 581 (lines 7â8); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 254 (lines 19â20); and see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336 (lines 9â10); AÊ¿yÄn i, 578 (lines 16â7); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 256 (lines 7â8); and see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336 (line 12); AÊ¿yÄn i, 579 (line 2); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 256 (line 9); and see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336 (line 17); AÊ¿yÄn i, 579 (lines 6â7); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 256 (line 12); and see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 338 (line 19); AÊ¿yÄn i, 581 (line 7); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 254 (line 17). It is possible, however, that in two cases, the MuqaffÄ was following AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 251 (line 17); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 337 (line 14); AÊ¿yÄn i, 579 (line 16); and see also al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 257 (lines 5â6); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 338 (lines 10â1); AÊ¿yÄn i, 580 (line 15).
In Ê¿Iqd al-jumÄn the name of AqÅ«sh appears as AqÅ«sh BurnÄq in a list of amirs upon the ascendance to the throne of al-Manṣūr QalÄwÅ«n in 678/1279, but it does not appear in an obituary; see al-Ê¿AynÄ«, Ê¿Iqd, iii, 228. Of course, it is very likely that al-Ê¿AynÄ« took this appellation from al-YÅ«sufÄ«.
See al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 342 (line 2: wa-kÄna yulaqqabu ⦠bi-l-BurnÄq li-kibar anfihi).
Some of the anecdotes are connected to events in the life of Aqūsh, so it is possible to date them (in appendix A the date is mentioned in brackets in such cases); however, the date is normally not mentioned by al-Yūsufī or al-Ṣafadī.
Compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 248 (line 17)â249 (line 1) with SulÅ«k ii, 193 (lines 13â4).
Another example for this may be found in the biographical entry of Baktamur al-SÄqÄ« in the MuqaffÄ. Right after mentioning his name and the fact that he was originally a slave of al-Muáºaffar Baybars, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« refers to the fact that he was known at that period as mamlÅ«k QaramÄn; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 468. This information appears only in al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, see al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 148. So, clearly, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« opened the biographical entry of Baktamur with information from Nuzhat al-nÄáºir because he could find there information concerning the earliest period of Baktmaur in the Mamluk Sultanate that does not appear in any other source.
See at footnote 85 above.
In two instances I could not identify the source for the information in the MuqaffÄ (B2 and B4).
According to Little, anecdotal material from the historical narrative of chronicles was incorporated in biographies only in very rare and untypical cases; see Little, Introduction 134. The incorporation of story-like reports from the historical narrative of the Nuzha in the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in the MuqaffÄ proves otherwise. Little also mentioned that in biographies of rulers, a certain fusion of the annalistic and biographic forms may be found, âwhen not just a chronological sequence of the important events in the rulerâs life is given but an annualâannalisticârésumé of the important events which occurred during his reign is recordedâ; see ibid. 100. The incorporation of chronologically arranged material from the historical narrative of the SulÅ«k in the biographical entry of AqÅ«sh in the MuqaffÄ shows that the phenomenon was much more common and, more importantly, proves that the biographies and annals have some common materials. For the phenomenon in other Circassian-period biographies, see below.
This will be discussed below in more detail.
An interesting case is a bare statement of fact about the building of a mosque by AqÅ«sh (âhe had built a mosqueâ) that appears in the MuqaffÄ in the section of anecdotes before an anecdote about his charity and generosity during Ramaá¸Än, and at first glance, it seems out of place. However, it was originally the opening of an anecdote about generosity in the Nuzha which was truncated by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«. Apparently, he could not fix the date of the building of the mosque, so he left the statement about its building in the anecdotal section (see MuqaffÄ D4). As far as I know, no historian mentions the date of the building of the mosque. Moreover, in his Khiá¹aá¹, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« has only a very short entry for this mosque, with no details regarding the date of its construction, and it is mentioned that the mosque was in ruins already in 806/1403â4, so it is quite possible that the date of its construction was lost, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Khiá¹aá¹ iv, 115.
On al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs âchronological arrangement of his stories wherever the available material allowed for such a set-upâ in his al-Dhahab al-masbÅ«k, a practice that âprioritises chronography over literary aesthetics as a guiding principle,â see Van Steenbergen, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs 195, 197.
For examples of standardized utterances in direct speech, compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 252 (lines 8â9) with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 192 (lines 9â12); and compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 253 (lines 17â8) with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 238 (lines 24â5). As in the SulÅ«k, the occasional slip of an Äsh may be found, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 254 (line 20).
For a truly magnificent story in the style of ḥukm QarÄqÅ«sh, however, one should go to the Nuzha, (section E2 in the Nuzha). On collections of stories on the high-ranking AyyÅ«bid officer BahÄʾ al-DÄ«n QarÄqÅ«sh (d. 597/1201), and his image as an âodd personalityâ whose âextraordinary decisionsâ exemplified âpeculiarityâ and sometimes even injustice; see, for example, Shoshan, Popular 356â7. On the comic nature of these stories or âjokes,â see ibid., Jokes. On the attribution of such decisions to mamlÅ«k amirs, see ibid., Popular 357â8.
As mentioned, in the extant parts of Nuzhat al-nÄáºir there are fewer obituaries of religious scholars than of amirs, and not many of them appear in the extant parts of the MuqaffÄ. Therefore, the pattern of restructuring and âliterarizationâ in biographical entries of civilians in the MuqaffÄ may be examined mainly by a comparison with biographical entries in the WÄfÄ«. For an example of a biographical entry of a Mamluk civilian in the MuqaffÄ relying on the WÄfÄ«, however, structured in chronological order, subordinating some anecdotes to chronology and leaving at the end room for nonchronological anecdotes, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ i, 260â2 (no. 306); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« vi, 97â8 (no. 2527).
See, for example, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ i, 99â100 (no. 49), 120â1 (no. 83), 242â3 (no. 277); vii, 52â3 (no. 3123), 54â5 (no. 3128), 58â61 (no. 3135). In some of the cases, the biographical entry in the MuqaffÄ relies on the WÄfÄ«, including in the quotation of poetry, compare for example al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ i, 117â8 (no. 78) with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« v, 338 (no. 2406); and compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ i, 165â6 (no. 152) with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« v, 356â8 (no. 2436); and compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ i, 260â2 (no. 306) with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« vi, 97â8 (no. 2527); and compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 26â7 (no. 3092) with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 203 (no. 127); and compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 30â1 (no. 3098) with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 204â5 (no. 129); and compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 64â6 (no. 3141) with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 249â58 (no. 162); and compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ vii, 111â7 (no. 3202) with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« i, 217â28 (no. 146).
On poetry in al-á¹¢afadÄ«âs biographical dictionaries, see Bauer, Communication 109; Conermann, Tankiz 19.
Normally, biographical dictionaries written during the Circassian period focus mainly on contemporary notables from different social backgrounds (for example, Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs Dhayl al-Durar al-kÄmina, al-SakhÄwÄ«âs al-á¸awʾ al-lÄmiÊ¿, and al-Malaá¹Ä«âs al-MajmaÊ¿ al-mufannan), or restricted to a specific social group, normally religious scholars (for example, Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs RafÊ¿ al-iá¹£r and Ibn QÄá¸Ä« Shuhbaâs ṬabaqÄt al-ShÄfiÊ¿iyya).
See especially appendix A sections B3, B5, and C3 in al-Durar al-kÄmina.
Because of the condensed nature of the biography in al-Durar al-kÄmina, and because of the resemblance of material in the WÄfÄ« and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, most of the times it is difficult to know if Ibn Ḥajar relied on the WÄfÄ« or AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, see Little, Introduction 107 (footnote 2). However, in the biography of AqÅ«sh there is one case of a significant variance in the order of presentation of anecdotes in the WÄfÄ« and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r. Whereas in the WÄfÄ« anecdotes about generosity appear in the fourth place out of eleven anecdotes, in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r they appear last, right at the end of the biographical entry. Moreover, there is also variance between the WÄfÄ« and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r concerning the internal order of the presentation of the anecdotes on generosity. Al-Durar al-kÄmina follows the internal order of anecdotes about generosity in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, and more broadly, the general order of presentation of anecdotes in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r (see appendix A, section C3 in al-Durar al-kÄmina and compare to section C4 in the WÄfÄ«). For a possible reliance of al-Durar al-kÄmina on AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r in another biographical entry, see chapter 2 table 2.1 (no. 1). On the reliance of al-Durar al-kÄmina on AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, see also Gharaibeh, Narrative. It should be mentioned that in the introduction of al-Durar al-kÄmina, Ibn Ḥajar mentions AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r as a source but does not mention the WÄfÄ«; see ibid. 55â6. In appendix A, the source for units of information taken from al-á¹¢afadÄ« is assumed to be AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r also in other cases, although a reliance on the WÄfÄ« cannot be unequivocally ruled out. In any case, I have also mentioned in the appendix the parallel unit in the WÄfÄ« and other relevant differences between AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r and the WÄfÄ«.
See especially appendix A sections B2, B4, B5, and C2 in al-Durar al-kÄmina. The truncated anecdotes turned into statements are in red color.
Little, Introduction 107. Brack noted the same phenomenon in another biographical entry in al-Durar al-kÄmina; see Brack, Mongol 358.
Bauden, TaqÄ« al-DÄ«n 193â4; Gardiner, Esotericism 250â1.
He does not seem to have jumped back and forth much between different sections, and even within sections. See the comments in sections B4, C2, and C4 in al-Durar al-kÄmina.
A two-page story-like report taken from the MuqaffÄ, which is based on a much more detailed story-like report from the Nuzha, is reduced to a six-line report. It is, in fact, the only report in al-Durar al-kÄmina that perhaps retains some qualities of a story (see section B8 in al-Durar al-kÄmina).
This is not to say that such elements do not appear in al-Durar al-kÄmina at all. For an example of a long dialogue that appears in a quotation from the Nuzha, see Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 270â1.
Haarmann, Auflösung 54. Bauer noted also that in al-Durar al-kÄmina, Ibn Ḥajar did not incorporate much poetry written by scholars; see Bauer, Literarische 108.
In RafÊ¿ al-iá¹£r, dedicated to Egyptian judges throughout the Islamic period, it is possible to find long biographical entries that contain long and comprehensive life résumés basically arranged chronologically. However, because Ibn Ḥajar brings information from several sources, there are at times repetitions, and general assessments are incorporated within the chronological life résumé. Ibn Ḥajar incorporates chronologically many anecdotes or story-like reports in the life résumé and less often leaves room at the end of the entry for nonchronological anecdotes or story-like reports. Sometimes he mentions at the end poetry verses composed by the judges. This is true for entries of judges of the past and his contemporaries, see for example Ibn Ḥajar, RafÊ¿ 27â31 (no. 3), 41â2 (no. 11), 81â3 (no. 36), 169â71 (no. 81), 233â7 (no. 115), 241â3 (no. 119), 339â41 (no. 176).
In the case of al-Manhal al-á¹£ÄfÄ« it is possible to demonstrate that his source was the WÄfÄ« and not AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r. In cases of variance between the WÄfÄ« and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r the Manhal follows the WÄfÄ«, see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336 (lines 9â10); AÊ¿yÄn i, 578 (lines 16â7); Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, Manhal iii, 28 (lines 3â4); and see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336 (line 17); AÊ¿yÄn i, 579 (lines 6â7); Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, Manhal iii, 28 (line 11). Most importantly, as mentioned, there is one significant difference in the order of the presentation of anecdotes in the WÄfÄ« and AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r. Whereas in the WÄfÄ«, the anecdotes about generosity appear in the fourth place out of eleven anecdotes (see appendix A WÄfÄ« C4), in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, they appear last, right at the end of the biographical entry; see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, AÊ¿yÄn i, 581 (line 13)â582 (line 1). In addition, in the WÄfÄ«, the internal order of anecdotes on generosity is âhe always paid for the expenses of his servants in expeditions,â and then âhis simÄá¹ in Ramaá¸Än.â In AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, it is the opposite. The Manhal follows the general order of the presentation of anecdotes in the WÄfÄ« and also the internal order of the presentation of anecdotes regarding generosity in the WÄfÄ« (see section C3 in the Manhal).
See, however, the footnotes in sections B and C4 in the Manhal.
The MuqaffÄ has one dialogue and five utterances in direct speech, and the Manhal has one dialogue and only two utterances in direct speech.
See, for example, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, Manhal iii, 279â82 (no. 654), 375â80 (no. 671); iv, 313â24 (no. 850). For a similar trend in obituary notes in al-NujÅ«m al-zÄhira, see, for example, ibid., NujÅ«m xv, 478â9 (the biography of SÅ«dÅ«n al-MaghribÄ«); xv, 530â2 (the biography of TaghrÄ«birmish al-JalÄlÄ«).
For a representative example, compare ibid., Manhal iii, 376 (line 12)â378 (line 13) with NujÅ«m xi, 373 (line 9)â375 (line 19). Of course, the sources of the chronologically arranged material in the Manhal should be further explored in a detailed manner.
For an example of a biographical entry of amir that incorporates anecdotes or story-like reports chronologically within a comprehensive life résumé, see al-Malaá¹Ä«, MajmaÊ¿ 576â7 (no. 776). For a similar pattern in a biography of a religious scholar, see ibid. 185â7 (no. 197). For a similar pattern in obituary notes in al-RawḠal-bÄsim, see ibid., RawḠii, 117â9 (no. 133), 185â7 (no. 172).
Biographical entries of religious scholars sometimes contain long and comprehensive life résumés basically arranged chronologically but incorporating anecdotes. Like in RafÊ¿ al-iá¹£r, however, because al-SakhÄwÄ« normally brings information from several sources, there are at times repetitions, and general assessments are incorporated within the chronological life résumé (see footnote 132 above). Sometimes, al-SakhÄwÄ« leaves room at the end of the entry for anecdotes or story-like reports next to the general assessment or general description and next to poetry verses composed by the scholars; see, for example, al-SakhÄwÄ«, á¸awʾ i, 17 (line 24)â20 (line 17), 24 (line 3)â25 (line 9), 37 (line 7)â39 (line 12).
See, for example, the biographical entries of the amirs named SÅ«dÅ«n, al-SakhÄwÄ«, á¸awʾ iii, 275â87 (nos. 1047â91, esp. nos. 1052, 1064, 1066). Numbers 1055 and 1084 contain story-like materials, however, with no utterances in direct speech. Anyway, they are not al-SakhÄwÄ«âs contemporaries.
See al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 426â7 (no. 437), 491â2 (no. 373), 493â5 (no. 375), 573â4 (no. 383), 574â80 (no. 384); ii, 103â5 (no. 492), 198â9 (no. 530), 498â500 (no. 812); iii, 24â5 (no. 911), 420â6 (no. 1365), 513â8 (no. 1426), 534â5 (no. 1440). Joseph Drory noted that in the biography of Timur Leng in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« relied on Ibn Ê¿ArabshÄh (d. 854/1450) but omitted all the flowery rhymed prose âinserting instead an ordinary, mundane description replete with dates, places and informative detailsâ; see Drory, MaqrÄ«zÄ« 394.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 426â7 (no. 437).
Ashaqtamur has a four-line obituary in Ibn al-FurÄt, see TaʾrÄ«kh ix, 176 (lines 4â7). Ashaqtamur also has a one-line obituary in InbÄʾ al-ghumr, see Ibn Ḥajar, InbÄʾ i, 357. He has a biographical entry in al-Durar al-kÄmina and an obituary in the chronicle of Ibn QÄá¸Ä« Shuhba that are shorter than the entry in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d and could not have been the source for all the material in it. On the other hand, it is quite possible that Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d served them as a source (to be further examined); see Ibn QÄá¸Ä« Shuhba, TaʾrÄ«kh i, 306â7; Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 389.
Compare al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 426 (lines 3â4) with SulÅ«k iii, 84 (lines 8â9); and compare Durar i, 426 (lines 5â6) with SulÅ«k iii, 96 (lines 8â9); and compare Durar i, 426 (lines 7â8) with SulÅ«k iii, 120 (lines 3â4); and compare Durar i, 426 (lines 13â5) with SulÅ«k iii, 195 (lines 2â3); and compare Durar i, 426 (line 18)â427 (line 4) with SulÅ«k iii, 237 (line 17)â238 (line 5); and compare Durar i, 427 (lines 5â7) with SulÅ«k iii, 331 (lines 1â3); and compare Durar i, 427 (lines 8â10) with SulÅ«k iii, 358 (lines 8â14); and compare Durar i, 427 (lines 10â1) with SulÅ«k iii, 389 (lines 15â6); and compare Durar i, 427 (lines 11â2) with SulÅ«k iii, 466 (lines 12â4). Of course, most of the material in the SulÅ«k was probably taken from the chronicle of Ibn al-FurÄt.
For example, the biographical entry of al-Ashraf BarsbÄy (d. 841/1438); see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 456â82 (no. 364). In fact, at the end of the entry al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« directs the reader to the SulÅ«k for a more detailed account, see ibid. i, 482. On a certain fusion of the annalistic and biographic forms in biographies of rulers, see Little, Introduction 100. On exceptionally long biographical entries in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, including that of al-Ashraf BarsbÄy, see Drory, MaqrÄ«zÄ« 393.
Bauden, Taqī al-Dīn 166, 182.
See for example al-Maqrīzī, Durar i, 488 (no. 369).
Ibid. ii, 100â1 (no. 490).
Ibid. iii, 24â5 (no. 911).
Ibid. iii, 534â5 (no. 1440).
See at footnote 140 above.
For a rare short story-like report on a mamlūk amir that contains no utterances in direct speech, see Ibn Ḥajar, Dhayl 68.
See footnotes 136 and 138 above.
See, for example, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 79â80 (no. 23), 85â91 (no. 31), 106â9 (no. 36), 166 (no. 96), 167 (no. 97), 169â70 (no. 100), 183 (no. 117), 254â5 (no. 162); ii, 48 (no. 428), 82 (no. 457), 237 (no. 563), 252â3 (no. 580), 320 (no. 627), 351â2 (no. 681), 438â9 (no. 741), 498 (no. 811), 528â9 (no. 845); iii, 34â5 (no. 915), 41 (no. 918), 63 (no. 940), 89 (no. 969), 111â2 (no. 999), 126 (no. 1012), 260 (no. 1157), 291â2 (no. 1233), 321â3 (no. 1248), 336 (no. 1273), 372 (no. 1323), 526â7 (no. 1437).
See at footnote 139 above.
Such elements may ocassionaly be found in Dhayl al-Durar al-kÄmina; see, for example, Ibn Ḥajar, Dhayl 64, 73, 80 (no direct speech), 85 (no direct speech), 88 (no direct speech), 94. They are very common, however, in Ibn Ḥajarâs RafÊ¿ al-iá¹£r, see at footnote 132 above.
See, for example, footnote 138 above.
Al-Maqrīzī, Durar ii, 48 (no. 428).
Ibid. ii, 320 (no. 627).
Ibid. i, 183 (no. 117); ii, 237 (no. 563).
For a story-like report on a religious scholar incorporated chronologically in his life résumé involving a prediction of the future with Quranic bibliomancy (al-faʾl fÄ« l-QurʾÄn), see ibid. i, 79â80 (no. 23: âfataḥa al-muṣḥaf li-akhdh al-faʾlâ); on bibliomancy in the Islamicate world, see Melvin-Koushki, Defense 356. For an anecdote on a religious scholar appearing at the end of his entry and involving predictions on the date of his death (including al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs prediction) based on astrology/astronomy (al-naáºar fÄ« l-nujÅ«m) and popular beliefs (based in part on Prophetic sayings), see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 99 (no. 32). For an anecdote on a religious scholar appearing at the end of his entry and involving predictions (which were fulfilled) about his life and death in drowning based on his astrological birth chart (mawlid raá¹£adÄ«), see ibid. iii, 32 (no. 914).
Ibid. ii, 98â9 (no. 488). In this case al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« dreamt several dreams, not about a religious scholar but about his wife, which predicted her death. One cannot but recall al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä«âs dreams in his chronicle (see chapter 2 footnotes 143â5). Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« had also a dream that was interpreted for him by experts, which predicted the birth of his son, see ibid. iii, 132 (no. 1021).
Ibid. ii, 252â3 (no. 580).
Ibid. ii, 99 (no. 488); iii, 63 (no. 940).
Ibid. i, 166 (no. 96); ii, 252â3 (no. 580). On dream accounts in Mamluk chronicles (sometimes related to the Prophet and sometimes related to divination), see Frenkel, Dream.
Al-Maqrīzī, Durar ii, 82 (no. 457); iii, 89 (no. 969), 260 (no. 1157).
For example, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions a scholar who had an astonishing capability (kÄnat fÄ«-hi uÊ¿jÅ«ba)âwhen told a story or recited a poem, he could immediately tell the number of the letters that comprised it, see ibid. i, 169 (no. 100); or a scholar who could read poetry verses handed to him on a paper without looking at them but only by feeling the paper with his fingers, see ibid. i, 167 (no. 97); or a scholar who had the ability to perform âmetamorphosisâ (taá¹awwur), so people could not recognize him, see ibid. ii, 528â9 (no. 845); or a scholar who is said to have been able to make his mule march according to the rhythm of music, see ibid. iii, 126 (no. 1012).
Ibid. i, 169â70 (no. 100); ii, 351â2 (no. 681); iii, 291â2 (no. 1233), 526â7 (no. 1437).
At least anecdotes or stories on karÄmÄt (âwonder-working,â âmiracle-working,â or âmanipulation of metaphysical powerâ) or dreams dreamt about scholars may occasionally be found in Mamluk biographical dictionaries, especially those dedicated to religious scholars. While such anecdotes were normally connected to Sufis and while âMuslim sainthood has been studied almost exclusively in Sufi contexts,â it has been noted that starting from the 4th/10th century, and more conspicuously during the AyyÅ«bid and Mamluk periods, âthe notion of sainthood and the feasibility of karÄmÄt became widely acknowledged well beyond the Sufi milieuâ; see Talmon-Heller, Ê¿Ilm 29â30; and see also ibid. 25â6. Talmon-Heller observed that as a result â[g]eneral (as opposed to Sufi) biographical dictionaries, and the wafayÄt sections of chroniclesâ contain âanecdotes that relate the wondrous doings of learned menâ; see ibid. 32, 40. In Ibn Rajabâs (d. 795/1393) al-Dhayl Ê¿alÄ á¹¬abaqÄt al-ḤanÄbila, Talmon found that karÄmÄt are ascribed to 27 out of 613 biographees (about five percent), and in TÄj al-DÄ«n al-SubkÄ«âs (d. 771/1370) ṬabaqÄt al-ShÄfiÊ¿iyya al-kubrÄ â[s]lightly more than six percent of the entries relate wondrous doings or occurrencesâ; see ibid. 33â4. Some of the anecdotes involve dreams; see ibid. 42â3. And see, for example, al-SubkÄ«, ṬabaqÄt x, 45, 80, 131â2, 210â6, 267, 316. On (posthumous) dreams dreamt about ḤanbalÄ« shaykhs or local saints, some predicting the future, that appear in Ibn Rajabâs al-Dhayl Ê¿alÄ á¹¬abaqÄt al-ḤanÄbila, see Romanov, Dreaming 31â2, 38â41, 44â5. The incorporation of anecdotes on karÄmÄt and dreams in Mamluk biographical dictionaries must be related to what may be called the âṣūfÄ«zation of Muslim societyâ or âpopularization of Sufism in AyyÅ«bid and Mamluk Egyptâ; see Hofer, Popularization; Mazor, Topos 104. On âṣūfÄ«zationâ and trends of âliterarizationâ in Mamluk historiography, see also below at footnotes 246â63. Still, it seems to me that anecdotes on karÄmÄt and dreams are more conspicuous in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d than in Mamluk biographical dictionaries dedicated to religious scholars. It is certainly more conspicuous in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d in comparison to other Mamluk general biographical dictionaries dedicated to amirs and scholars (and other civilians).
Ê¿Ilm, (expert) knowledge or learning (or rather religious learning), and adab are to some extent interchangeable terms; see Hämeen-Anttila, Adab. Adab may generally be defined as âsuitable things to know and to act upon.â The term denotes primarily âgeneral knowledgeâ and was used in the meaning of âthe accumulation of the wisdom and learning of the past nations and generationsâ; see ibid.
For example, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 150â1 (no. 87), 192 (no. 121), 207 (no. 127), 247â8 (no. 159); iii, 205 (no. 1110), 379 (no. 1327), 415â6 (no. 1358).
See, for example, ibid. i, 73 (no. 14), 85 (no. 30), 129 (no. 50), 143 (no. 74), 152 (no. 88), 153 (no. 89), 180 (no. 115), 305â6 (no. 215), 422â4 (no. 344); ii, 514â6 (no. 825). Some poetry verses are said to have been given to the scholars in dreams; see, for example, ibid. iii, 58â9 (no. 933).
At times, after mentioning adab-like material related to the scholar, al-Maqrīzī mentions that he also composed poetry (wa-lahu shiʿr) but does not mention the actual verses; see, for example, ibid. i, 81 (no. 26).
See footnote 139 above. And see also al-SakhÄwÄ«, á¸awʾ i, 21, 28â9, 31, 34â6. It seems to me that al-á¸awʾ al-lÄmiÊ¿ contains much more poetry product than Bauer would allow; see Bauer, Literarische 108. Poetry product is occasionally found in Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ«âs Dhayl al-Durar al-kÄmina, see for example Ibn Ḥajar, Dhayl 162, 165, 195, 197. For poetry in biographical entries of contemporary judges in RafÊ¿ al-iá¹£r, see footnote 132 above.
But see footnote 305 below. Some biographical dictionaries dedicated to religious scholars that were written during the 8th/14th century, most notably al-SubkÄ«âs ṬabaqÄt al-ShÄfiÊ¿iyya, contain also scholarsâ knowledge in ḥadÄ«th or other religious sciences and occasionally also linguistic knowledge (defined as useful knowledgeâfawÄʾid), see for example al-SubkÄ«, ṬabaqÄt x, 34â8, 45, 53â61, 82â4, 86â7, 90.
Robert Irwin drew attention to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs interest in the wondrous, divination, and occult matters in general; see Irwin, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« 225â30; Mamluk literature 18, 26; and see also Melvin-Koushki, Defense 370. Irwin also noted that the stress that modern scholars put on al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs interest in history âhas been at the expense of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs wider literary and intellectual interests.â He wrote, for example, a treatise on secret letters and talismans; see Irwin, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« 229. Rabbat, however, gets the credit for drawing attention to the fact that specifically in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« combined in biographical entries of his teachers (most notably Ibn KhaldÅ«n), family members, and other acquaintances, stories filled with âpopular wisdom, vernacular beliefs, and incredible happenings,â which reveal his interest in the supernatural, âespecially when transmitted via prophecies, visions, and dreamsâ; see Rabbat, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs 121, 128; see also, The historian 12â3. On the supernatural in the biographical entry of Ibn KhaldÅ«n in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, see also the editorâs introduction in al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 41. The occult materials in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d normally do not appear in the framework of a learned discussion on the occult sciences but as a presentation of apparently âpopularâ practices (for example, even the slave girl of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« is reported to have practiced geomancy; see ibid. ii, 114). In any case, although â[m]odern scholarship sometimes distinguishes the occult sciences from âfolkâ traditions of magic and divination on the grounds that the former were learned discourses often engaged in by literate actors of relatively high social status,â the distinction âshould be taken with a grain of salt, as relationships between folk and learned discourses typically are quite fluidâ; see Gardiner, Occult 81.
Specifically in biographical entries of eunuchs, however, it is possible to find stories told by them to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, among them exotic stories on their country of origin; see, for example, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 455 (no. 361); ii 97â8 (no. 487); and see also ibid. iii, 416â8 (no. 1362), 419 (no. 1363). In biographical entries of non-mamlÅ«k amirs it is possible to find medical prescriptions recommended by them, their apparently popular beliefs based on their experience, supplications, spells, witticisms and wisdom sayings, historical anecdotes, and wondrous reports told by them, see ibid. ii, 5â6 (no. 389), 8 (no. 392); iii, 438â9 (no. 1378).
Ibid. i, 158â60 (no. 91), 170â1 (no. 101), 173 (no. 103), 276 (no. 190); ii, 336â7 (no. 655), 407â10 (no. 720); iii, 45 (no. 920), 59â60 (no. 934), 198 (no. 1107), 205 (no. 1110), 378â9 (no. 1327), 380â1 (no. 1329), 440 (no. 1379).
Ibid. iii, 95â7 (no. 982), 145â6 (no. 1029).
Ibid. ii, 405 (no. 720).
Ibid. iii, 197 (no. 1107).
Ibid. i, 207 (no. 127); iii, 77 (no. 954), 198â9 (no. 1107).
Ibid. ii, 404 (no. 720).
Ibid. ii, 410 (no. 720); iii, 15â6 (no. 899; in this case in a biographical entry of a Jewish doctor).
Ibid. iii, 134 (no. 1022).
Ibid. ii, 422 (no. 726); iii, 45 (no. 920).
Ibid. ii, 440â1 (no. 744).
Ibid. iii, 56 (no. 929), 71 (no. 948).
Ibid. i, 188â9 (no. 120).
Ibid. ii, 530 (no. 846); iii, 35 (no. 915), 101 (no. 987), 145 (no. 1029), 147 (no. 1030), 437 (no. 1376).
Ibid. ii, 41 (no. 414), 517 (no. 825), 520 (no. 830); iii, 78 (no. 955), 537 (no. 1442).
Ibid. i, 159â60 (no. 91), 173 (no. 103), 192 (no. 121); iii, 78 (no. 955).
Ibid. ii, 297 (no. 612).
Ibid. i, 184â5 (no. 119), 296â7 (no. 213); ii, 297 (no. 612); iii, 35 (no. 915), 152 (no. 1038), 153â4 (no. 1039).
Ibid. i, 99â100 (no. 32), 188 (no. 120); ii, 297 (no. 612), 406 (no. 720); iii, 198 (no. 1107).
Ibid. i, 187â8 (no. 120); iii, 198 (no. 1107), 415â6 (no. 1358).
Ibid. i, 184â5 (no. 119); iii, 203â4 (no. 1110).
Ibid. i, 247â8 (no. 159).
Ibid. iii, 357â8 (no. 1299), 440 (no. 1379).
Ibid. iii, 155 (no. 1041).
Ibid. i, 207 (no. 127). At times the theological knowledge of the scholar is transmitted by him to al-Maqrīzī in a dream after his death, see ibid. iii, 63 (no. 940).
Ibid. iii, 148â9 (no. 1033).
Ibid. i, 151â2 (no. 88).
Ibid. ii, 336â7 (no. 655), 406â10 (no. 720); iii, 59 (no. 934), 74 (no. 952), 135 (no. 1024), 346 (no. 1281). As noted by Syrinx von Hees, reports on Ê¿ajÄʾib in geographical texts or in encyclopedias of natural history (some of these texts conceived as belonging to a so-called genre of âÊ¿ajÄʾib literatureâ), relate most of the times to extraordinary, outstanding, and astonishing phenomena or information in the realm of reality and not necessarily to the fantastic and supernatural (âwondrousâ); see Hees, Astonishing 104â5. In Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, however, it would seem that while definitely not all reports may be considered fantastic, there is a penchant for the fantastic and supernatural.
Al-Maqrīzī, Durar iii, 63 (no. 940).
Ibid. iii, 134 (no. 1022), 148â9 (no. 1033); and see also ibid. iii, 438 (no. 1378).
Ibid. i, 207 (no. 127); iii, 135 (no. 1024), 136â7 (no. 1025), 147 (no. 1030), 159 (no. 1047); and see also ibid. iii, 438 (no. 1378).
Ibid. iii, 358 (no. 1299).
Ibid. ii, 358 (no. 689); iii, 74 (no. 952), 196â7 (no. 1107).
Ibid. ii, 409â10 (no. 720); iii, 70 (no. 947), 132 (no. 1021).
Ibid. i, 81 (no. 26); iii, 132 (no. 1021).
Ibid. i, 150â1 (no. 87).
Ibid. ii, 468â9 (no. 788: âadwiya yutaÊ¿ajjabu minhÄââstrange/extraordinary prescriptions); iii, 15â6 (no. 899; in this case in a biographical entry of a Jewish doctor), 56 (no. 929), 136â7 (no. 1025), 152 (no. 1038), 205 (no. 1110); for prescriptions given by a non-mamlÅ«k amir to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« that involve magical use of parts of the body and excrements of animals, see ibid. ii, 8 (no. 392). On magic and medical advice, see de Somogyi, Magic 265â6.
Al-Maqrīzī, Durar i, 406 (no. 330); iii, 84 (no. 963); and see also iii, 439 (no. 1378).
Ibid. iii, 377â8 (no. 1327).
Ibid. i, 341 (no. 247).
Ibid. i, 166 (no. 96); iii, 56 (no. 929).
Ibid. i, 132 (no. 57), 192 (no. 121).
Ibid. i, 192 (no. 121), 313 (no. 222), 406 (no. 330); ii, 404â9 (no. 720), 463 (no. 782); iii, 134 (no. 1022), 197 (no. 1107), 205 (no. 1110); for a popular belief of a non-mamlÅ«k amir, see ibid. ii, 8 (no. 392), 336 (no. 655). In the introduction of Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions that he wanted to collect useful knowledge (fawÄʾid Ê¿ilm), see ibid. i, 62.
Ibid. i, 154â8 (no. 90).
Ibid. i, 155 (lines 3â19).
Ibid. i, 155 (line 20)â156 (line 11).
And see footnote 300 below.
Ibid. i, 156 (line 12)â157 (line 16).
Ibid. i, 157 (line 17)â158 (line 6).
In the biographical entry of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs father we find the latterâs report on a dream he had, see ibid. ii, 516â7 (no. 827). In the biographical entry of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs maternal grandfather we find many verses of his poetry, see ibid. iii, 255â60 (no. 1157). In the biographical entry of SÅ«l al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs slave girl we find a few of her poetry verses that allude to her knowledge in geomancy; see ibid. ii, 114â5 (no. 507).
Ibid. i, 415 (no. 341, line 9).
Ibid. i, 415 (line 10â3).
Ibid. i, 415 (line 14â20).
Ibid. i, 415 (line 21)â416 (line 2).
Ibid. i, 416 (lines 3â12).
Ibid. i, 416 (lines 13â6).
Ibid. i, 416 (lines 17â9).
Ibid. i, 416 (line 20)â417 (line 6).
Ibid. i, 417 (lines 7â18).
Ibid. i, 417 (lines 19)â418 (line 3).
Ibid. i, 418 (lines 4â22).
On this biographical entry and materials in it, see Rabbat, NisÄʾ. I am presenting here also the material that appears in Rabbatâs article.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 394 (no. 319, lines 20â1).
Ibid. i, 395 (lines 3â8). Rabbat mentions that she transmitted to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« popular medical prescriptions (waá¹£afÄt á¹ibbiyya shaÊ¿biyya); see Rabbat, NisÄʾ.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 395 (lines 9â14).
Ibid. i, 395 (lines 15â7).
Ibid. i, 395 (line 18)â396 (line 11).
Ibid. i, 396 (lines 12â20).
Ibid. i, 396 (lines 21â4). Rabbat refers to popular beliefs (iÊ¿tiqÄdÄt sÄʾida) that she transmitted to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, see Rabbat, NisÄʾ.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 396 (line 25)â397 (line 3).
See footnote 169 above.
Berkey, Popular 142â3; and see Mazor, Topos 104â5; Romanov, Dreaming 31; Talmon-Heller, Ê¿Ilm 40â1. On Sufi shaykhs of common origin that start appearing in increasing numbers in Mamluk historical works in the 9th/15th century, see Behrens-Abouseif, Craftsmen.
Frenkel, Dream 216; NiyazioÄlu, Dream.
Berkey, Popular 143. The science of letters was considered as âthe âscience of the saints,â and thus a secret teaching at the heart of Sufism,â see Gardiner, Forbidden 110; and see also 114â5.
Burak, Section 342.
Ibid; and see Shoshan, Social 53.
Berkey, Popular 18, 20.
Burak, Section 342â3.
McGregor, Notes 201, 204.
Ibid. 208.
Such sayings normally open with min kalÄm/min kalÄmihi, and some appear in the form of a testament, see just for example (such sayings are abundant) Ibn al-Mulaqqin, ṬabaqÄt 7, 13â4, 17, 22â3, 25, 27, 29, 32, 37, 43, 46, 49, 51, 54, 57, 70â1. Wisdom sayings or advices (some in the form of a testament) are also typical of doctors and udabÄʾ, thus they may be found in Ibn AbÄ« Uá¹£aybiÊ¿aâs (d. 668/1269â70) biographical dictionary dedicated to doctors (Ê¿UyÅ«n al-anbÄʾ fÄ« á¹abaqÄt al-aá¹ibbÄʾ) and YÄqÅ«t al-ḤamawÄ«âs (d. 626/1229) biographical dictionary dedicated to udabÄʾ (MuÊ¿jam al-udabÄʾ); see, for example, Ibn AbÄ« Uá¹£aybiÊ¿a, Ê¿UyÅ«n 50â1, 288, 298, 359, 390, 445, 516, 564, 691, 693, 742; YÄqÅ«t al-ḤamawÄ«, MuÊ¿jam i, 185, 271; v, 2107; vi, 2802, 2809. Wise sayings (ḥikam), or edifying sayings (mawÄÊ¿iáº), are also typical of (Mamluk) manÄqib literature of the great imams, such as al-ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« (d. 204/820); see, for example, Ibn KathÄ«r, ManÄqib 231â4, 238â40; Ibn QÄá¸Ä« Shuhba, ManÄqib 82â6. They are not common at all in general biographical dictionaries of religious scholars, and when they do appear there it is normally in entries of persons who were ṣūfÄ«s or doctors (and philosophers).
Supplications are also typical of medical literature as part of the treatment. Ê¿UyÅ«n al-anbÄʾ fÄ« á¹abaqÄt al-aá¹ibbÄʾ mentions several supplications recommended by doctors, see Ibn AbÄ« Uá¹£aybiÊ¿a, Ê¿UyÅ«n 467, 606, 644, 693.
Prescriptions are of course typical of medical literature. Knowledge in medicine and medical advice are also ascribed in (Mamluk) manÄqib literature to Imam al-ShÄfiÊ¿Ä«, see for example Ibn KathÄ«r, ManÄqib 236â8.
See footnote 257 above.
See for example al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 206â7, 404â6; ii, 351â2, 509â10; iii, 70, 132â4, 158â9, 200â5, 355â6, 436â9.
Ibid. i, 415.
See for example ibid. ii, 39â41; iii, 77â8, 101, 196â9.
On such texts, see Bauer, Literarische 109â10. A good example for such a text (though one that postdates al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«) is Nuzhat al-majÄlis wa-muntakhab al-nafÄʾis, composed in Mecca in 884/1479 by the Syrian Sufi Ê¿Abd al-RaḥmÄn b. Ê¿Abd al-SalÄm al-á¹¢affÅ«rÄ«. In the introduction of the text, al-á¹¢affÅ«rÄ« writes that he assembled in the book, among other things, pious tales (akhbÄr ahl al-á¹£alÄḥ/ḥikÄyÄt al-á¹£Äliḥīn), stories (qiá¹£aá¹£), exhortations (zawÄjir/mawÄÊ¿iáº), witticisms (laá¹Äʾif), useful knowledge (fawÄʾid), and medical prescriptions (manÄfiÊ¿ á¹ibbiyya), see al-á¹¢affÅ«rÄ«, Nuzhat i, 3.
This, however, should be explored in detail. What is still missing is a comprehensive survey of themes and motives of âliterarizedâ materials in Mamluk historiography, Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d included, in comparison to Mamluk works of adab or Mamluk literature in general.
See footnote 243 above.
Rabbat, NisÄʾ.
Marzolph, Van Leeuwen, and Wassouf, Arabian ii, 643.
Ibid.
Ibid. 648â9.
Ibid. 644, 649.
Ibid. 643â4.
Ibid. 645, 650.
Ibid. 697.
Ibid. 649.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 132, 188â90, 396; ii, 440â1; iii, 95, 153.
Ibid. i, 188â90; ii, 440â1.
Ibid. i, 188â90.
See ibid. i, 418; and see footnote 237 above.
See ibid. i, 415, 417â8; and see footnote 236 above.
Ibid. i, 218â9.
Ibid. iii, 95â6. And see at footnote 179 above.
Ibid. iii, 145â6.
Ibid. ii, 207â8. And see footnote 204 above.
Ibid. iii, 345â6.
See at footnote 243 above.
Shoshan, Social 51â4.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar ii, 440â1.
Ibid. i, 188â90.
In fact, even stories on persons squandering their inheritance but then being saved by a slave girl appear in texts with a Sufi bent; see, for example, Ibn Ê¿UthmÄn, Murshid 263â4. The same is true of stories on adventurous or miraculous sea travels; see, for example, ibid. 341â2, 405â6, 434, 474 (the story involves the drowning of a ship that leads the hero to a miraculous island with a monkey that behaves like a human being and gives the hero a magic spell that protects him); and see also al-YÄfiÊ¿Ä«, MirʾÄt iii, 318â9. As mentioned, ṣūfÄ« chapters on the petitionary prayer of the sea (ḥizb al-baḥr) included miraculous stories on passengers on the Nile and the Indian Ocean being saved from storms; see footnote 256 above. Sufis were asked for help in cases of the drowning of a ship; see, for example, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, Manhal iii, 264.
See footnote 14 above (1).
On the anthological quality of biographical dictionaries, see Bauer, Literarische 108 (âBesonders stark ist das anthologistische und literarische Element in den Biographiensammlungenâ).
Herzog, Composition 107; and see Bauer, Anthologies (âliterate and semi-literate middle classâ; âwritten for a middle-class publicâ); Literarische 98 (âAnthologien für den âkleinen Mannââ¯â); and see Hirschler, Written 150â1 (â[s]cholars had little use for some of these compilations and their readers and owners were rather traders and craftsmen who could acquire with them basic knowledge, obtain convenient advice and acquaint themselves with learned topics of conversationâ); and see 187 (âtheir writers did not compose them for a learned readership, which would not have had much use for such eclectic works that hardly discussed any topic in detailâ).
We find the poetry of a mamlÅ«kâs descendant who was a tailor (Ê¿ÄnÄ á¹£inÄÊ¿at al-khiyÄá¹a); see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, Durar i, 63 (no. 1). We find also a supplication, a historical anecdote, and a medical prescription of another tailor; see ibid. iii, 136 (no. 1025). There is also a story about a dream by the famous al-DamÄ«rÄ« who started as a tailor; see ibid. iii, 436 (no. 1437). There is advice from a mamlÅ«kâs descendant who was a cloth merchant (tÄjir/simsÄr fÄ« l-bazz); see ibid. i, 132 (no. 57). An anecdote about the gematria of an artisan (yutqinu Ê¿amal Ê¿iddat á¹£anÄʾiÊ¿ bi-yadihi), see ibid. i, 81 (no. 26). A supplication, lamentation, and a story about a saint of a washer of cloths (qaṣṣÄr), who became a ṣūfÄ« but did not leave his occupation and continued to wear the outfit of the commoners (wa-lam yatruk á¹£inÄÊ¿at qiá¹£Ärat al-thiyÄb bi-yadihi wa-lÄ ghayyara ziyy al-Ê¿Ämma), see ibid. i, 206 (no. 127). We have strange and wondrous stories that took place in the bathhouse told by a keeper of a bathhouse (ḥÄris ḥammÄm) and a worker in the bathhouse; see ibid. ii, 440 (no. 744); iii, 380 (no. 1329). We have interpretations of dreams by a practitioner of the craft of weight measurement (á¹£inÄÊ¿at al-qabbÄn); see ibid. iii, 132 (no. 1021). On craftsmen and upstarts appearing in increasing numbers in Mamluk historical works in the 9th/15th century, see Behrens-Abouseif, Craftsmen.
For an example of a case with similar content, see footnote 300 below.
Hirschler, Written 151, 187.
Bauer, Anthologies; and see also, Literarische 102â3.
Hirschler, Written 188; and see Bauer, Literarische 102â3.
Herzog, Composition 114.
Ibid. 115. Interestingly, a popular magical practice labeled as fÄʾida that appears in the anthology of YÅ«nus al-MÄlikÄ« appears also in a biographical entry of a scholar in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d as part of his knowledge that was transmitted to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«; see YÅ«nus al-MÄlikÄ«, al-Kanz 350; and see at footnotes 223 and 295 above.
See footnote 219 above.
Herzog, Composition 118, 120.
See above, at footnotes 12â3. Such elements are also not common in biographical entries of religious scholars in biographical dictionaries, see at footnote 175 above.
See above, at footnote 1. On anecdotes concerning the prediction of the future in Mamluk chronicles, see Mazor, Topos (esp. 104). The prediction is most of the times made by ṣūfÄ« shaykhs or saints as part of the miracles (karÄmÄt) performed by them, or by experts in astrology or geomancy. Many times, the future is predicted by a dream; see ibid. 104â8.
As far as I know, the only Mamluk traditional biographical dictionary containing similar materials postdates Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d. It is al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä«âs Ê¿UnwÄn al-zamÄn bi-tarÄjim al-shuyÅ«kh wa-l-aqrÄn. At this point of the article, I can only recommend to read and enjoy. It may be mentioned, however, that al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä« appended to his chronicle medical prescriptions that he labeled as useful knowledge (fawÄʾid); see al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä«, TaʾrÄ«kh i, 46. The fact that in the biographical entry of his wife in Durar al-Ê¿uqÅ«d, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« mentions several dreams he dreamt about her, which predicted her death, makes the influence that al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs historiographical work had on al-BiqÄÊ¿Ä« worth exploring; see footnote 162 above; and see also chapter 2 footnotes 140 and 143.
See above at section 1 (introduction: pages 41â3).
Gabrieli, Adab 176; Hamori, Anthologies. On poetry and anecdotes in Mamluk adab anthologies/encyclopedias, see Ghersetti, Mamluk 81; Herzog, Composition 107â8. On anthologies of poetry during the Mamluk period, see, for example, Bauer, Anthologies.
Hämeen-Anttila, Adab. In fact, âmany-sidedness differentiates adab from poetry ⦠exclusively poetical works, such as individual dÄ«wÄns, fall more or less outside the concept of adab ⦠[q]uoting verses belongs to adab, but specializing in poetry does notâ; see ibid.
Al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 322â9. The page [P] and line [L] of each unit of information in the biographical entry are mentioned in square brackets at the end of each unit.
On peculiarities (ashyÄʾ muÊ¿jiba), see ibid. 324 (line 6); on funny anecdotes and stories (ḥikÄyÄt/nukat áºarÄ«fa), see ibid. 325 (line 18), 327 (line 12).
Al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336â9.
Al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 248â57. The source for the units of information in the biographical entry is mentioned in brackets and bold font.
See al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 191 (line 11)â193 (line 13). In al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, the story-like report is entitled âthe mentioning of the moving of NÄʾib al-Karak [to Tripoli].â While the SulÅ«k has a very condensed version of this report, it could not have been the source for the MuqaffÄ; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 371 (lines 10â7). The version in the SulÅ«k does not have all the information contained in the MuqaffÄ; the wording of the MuqaffÄ clearly draws on the Nuzha and not on the SulÅ«k; and utterances in direct speech that appear in the MuqaffÄ are paraphrased and standardized versions of a dialouge in the Nuzha, and are absent in the SulÅ«k; see, for example, al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 252 (lines 8â9); and compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 192 (lines 9â12).
See ibid. 236 (line 7)â240 (line 14). In al-YÅ«sufÄ«âs Nuzhat al-nÄáºir, the story-like report is entitled âthe arrest of the amir JamÄl al-DÄ«n NÄʾib al-Karak.â The SulÅ«k has a shorter version, which could not have been the source for the MuqaffÄ; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, SulÅ«k ii, 379 (line 11)â380 (line 11). For an utterance in direct speech in the MuqaffÄ that is absent in the SulÅ«k, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 253 (lines 17â8); and compare with al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 238 (lines 24â5).
Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 395â6.
The appellation al-BurnÄq and the expression âknown as NÄʾib al-Karakâ appear in the MuqaffÄ in one section (section A) and in two diferent sections in the Nuzha (sections A and D) but not in al-á¹¢afadÄ« (see section A in the WÄfÄ«).
In al-Durar al-kÄmina it is mentioned that AqÅ«sh was one of the mamlÅ«ks of al-Manṣūr QalÄwÅ«n (min mamÄlÄ«k al-Manṣūr), information that appears in the MuqaffÄ and the obituary in the Nuzha but not in al-á¹¢afadÄ«, see Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 395 (line 13: min mamÄlÄ«k al-Manṣūr); al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 323 (line 2: min akÄbir al-mamÄlÄ«k al-Manṣūriyya); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 248 (line 16: aḥad al-mamÄlÄ«k al-Manṣūriyya). In al-Durar al-kÄmina it is mentioned that AqÅ«sh was arrested in Egypt, and then released, information that appears in the biographical entry in the MuqaffÄ (and was taken from different places in the historical narrative of the SulÅ«k), and not in the obituary in the Nuzha or the entry in the WÄfÄ«, see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 250 (lines 2â6). It is highly unlikely that Ibn Ḥajar took the information directly from the Nuzha or the SulÅ«k and incorporated it in the same fashion as al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« did in the MuqaffÄ. However, in this specific case, Ibn Ḥajar may have relied on AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, AÊ¿yÄn i, 578 (lines 9â11).
Ibid. i, 579 (line 1).
While the MuqaffÄ has a report on AqÅ«sh being raʾs al-maymana, the wording in al-Durar al-kÄmina is similar to al-á¹¢afadÄ«; see Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 395 (line 16: yajlisu raʾs al-maymana wa-yaqÅ«mu la-hu al-sulá¹Än); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336 (line 5: yajlisu raʾs al-maymana wa-yaqÅ«mu la-hu al-sulá¹Än); AÊ¿yÄn i, 578 (line 12: yajlisu raʾs al-maymana wa-yaqÅ«mu la-hu al-sulá¹Än); and compare with al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 250 (lines 7â9).
Al-á¹¢afadÄ«, AÊ¿yÄn i, 578 (lines 13â7). The manners and the statement about building the mosque (sections B2 and B4 in al-Durar al-kÄmina) could have been theoretically taken from the MuqaffÄ (sections D4 and D8). In al-á¹¢afadÄ«, however, references to the manners and the mosque appear one next to the other, and next to the references to AqÅ«sh as raʾs al-maymana and the worship place (see sections B3 and B5 in al-Durar al-kÄmina). Moreover, before and after the references to the manners and the mosque, Ibn Ḥajar al-Ê¿AsqalÄnÄ« was using the chronological life résumé in the MuqaffÄ (sections B1 and B6â8 in al-Durar al-kÄmina relying on sections B1â6, 10â1, and 14â5 in the MuqaffÄ), and references to the manners and the mosque appear in the MuqaffÄ in the section of anecdotes (D4 and D8 in the MuqaffÄ). It is highly unlikely that Ibn Ḥajar jumped back and forth from the chronological life résumé in the MuqaffÄ to its anecdotal section.
Al-Durar al-kÄmina, following al-á¹¢afadÄ«, refers to the worship place as maÊ¿bad, whereas the MuqaffÄ, following the Nuzha, refers to it as a cave (maghÄra), see Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 395 (line 17); al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 336 (line 19); AÊ¿yÄn i, 579 (line 9); al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 255 (line 1); al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 324 (line 8).
The biographical entry in al-á¹¢afadÄ« lacks some of the information and could not have been the source, see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 337 (lines 10â1); AÊ¿yÄn i, 579 (line 12). The information in the MuqaffÄ was collected from different places in the historical narrative of the SulÅ«k (see MuqaffÄ B10â1). It is highly unlikely that Ibn Ḥajar took the information directly from the historical narrative of the SulÅ«k.
This report was taken by al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« from the historical narartive of the Nuzha (see MuqaffÄ B15) and incorporated chronologically in the life résumé of AqÅ«sh. In al-Durar al-kÄmina it is incorporated exactly in the same fashion. It is highly unlikely that Ibn Ḥajar took the information directly from the Nuzha (or from the SulÅ«k where it also appears) and then integrated it in al-Durar al-kÄmina exactly in the same fashion as al-MaqrÄ«zÄ« did in the MuqaffÄ. The information in the entry in al-Durar al-kÄmina is very basic and dry and the incident with the Franks seems a marginal event, and its description in the Durar is the only case of information that perhaps keeps some of its story-like nature within the life résumé. Ibn Ḥajar must have taken it from the MuqaffÄ.
Al-á¹¢afadÄ«, AÊ¿yÄn i, 580 (lines 8â16).
Ibid. i, 581 (lines 2â4). The peculiarities and witticisms, and the statement about his death, could have been theoretically taken from the MuqaffÄ; however, in al-á¹¢afadÄ«, the report on the death (and the anecdote related) appears in the section of anecdotes right after the peculiarities and witticisms. In the MuqaffÄ, the report on the death (and the related anecdote) was incorporated in the chronological section and was not located near the peculiarities and witticisms (see sections B16 and D11 in the MuqaffÄ).
Compare especially al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 337 (lines 7â8: idhÄ jurrida) and AÊ¿yÄn i, 581 (line 14: idhÄ jurrida) with Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 396 (line 11: idhÄ jurrida); and see C6 below. Whereas in the WÄfÄ« the anecdotes about the generosity appear in the fourth place out of eleven anecdotes, in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r they appear last, right at the end of the biographical entry; see al-á¹¢afadÄ«, AÊ¿yÄn i, 581 (line 13)â582 (line 1). Moreover, whereas in the WÄfÄ« the order of the anecdotes is: âIf a horse died to one of his soldiers or slaves he compensated him,â and then âhe always paid for the expenses of his servants in expeditions,â in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r it is the opposite. Al-Durar al-kÄmina follows the internal order of the anecdotes about generosity in AÊ¿yÄn al-Ê¿aá¹£r, and more broadly the general order of presentation of anecdotes in it.
Theoretically, Ibn Ḥajar may have relied here on al-á¹¢afadÄ« (WÄfÄ« C10); however, it is very unlikely.
The information is found only in the MuqaffÄ and the Nuzha and is not found in al-á¹¢afadÄ«. In all likelihood, it was taken from the MuqaffÄ.
This is, in fact, a repetition of a statement taken from al-á¹¢afadÄ« (section C3 in al-Durar al-kÄmina based on AÊ¿yÄn [last anecdote] = WÄfÄ« C4) but the wording here is taken from the MuqaffÄ; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 255 (line 20: wa-mÄ kharaja qaá¹á¹ fÄ« tajrÄ«da illÄ wa-qÄma li-jamÄ«Ê¿ man yurÄfiquhu bi-jirÄyatihi wa-Ê¿alÄ«q khaylihi); Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 396 (lines 16â7: mÄ kharaja fÄ« tajrÄ«da illÄ wa-qÄma bi-jirÄyat man yurÄfiquhu wa-Ê¿alÄ«qihi); and compare with al-á¹¢afadÄ«, WÄfÄ« ix, 337 (lines 7â8: idhÄ jurrida ilÄ makÄn lÄ yazÄlu á¹ulbuhu jamÄ«Ê¿an yaʾkulÅ«na Ê¿alÄ simÄá¹ihi); and with AÊ¿yÄn i, 581 (lines 14â5).
Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, Manhal iii, 27â30.
Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« mentions at the beginning of the life résumé that AqÅ«sh was originally one of the mamlÅ«ks of al-Ashraf KhalÄ«l (aá¹£luhu min mamÄlÄ«k al-Ashraf KhalÄ«l), see ibid. iii, 27 (line 4). This information does not appear in the WÄfÄ« (the master of AqÅ«sh is not even mentioned) and was in all likelihood deduced by Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« from the nisba of AqÅ«sh. In fact, in the obituary of AqÅ«sh in the Nuzha he is mentioned as one of the mamlÅ«ks of al-Manṣūr QalÄwÅ«n (min akÄbir al-mamÄlÄ«k al-Manṣūriyya), see al-YÅ«sufÄ«, Nuzhat 323 (line 2). He appears as one of the mamlÅ«ks of al-Manṣūr QalÄwÅ«n also in his biographical entry in the MuqaffÄ, which relies in this case on the Nuzha, and in his biographical entry in al-Durar al-kÄmina, which apparently relies in this case on the MuqaffÄ; see al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, MuqaffÄ ii, 248 (line 16: aḥad al-mamÄlÄ«k al-Manṣūriyya); Ibn Ḥajar, Durar i, 395 (line 13: min mamÄlÄ«k al-Manṣūr). Because the rest of the biographical entry in al-Manhal uses only the WÄfÄ« and strictly follows its structure and order of presentation, there is no reason to believe that Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« used in this specific case material from other sources.
At this point in the entry, Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ« makes a short comment regarding the fact that since the appointment of AqÅ«sh, it became a custom that raʾs al-maymana was also the inspector of the mÄristÄn and adds a more general note regarding the position of raʾs al-maymana, see Ibn TaghrÄ«birdÄ«, Manhal iii, 29 (lines 2â6).
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