Lecture on Al-Mawāʿiẓ wal-Iʿtibār fī Dhikr al-Khiṭaṭ wal-Āthār lil-Maqrīzī

Summary

This lecture focused on the greatest authority on the history of Islamic Egypt and his masterpiece Al-Mawāʿiẓ wal-Iʿtibār fī Dhikr al-Khiṭaṭ wal-Āthār, which is considered to be the most authoritative work on Egypt’s history of the Islamic period, its geography and the topography of its capital. It is the only book that gave a comprehensive presentation of Egypt’s Islamic history and of the establishment and development of Egyptian cities from the Islamic conquest to the ninth century A.H. It is today regarded as an indispensable reference for Egyptologists specialising in the study of Egypt’s Islamic archaeology. This work is considered one of the Arab heritage's pride and glory, being the biggest and most comprehensive book ever written on an Islamic city. Admittedly, it has left no vestiges or institution without describing them in minute detail and in a wonderful way. The lecture shed the light on the new edition of this book—an edition that has been augmented, properly edited and proof-read. It is an edition that includes additional sources, recent studies that came out after the publication of the first edition and recent geographical photographs of the monuments mentioned by Al-Maqrīzī, which were sometimes compared with paintings produced in the beginning of the 19th century. What distinguishes this new edition is the incorporation of new hand-written copies of the book: the original copy of the third volume, located at the University of Michigan, USA, and the oldest copies of the first volume found in the Fayẓ Allah Library in Istanbul.