Al-Maqrizi

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Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Maqrizi (1364 – 1442); Arabic: تقى الدين أحمد بن على بن عبد القادر بن محمد المقريزى, was an Egyptian historian more commonly known as al-Maqrizi or Makrizi. Although he was "a Mamluk-era historian and himself a Sunni, he is remarkable in this context for his unusually keen interest in the Ismaili Fatimid dynasty and its role in Egyptian history."^[1]

Contents 1 Life 2 His view on the spread of the Ash’ari school 3 His view on the spread of bigotry within the following of the Four Schools of Sunni Law 4 Writings 4.1 Smaller works 4.2 Books 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Life

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

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

In 1385, he went on the Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj. For some time he was secretary in a government office, and in 1399 became inspector of markets for Cairo and northern Egypt. This post he soon gave up to become a preacher at the Mosque of 'Amr ibn al 'As, president of the al-Hakim Mosque, and a lecturer on tradition. In 1408, he went to Damascus to become inspector of the Qalanisryya and lecturer. Later, he retired into private life at Cairo.

In 1430, he again went on Hajj with his family and travelled for some five years. His learning was great, his observation accurate and his judgment good, but his books are largely compilations, and he does not always acknowledge the sources upon which he relied.

[edit] His view on the spread of the Ash’ari school

"The reality of the school of Al-Ash'ari – may Allah be merciful with him – is that he followed a way between the negation of attributes, that being the Mu'tazili school, and the affirmation thereof, that being the school of anthropomorphists, and further debated his beliefs and supported his school with proofs. Thereafter, a group of theologians inclined towards and relied upon his school; from them, al-Qadhi Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Tayyib al-Baqillani al-Maliki, Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Furak, al-Shaykh Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Muhammad b. Mihran al-Isfaraini, al-Shaykh Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. ‘Ali b. Yusuf al-Shirazi, al-Shaykh Abu Hamid Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Ghazzali, Abu al-Fath Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Karim b. Ahmad al-Shahrastani, al-Imam Fakhr al-Din Muhammad b. ‘Umar b. al-Husayn al-Razi and others, the mention of whom would take a long time. They championed his school, debated and disputed according to it, and supported the school with proofs in an uncountable number of works. Due to their efforts, the school of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari spread in Iraq roughly from year 380 AH, and from there it moved to Syria.

Then al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf b. Ayyub ascended to power in Egypt, who along with the judge, Sadr al-Din ‘Abd al-Malik b. ‘Isa b. Darbas al-Marani were both the followers of this school, for they had nurtured upon it ever since they were in the service of al-Sultan al-Malik al-‘Adil Nur al-Din Mahmud b. Zanki in Damascus. Salah al-Din in his childhood had memorised a manual on creed, composed for him by Qutb al-Din Abu al-Ma’ali Mas’ud b. Muhammad b. Mas’ud al-Nisaburi, the manual which he, in turn, made his children memorise. For this reason they placed Ash’arism above everything else and held on to it very firmly, and furthermore, they obliged the masses to adhere to this school. And so it continued in this vein through out all the Ayyubite dynasties, and thereafter right through the reign of their freed-slaves, the Turkish governors.

This also coincided with one of the trips of Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad b. Tumart from North Africa to Iraq where he learnt the Ash’ari doctrine from Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali. Upon his return to North Africa, he began to teach and educate the Masamida (one of the principal Berber ethnic groups) and composed for them a manual on theology, which the commoners quickly embraced. He then passed away and was succeeded by ‘Abd al-Mu’min b. ‘Ali al-Qaysi, who was titled ‘Amir al-Mu'minin’, and who also conquered the North African dynasties, and thereafter his descendants for years. They became known as ‘al-Muwahhidun’, and then on, al-Muwahhid dynasty deemed permissible to shed the blood of anyone who opposes the doctrine of Ibn Tumart, since he was to them the distinguished leader, the infallible Mahdi. How much blood they shed due to this reason, is only known by Allah the Creator – May He be glorified and exalted! – as it is known in historical works.

Thus, this was the reason behind the fame of the Ash’ari school and its spread in various Islamic lands, such that the rest of the schools were forgotten and gone; to such an extent that there remains no school today that opposes the Ash’ari school, with the exception of the school of the Hanbalis – the followers of Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Hanbal – may Allah be pleased with him. For they are upon what the Salaf were upon, that is to avoid allegorical interpretation of texts pertaining to attributes.

Such was the case up until 700 years after Hijra, when there rose to fame, in Damascus and the outskirts, Taqi al-Din Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad b. ‘Abd al-Halim b. ‘Abd al-Salam b. Taymiyya al-Harrani. He undertook to champion the school of the Salaf and did his utmost to refute the Ash’ari school and openly censured them, the Rafida and the Sufis.

Thereafter, the people were divided into two groups over him. A group that followed him, relied upon his views, acted in accordance with his opinions, held him as Shaykh al-Islam and the most prominent preservers of the Islamic nation. The other group declared him to be a heretic, a deviant, rebuked him for affirming attributes, and censured him over his juristic opinions, of them are those where he had a predecessor, and of them are those where they claimed he opposed the consensus and had no predecessor. He and his adversaries, both had mishaps, and their reckoning is with Allah, the one from whom nothing is hidden in the earth and the heavens. He still has, up until today, many followers in Syria, and a few in Egypt."^[2]

[edit] His view on the spread of bigotry within the following of the Four Schools of Sunni Law

"When it was the reign of King Zaahir, four judges were appointed in Egypt and Cairo: Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanafi and Hanbali. This continued from 665 A.H., until there was no Madhhab left in the Islamic world apart from the Four Madhhabs and the Ash'ari Aqeedah. The people of these Madhhabs had schools... in all cities of the Islamic State. Anyone who took another Madhhab apart from these was hated and condemned. No judge was appointed, no person's testimony was accepted, no lecturer, Imam or teacher was appointed if not found to be a Muqallid of these Madhhabs. The jurists of these cities in all this period passed the verdict of following these Madhhabs and the prohibition of following other Madhhabs. This practice continues up to this day."^[3]

[edit] Writings

Most of his works, exceeding 200^[4], are concerned with Egypt. The most important is the Mawaiz wa al-'i'tibar bi dhikr al-khitat wa al-'athar (2 vols., Bulaq, 1854), translated into French by Urbain Bouriant as Description topographique et historique de l'Égypte (Paris, 1895-1900; compare A. R. Guest, "A List of Writers, Books and other Authorities mentioned by El Maqrizi in his Khitat," in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1902, pp. 103-125).

Of his History of the Fatimites an extract was published by J.G.L. Kosegarten in his Chrestomathia (Leipzig, 1828), pp. 115-123; the History of the Ayyubit and Mameluke Rulers has been translated into French by Etienne Marc Quatremère (2 vols., Paris, 1837-1845).

Maqrizi began a large work called the Muqaffa, an encyclopedia of Egyptian biography in alphabetic order. Another Egyptian historian, al-Sakhawi, believed this would require eighty volumes to complete, but only sixteen were written. Three autograph volumes exist in manuscript in Leiden, and one in Paris.

[edit] Smaller works

• Mahomeddan Coinage (ed. O. G. Tychsen, Rostock, 1797; French translation by Silvestre de Sacy, Paris, 1797)
• Arab Weights and Measures (ed. Tychsen, Rostock, 1800)
• Arabian Tribes that migrated to Egypt (ed. F. Wüstenfeld, Göttingen, 1847)
• Account of Hadhramaut (ed. P. B. Noskowyj, Bonn, 1866)
• Strife between the Bani Umayya and the Bani Hashim (ed. G. Vos, Leiden, 1888)
• Historia Regum Islamiticorum in Abyssinia (ed. and Latin trans. F. T. Rink, Leiden, 1790).

[edit] Books

• Al Mawaiz wa al-'i'tibar bi dhikr al-khitat wa al-'athar (about the planning of Cairo and its monuments)
• Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk (about Mamluk history in Egypt)
• Ette'aaz al-honafa be Akhbaar al-A'emma Al Fatemeyyeen Al Kholafaa (about the Fatimid state)
• Al Bayaan wal E'raab Amma Be Ard Misr min al A'raab (about the Arab Tribes in Egypt)
• Eghathatt Al Omma be Kashf Al Ghomma (about the famines that took place in Egypt)
• Al Maqfi (biographies of princes and prominent personality of his time)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of Muslim historians

[edit] External links

• Maqrizi.com: translations and recreation of Maqrizi's world
• Mawa'iz, online text (in Arabic)
• Account of the Crusade of St. Louis (in English)
• On al-Maqrizi