MAQRIZI

maqrizi, or makrizi [taqi ud-din ahmad ibn 'ali] (1364-1442), arabian historian, known as al-maqrizi because of his ancestral connexion with maqriz, a suburb of baalbek, was born at cairo and spent most of his life in egypt, where he was trained in the hanifite school of law, though later he became a shafi'ite with an inclination to zahirite views. in 1385 he made the pilgrimage. for some time he was secretary in a government office, and in 1399 became inspector of markets for cairo and northern egypt. this post he soon gave up to become preacher at the mosque of 'amr, president of the mosque ul-hakim, and a lecturer on tradition. in 1408 he went to damascus to become inspector of the qalanisiyya and lecturer. later he retired into private life at cairo. in 1430 he made the pilgrimage with his family and travelled for some five years. his learning was great, his observation accurate and his judgment good, but his books are largely compilations, and he does not always acknowledge the sources to which he is indebted. most of his works are concerned with egypt. the most important is the _mawa'iz wal-i'tibar fi dhikr ul-hitat wal-aihar_ (2 vols., bulaq, 1854), translated into french by u. bouriant as _description topographique et historique de l'egypte_ (paris, 1895-1900; cf. a. r. guest, "a list of writers, books and other authorities mentioned by el maqrizi in his _khitat_," in _journal of the royal asiatic society_, 1902, pp. 103-125). of his _history of the fatimites_ an extract was published by j. g. l. kosegarten in his _chrestomathia_ (leipzig, 1828), pp. 115-123; the _history of the ayyubit and mameluke rulers_ has been translated into french by e. quatremere (2 vols., paris, 1837-1845). maqrizi began a large work called the _muqaffa_, a cyclopaedia of egyptian biography in alphabetic order. it was intended to be in 80 volumes, but only 16 were written. three autograph volumes exist in ms. in leiden, and one in paris. among smaller works published are the _mahommedan coinage_ (ed. o. g. tychsen, rostock, 1797; french translation by s. de sacy, paris, 1797); _arab weights and measures_ (ed. tychsen, rostock, 1800); the _arabian tribes that migrated to egypt_ (ed. f. wustenfeld, gottingen, 1847); the _account of hadhramaut_ (ed. p. b. noskowyj, bonn, 1866); the _strife between the bani umayya and the bani hashim_ (ed g. vos, leiden, 1888), and the _moslems in abyssinia_ (ed. f. t. rink, leiden, 1790). for maqrizi's life see the quotations from contemporary biographies in s. de sacy's _chrestomathie arabe_ (2nd ed., paris, 1826), ii. 112 seq., and for other works still in ms. c. brockelmann, _gesch. der arabischen litteratur_ (berlin, 1902), ii. 38-41. (g. w. t.)