چکیده:
This article is an investigation into the extant works on Medina’s history
by the late Mamluk-era historian ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Samhūdī (d. 911/1506), the
most prolific pre-modern historian of that town. Although the study of Arabic
historiography during the Mamluk period has progressed rapidly over recent
years, most published research focuses on historical works composed in Egypt
and Syria. By offering an analysis of al-Samhūdī’s various books on Medina’s
history, this article will demonstrate how the study of historical works written in
the Mamluk Ḥijāz has much to add to wider research into Mamluk historiography
more broadly.
خلاصه ماشینی:
uk Brought to you by | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services Authenticated Download Date | 2/21/16 5:25 PM Despite the relative paucity of attention, in many respects the local histories pro- duced in Mecca and Medina are just as significant for the history of Mamluk-era historical-writing as those more famous works produced by scholars and courtiers in Egypt and Syria.
There are some useful introduc- tory studies in Arabic to Mamluk-era historiography in Mecca and Medina; see especially the relevant sections of Muḥammad al-Ḥabīb al-Hīla, al-Taʾrīkh wa-al-muʾarrikhūn bi-Makka min al-qarn al-thālith al-hijrī ilā al-qarn al-thālith ʿashar: jamʿ, ʿarḍ wa-taʿrīf (London: Muʾassasat al-Furqān li-l-Turāth al-Islāmī, 1994), and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-mudayris, al-Madīna al-munaw- wara fī al-ʿaṣr al-mamlūkī (648–923 h.
Important modern studies into al-Samhūdī’s life and works are Ḥamad al-Jāsir, “al-Samhūdī: ashhar muʾarrikhī al-Madīna,” Majallat al-ʿarab 7 (1392/1972): 161–78; idem, Rasāʾil fī taʾrīkh al-Madīna, Riyadh: Dār al-Yamāma, 1392/1972, 26–54; Qāsim al-Sāmarrāʾi’s introduction to his edition of al-Sam- hūdī’s Wafāʾ al-wafā bi-akhbār dār al-muṣṭafā, 5 vols.
Al-Sāmarrāʾī himself discusses the problems of these earlier editions in his “Muqaddima,” 1:7–9; see further al-Jāsir, Rasāʾil fī taʾrīkh al-Madīna, Brought to you by | New York University Bobst Library Technical Services Authenticated Download Date | 2/21/16 5:25 PM suggested that because not all of the additions and updates can be found con- sistently across all the extant manuscripts, it would seem that al-Samhūdī con- tinually released copies of the Wafāʾ al-wafā throughout the various successive phases of writing.