al-Budayri al-Hallaq
- Died
- 1175 AH
- Born in
- -
Ahmad al-Budayri al-Hallaq (d. after 1175 AH / 1762 CE) was an eighteenth-century Syrian popular chronicler and barber from Damascus, best known for his urban diary Hawadith Dimashq al-Yawmiyya .
Life and profession
His full name is Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Budayr al-Budayri, commonly known by the occupational epithet al-Hallaq ("the barber") . He was based in Damascus, where he earned his living practicing the trade of barbering . In addition to his trade, he composed vernacular strophic poetry (zajal) and showed Sufi inclinations . He was recorded as still alive in 1176 AH (1762 CE) .
Chronicle and transmission
Al-Budayri authored a daily chronicle of Damascus entitled Hawadith Dimashq al-Yawmiyya (The Daily Events of Damascus), which recorded urban, political, and social occurrences between 1154 AH (1741 CE) and 1175 AH (1762 CE), with some manuscript traditions extending through 1176 AH . The majority of the events he recorded took place during the rule of Ottoman governors from the al-Azm family, notably Sulayman Pasha al-Azm and As'ad Pasha al-Azm .
Al-Budayri originally composed his daily accounts in a simple, colloquial style interspersed with rhymed supplications . The manuscript was subsequently acquired and reworked by the Damascene scholar Muhammad Sa'id al-Qasimi, who refined its language and abridged repetitive passages under the title Tanqih al-hawadith al-yawmiyya . The revised text was later edited and prepared for publication by the modern historian Ahmad 'Izzat 'Abd al-Karim .
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Hawadith Dimashq al-Yawmiyya (The Daily Events of Damascus) is an 18th-century chronicle and urban diary recording the political, social, and economic life of Damascus between 1154 AH (1141 CE) and 1175 AH (1162 CE).