al-Badr al-Safir an Anas al-Musafir
- Author died
- 748 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Dirāsāt wa-al-Abḥāth wa-Iḥyā’ al-Turāth, al-Rābiṭah al-Muḥammadiyyah lil-‘Ulamā’
Al-Badr al-Safir ‘an Anas al-Musafir (The Unveiled Full Moon: Companion of the Traveler) is a major biographical dictionary composed by the Egyptian Shafi'i scholar and historian Kamal al-Din al-Adfawi (685–748 AH / 1286–1347 CE) .
Background and Title
Al-Adfawi explained in his preface that he originally gathered these biographies on loose sheets as excerpts from numerous historical sources, subsequently compiling them into a single volume for preservation, travel companionship, and scholarly edification . The book was composed prior to his regional biographical work al-Tali' al-Sa'id, in which he referred to it under the simpler title Anas al-Musafir .
The title appears in historical references and manuscripts with several variants, including al-Badr al-Safir wa-Anas al-Musafir, al-Badr al-Safir fi Anas al-Musafir, al-Badr al-Safir wa-Tuhfat al-Musafir, and al-Badr al-Safir fi Tuhfat al-Musafir .
Scope and Method
The work comprises 596 biographical entries arranged in alphabetical order (huruf al-mu'jam) . It focuses primarily on notable figures of the 7th century AH, while also including substantial entries for individuals from the 5th, 6th, and 8th centuries AH . Ibn Qadi Shuhba noted that the book was organized across two volumes following the model of Ibn Khallikan's Wafayat al-A'yan . Al-Adfawi restricted his scope to scholars, jurists, judges, physicians, viziers, administrators, poets, and literati who distinguished themselves in particular disciplines or literary composition . The dictionary extends beyond the Islamic East to include scholars and figures from North Africa and al-Andalus, who constitute roughly one-fourth of the biographies .
A distinctive feature of the work is its literary character; al-Adfawi regularly quoted poetic selections, including strophic forms such as mukaffar, dubayt, ballayqa, muwashshah, and zajal . He also provided lengthy contemporary entries for his own teachers and peers, such as the Andalusian grammarian Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati, whose biography spanned nine folios in manuscript .
Sources and Significance
Al-Badr al-Safir preserves extensive quotations from numerous earlier historical, biographical, and literary sources that are otherwise lost or only partially extant . Among the lost works cited are:
- Wafayat of Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Mufaddal al-Maqdisi
- Taj al-Majami' wa-al-Ma'ajim of Shihab al-Din al-Qusi
- Al-Tarikh al-Kabir of Abu al-Fadl al-Tifashi
- Nasim al-Ban of al-Wazzan al-Ansari
- Tarikh al-Quds of Shams al-Din al-Kinji
- Tarikh al-Iskandariyya of Ibn al-'Imadiyya
- Tarikh Misr of Abd al-Azim al-Mundhiri
- Al-Nujum al-Durriyya fi al-Shu'ara' al-'Asriyya of Ibn Nashwan al-Misri
He also drew extensively on the writings of Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, Ibn al-Abbar, Abu Shama al-Maqdisi, Al-Dhahabi, Al-Birzali, and various mashyakha collections .
Reception and Editions
The book became an essential reference for subsequent Mamluk and Ottoman-era chroniclers and biographers . Al-Adfawi's contemporary Khalil ibn Aybak al-Safadi cited it more than ninety times in al-Wafi bi-al-Wafayat and over seventy times in A'yan al-'Asr . It was also heavily utilized by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in al-Durar al-Kamina, Taj al-Din al-Subki in Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra, Ibn Rajab in Dhayl Tabaqat al-Hanabila, Al-Maqrizi in al-Suluk and al-Mawa'iz wa-al-I'tibar, Ibn Taghribirdi, Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali, and Muhammad ibn Ali al-Shawkani .
Manuscripts of the work are held at the Vatican Library, the Süleymaniye Library (Fatih collection) in Istanbul, the Austrian National Library in Vienna, and Princeton University . The book was published in three volumes by the Center for Studies, Research, and Heritage Revival at the Rabita Mohammedia of Scholars in Morocco, edited by Qasim al-Samarrai and Tariq Tatmi .
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