al-Muqaffa al-Kabir
- Author died
- 845 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī
al-Muqaffa al-Kabir (al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr al-Muqaffā) is an extensive biographical dictionary of Egypt compiled by the Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi (d. 845 AH / 1442 CE) .
Scope and Purpose
The work is dedicated to biographical notices (tarājim) and obituaries of prominent figures who lived in Egypt, were born and raised there, or visited and passed through it, ranging from the pre-Islamic era and the Arab-Islamic conquest up to the author's own time . Al-Maqrizi interpreted residency in Egypt so broadly that he included individuals whose remains were merely transferred there, such as the Fatimid caliphs whose coffins were brought to Cairo, and even those whose severed heads were carried through its streets .
Al-Maqrizi distinguished this project from his annalistic chronicles, noting in Kitab al-Suluk that al-Muqaffa was devoted specifically to biographies and death records, whereas al-Suluk focused on chronological events and occurrences . He frequently cross-referenced it in his other works, including Kitab al-Mawa'iz wa-al-I'tibar (al-Khitat) and Itti'az al-Hunafa', directing readers to al-Muqaffa for full biographical treatments of figures mentioned only briefly elsewhere . His student Ibn Taghribirdi reported that al-Maqrizi stated the work would have exceeded eighty volumes had it been completed according to his full design, while al-Sakhawi recorded that it comprised sixteen volumes .
Manuscript Tradition and Structure
The book has not survived in its entirety . The extant portions comprise 3,035 biographies arranged alphabetically across several manuscript collections :
- An autograph volume preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (MS Ar. 2144), containing entries under the letters Ṭāʾ, Ẓāʾ, and ʿAyn .
- Three autograph volumes at Leiden University Library (MS Or. 1366), containing portions of Hamza, Kāf, Lām, and entries for individuals named Muḥammad .
- A volume in the Pertev Pasha collection of the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul (MS 496), containing letters Alif to Khāʾ, transcribed in naskh from the author's draft with blank spaces corresponding to the original .
- A 500-leaf autograph draft purchased by Leiden University Library in 1980 (MS Or. 14533), covering letters Alif to Khāʾ .
- A draft notebook held in the Municipal Library of Alexandria (MS 2125/d), where al-Maqrizi penned historical notes and biographical drafts with notations instructing their inclusion in his grand history .
Printed Editions
A preliminary selection containing 77 biographies from the Fatimid era was edited by Muhammad al-Ya'lawi and published by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut in 1987 . The full surviving text, collated from the Paris, Leiden, and Istanbul manuscripts, was subsequently edited by al-Ya'lawi and published by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in eight volumes, the final volume consisting of indices .
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