Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-Ghurar

Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-Ghurar (The Treasure of Pearls and Collector of Luminaries) is a universal history in nine volumes compiled by the Mamluk historian Ibn al-Dawadari (d. after 736 AH / 1335 CE), chronicling world history from creation and ancient nations through the Islamic caliphates to the reign of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.

Composition and Purpose

Ibn al-Dawadari began gathering material for the work in 709 AH / 1309 CE and compiled it for the treasury of the Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun al-Mawaiz wal-Itibar fi D…+1. The composition spanned several decades: the author completed the first volume in 732 AH, the fifth volume in Rabi al-Akhir 734 AH, and concluded the ninth volume at the beginning of 736 AH / 1335 CE al-Mawaiz wal-Itibar fi D…+2.

Having developed an interest in literature and poetry since his youth, Ibn al-Dawadari sought to attain renown through scholarship and reviving classical lore rather than through military service Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…. He initially structured his history around pre-Islamic and Islamic dynasties up to his own era, and after finishing the chronicle of the Mamluk era, he decided to add an introductory cosmographical volume on the Earth and the celestial spheres to provide the work with a universal framework Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….

Structure and Scope

The work is organized into nine volumes (each termed a durrah or "pearl"), symbolically correlated with the nine Ptolemaic celestial spheres, culminating in the outermost sphere assigned to the contemporary Mamluk Sultanate under al-Nasir Muhammad Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1. Each volume bears an independent title:

• Volume 1 (al-Durrah al-Ulya fi Akhbar Bad al-Dunya): Cosmography, the creation of the world, geography, natural wonders, and early scribal traditions Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 2 (al-Durrah al-Thaminah fi Akhbar al-Umam al-Qadimah): Ancient nations and pre-Islamic world history, with particular focus on ancient Egypt Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.
• Volume 3–4: Pre-Islamic Arabian and early Islamic history through the Rashidun and Umayyad periods Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.
• Volume 5: The Abbasid Caliphate, ending with the Fatimid arrival in Egypt Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.
• Volume 6 (al-Durrah al-Mudiyyah fi Akhbar al-Dawlah al-Fatimiyyah): The Fatimid Caliphate (from 359 AH / 969 CE to 554 AH) and contemporaneous regional dynasties such as the Qarmatians, Aghlabids, Hamdanids, Buyids, Samanids, Seljuks, and Sulayhids Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.
• Volume 7 (al-Durr al-Matlub fi Akhbar Muluk Bani Ayyub): The Ayyubid dynasty Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 8 (al-Durrah al-Zakiyyah fi Akhbar al-Dawlah al-Turkiyyah): The first fifty years of the Bahri Mamluk Sultanate (648–698 AH / 1250–1299 CE) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.
• Volume 9 (al-Durr al-Fakhir fi Sirat al-Malik al-Nasir): The reign and era of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.

The narrative is structured chronologically year by year. Across the annalistic framework, the author devotes special attention to Egyptian affairs, systematically noting for each year the level of the Nile flood, the governor (wali), the chief judge (qadi), and the superintendent of the land tax (sahib al-kharaj) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….

Method and Sources

Ibn al-Dawadari aimed to produce a readable and entertaining historical narrative combining serious historical data (jidd) with literary diversions (hazl), interspersed with anecdotes, humor, verses, proverbs, and accounts of unusual occurrences Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…. For earlier eras, he functioned as a compiler and summarizer who assembled excerpts from numerous rare manuscripts into preliminary note cards before ordering them chronologically; for his own era, he served as a contemporary observer and recorder Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.

His historical and literary sources include:

• Historical chronicles such as Mirat al-Zaman by Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi, Tarikh al-Rusul wa-l-Muluk by al-Tabari, Ibn Zafir's al-Duwal al-Munqati'ah, Ibn Abd al-Zahir's al-Rawdah al-Bahiyyah, Ibn Zulaq's Egyptian chronicle, al-Quda'i, and the genealogical treatise of Sharif Akhu Muhsin on the Fatimids Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+2.
• Literary and biographical works including Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's Kitab al-Aghani, al-Mas'udi's Muruj al-Dhahab, Ibn Khallikan's Wafayat al-A'yan, Ibn Abd Rabbih's al-Iqd al-Farid, al-Mubarrad's al-Kamil, al-Tha'alibi's Lata'if al-Ma'arif, and Ibn Zafar al-Siqilli's Anba Nujaba al-Abna Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• A Coptic text that the author copied personally at the White Monastery (al-Dayr al-Abyad) in Upper Egypt Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• His own earlier writings, such as Tibr al-Matalib, Dhakha'ir al-Akha'ir, and al-Muhadarat Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1.

Later historians made use of the work, including al-Maqrizi, who quoted from the sixth volume in his al-Mawa'iz wa-l-I'tibar al-Mawaiz wal-Itibar fi D….

Manuscripts and Publication

The work has survived in the author's own autograph manuscript copies, divided between Istanbul (the Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace libraries) and photographic copies deposited at the Egyptian National Library and the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts in Cairo al-Mawaiz wal-Itibar fi D…+2.

The complete work was edited and published in nine volumes under the auspices of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo between 1960 and 1994, through a collaborative project initiated by Hans Robert Roemer and Salah al-Din al-Munajjid Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-…+1:

• Volume 1: edited by Bernd Radtke (1982) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 2: edited by Edward Badeen (1994) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 3: edited by Muhammad al-Sa'id Jamal al-Din (1981) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 4: edited by Gunhild Graf and Erika Glassen (1994) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 5: edited by Dorothea Krawulsky (1992) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 6: edited by Salah al-Din al-Munajjid (1961) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 7: edited by Sa'id Abd al-Fattah Ashur (1972) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 8: edited by Ulrich Haarmann (1971) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….
• Volume 9: edited by Hans Robert Roemer (1960) Kanz al-Durar wa Jami al-….