Mirat al-Jinan wa Ibrat al-Yaqzan
- Author died
- 768 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah
Mirat al-Jinan wa Ibrat al-Yaqzan (The Mirror of the Paradises and the Admonition of the Vigilant) is a chronological universal Islamic history and biographical chronicle by the Yemeni scholar Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn As'ad al-Yafi'i (d. 768 AH / 1367 CE) .
Title and Scope
The full title given by the author is Mirat al-Jinan wa Ibrat al-Yaqzan fi Ma'rifat Ma Yu'tabar min Hawadith al-Zaman wa Taqlib Ahwal al-Insan wa Tarikh Mawt Ba'd al-Mashhurin min al-A'yan (The Mirror of the Paradises and the Admonition of the Vigilant on Knowing What is Instructive of Time's Events, the Changing Conditions of Man, and the Obits of Certain Prominent Notables) .
The work is organized annalistically according to the years of the Prophet's Hijra, opening with the first year of the Hijra (1 AH) and concluding with the year 750 AH . Al-Yafi'i stated in his introduction that he abridged and selected material from earlier histories and biographies to provide a concise compendium of significant events and notable deaths, sparing the reader the need to consult multiple historical references .
Structure and Contents
The chronicle opens with the migration of the Prophet ﷺ from Mecca to Medina and proceeds year by year . Under each year, al-Yafi'i records prominent historical events—including military expeditions (maghazi), the affairs of caliphs and rulers, and milestones of the Muslim community—followed by biographical entries and obituaries of notable figures who died in that year . The text also incorporates the Prophet's virtues and physical characteristics (shama'il), miracles (mu'jizat), and the merits of the Companions .
Sources and Method
Al-Yafi'i selected the bulk of his general historical and biographical material from the works of Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi and Ibn Khallikan's Wafayat al-A'yan (Obituaries of Prominent Men) . For biographical notices on the early scholars and jurists of Yemen, he drew upon the history of Ibn Samurah . For prophetic attributes and the virtues of the Companions, he relied on Kitab al-Shama'il and al-Jami' of al-Tirmidhi as well as the Sahihs of al-Bukhari and Muslim .
In his methodology, al-Yafi'i sought a middle ground between disruptive brevity and tedious prolixity . He intentionally excised material deemed frivolous or morally objectionable (al-khala'a wa al-mujun) while enriching the text with selected poetry, rare anecdotes (nawadir), and notable sayings . He devoted particular attention and extended detail to Sufi figures, frequently offering explicit defenses and rebuttals to criticisms raised by al-Dhahabi .
Abridgments and Editions
The work was abridged by Ya'qub ibn Sayyidi Ali al-Rumi (d. 931 AH / 1524–1525 CE), who stated that he removed the rare and unusual anecdotes included by al-Yafi'i and ended his abridgment where al-Yafi'i's original text concluded, without adding a continuation (dhayl) .
The complete book has been published in four volumes .
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