Nayl al-Amal fi Dhayl al-Duwal
- Author died
- 920 AH
- Editions
- Al-Maktabah al-'Asriyyah lil-Tiba'ah wa-al-Nashr
Nayl al-Amal fi Dhayl al-Duwal (Attaining Hope in Continuing the Dynasties) is an annalistic chronicle of late Mamluk history by the Hanafi scholar and historian Abd al-Basit al-Malti (844–920 AH / 1440–1514 CE) . Written as a continuation (dhayl) to Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi's Duwal al-Islam, it records historical events and biographical obituaries from the year 744 AH (1343–1344 CE) onward .
Purpose and Composition
Al-Malti stated in his preface that al-Dhahabi’s summary history Duwal al-Islam had concluded at the year 744 AH because of al-Dhahabi's death, leaving subsequent periods untreated . After being repeatedly asked by peers and scholars to provide a continuation that matched al-Dhahabi's concise format so that readers would not need to consult expansive, multi-volume chronicles, al-Malti authored the work . The text represents a medium-sized summary in comparison with his larger history, al-Rawd al-Basim fi Hawadith al-Umr wa-al-Tarajim . The author noted in one manuscript folio that he was compiling the book in 895 AH, though he continued writing past that date, including entries referencing events as late as 906 AH .
Structure and Methodology
The work is organized annalistically (hawliyyat), year by year and month by month, beginning each year with Muharram and proceeding consecutively through the calendar . At the end of each annual entry, al-Malti appended events and deaths whose specific month of occurrence could not be determined due to their distance from Egypt, where he resided .
Unlike al-Dhahabi's method in Duwal al-Islam—which segregated historical events from obituaries by placing all biographies in a standalone section at the end of each year—al-Malti integrated obituaries directly into the day-by-day narrative alongside political and administrative occurrences . In his narrative phrasing, he regularly opens each month with the formula «وفي شهر كذا» ("and in such-and-such month"), begins specific events and obituaries within that month with «وفيه» ("and in it"), and opens undated annual occurrences with «وفيها» ("and in it [the year]") .
Reception and Transmission
The book was heavily relied upon by subsequent historians; the late Mamluk historian Ibn Iyas drew verbatim on al-Malti's material across more than 150 years of coverage when composing his chronicle Bada'i' al-Zuhur fi Waqa'i' al-Duhur .
In surviving manuscript copies preserved at the Bodleian Library at Oxford (MSS Hunt. 285 and Hunt. 610), the book appears under varying title descriptions, including Akhbar al-Duwal wa-Athar al-Uwal, Hawadith al-Duhur fi Mada al-Ayyam wa-al-Shuhur, and Nayl al-Amal fi Dhayl al-Duwal . The text was edited by Umar Abd al-Salam Tadmuri and published in eight parts by al-Maktaba al-Asriyya in Sidon and Beirut, concluding with the year 896 AH .
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