Safahat lam tunshar min Badai al-Zuhur fi Waqai al-Duhur
- Author died
- 930 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Maʻārif
Safahat lam tunshar min Bada'i al-Zuhur fi Waqa'i al-Duhur (Unpublished Pages from Bada'i al-Zuhur in the Events of the Ages) is an excerpted edition of previously unpublished historical chronicles by the Egyptian historian Ibn Iyas (852–c. 930 AH / 1448–c. 1524 CE), edited by Muhammad Mustafa and published in Cairo in 1371 AH / 1951 CE .
Background and Purpose
Between 1928 and 1935, Paul Kahle and Muhammad Mustafa collaborated on editing volumes 3, 4, and 5 of Ibn Iyas's major chronicle, Bada'i al-zuhur fi waqa'i al-duhur . When preparing the third volume, they elected to begin their edition at the accession of Sultan al-Ashraf Qaytbay in Rajab 872 AH (1468 CE), the exact point where Ibn Taghribirdi's chronicle Al-Nujum al-zahirah fi muluk Misr wa-al-Qahirah ended, so as to establish an unbroken continuity of Egyptian Mamluk histories . Consequently, the first ninety-eight folios of the author's autograph manuscript (Fatih MS 4198)—covering the period from Rabi' al-Awwal 857 AH (1453 CE) to Rajab 872 AH (1468 CE)—were omitted from that volume .
Upon comparing these omitted folios with Ibn Taghribirdi's accounts in al-Nujum al-zahirah and Hawadith al-duhur, Mustafa observed that reports for several months were missing in Ibn Taghribirdi's texts and that Ibn Iyas recorded eyewitness events and details absent from other contemporary sources . Furthermore, the earlier nineteenth-century Bulaq edition of Bada'i al-zuhur had relied on an abridged manuscript that heavily compressed this era; for example, the nine years from 863 to 871 AH were condensed in the Bulaq printing into just eighteen pages, whereas the autograph text covered over one hundred pages . To fill this historiographical gap, Mustafa prepared the text from the author's autograph and issued it under the patronage of the Royal Society for Historical Studies through Dar al-Ma'arif in 1951 .
Content and Scope
The work documents fifteen years of late Mamluk history in Egypt, spanning the reigns of Sultans Inal, Ahmad ibn Inal, Khushqadam, Yalbay, and Timurbugha . It preserves Ibn Iyas's detailed day-to-day annals of political developments, court ceremonies, internal conflicts, and the social life of Cairo during this period, transcribed directly from the author's original manuscript .
Subsequent Integration
When Muhammad Mustafa later undertook the comprehensive edition of the remaining portions of Bada'i al-zuhur under the auspices of the German Oriental Society, he incorporated the material originally published in Safahat lam tunshar into its chronological place within Volume 2 (published in 1392 AH / 1972 CE), where it forms pages 307 through 476 . Mustafa also utilized the indexing framework developed for Safahat lam tunshar as a model when compiling the extensive indices for the full edition of Ibn Iyas's chronicle .
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