Shifa al-Gharam bi-Akhbar al-Balad al-Haram
- Author died
- 832 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah
Shifa al-Gharam bi-Akhbar al-Balad al-Haram (Healing the Yearning Through Reports of the Sacred Sanctuary) is a comprehensive history and topography of Mecca and its sacred sites, composed in two volumes by the Maliki jurist and historian al-Taqi al-Fasi (775–832 AH / 1373–1429 CE) .
Scope and Structure
The work is organized into forty thematic chapters (abwab) dedicated to the religious, architectural, political, and social history of Mecca, while also touching upon nearby Ta'if and Jeddah . The text covers:
- Sacred topography and architecture: The boundaries of the Meccan sanctuary (al-Haram), its mountains and quarters; the Kaaba, its physical dimensions, interior, roof, pillars, door, the Black Stone, the Multazam, Maqam Ibrahim, and Hijr Isma'il; and al-Masjid al-Haram, detailing its historical expansions, pillars, arcades, crenellations, lanterns, minarets, doors, and the prayer stations (maqamat) of the different schools .
- Civic and ritual infrastructure: The well of Zamzam and its administration; the pilgrimage sites associated with the Hajj rites, including Mina, the Jamarat, al-Khayf Mosque, Muzdalifah, and Arafat; as well as madrasas, hospices (rubut), public fountains, cisterns, wells, and canals built across Mecca .
- Pre-Islamic and early history: The history of Mecca from the eras of Abraham and Ishmael, the lineages of Ishmael's descendants, and the successive eras of rule under Jurhum, Khuza'a, and Quraysh, including the achievements of Qusayy ibn Kilab and pre-Islamic Meccan arbiters .
- Islamic governance and chronicle: The conquest of Mecca followed by an extensive chronicle of the governors of Mecca under Islam across various dynasties, alongside historical occurrences, weather phenomena, torrential floods (suyul), lightning strikes, famines, plagues, and commodity price fluctuations arranged chronologically .
- Cults, markets, and poetry: Pre-Islamic idols positioned around Mecca and their destruction, historical marketplaces in pre-Islamic and Islamic times, and poetic verses composed in longing for Mecca and its landmarks .
Method and Sources
Al-Fasi modeled his work after the classical treatises of Abu al-Walid al-Azraqi (d. ca. 250 AH) and Abu Abd Allah al-Fakihi (d. ca. 280 AH), utilizing them as foundational baselines while incorporating historical developments from the fourth to the ninth centuries AH that had not been documented by his predecessors . His method is marked by systematic comparison of conflicting narrations, critical analysis of sources, and citing earlier historical works that have since been lost .
Abridgments
Al-Fasi produced multiple abridgments of the book :
- Tuhfat al-Kiram bi-Akhbar al-Balad al-Haram (also titled Tahsil al-Maram min Tarikh al-Balad al-Haram), which condensed the original by roughly half through removing hadith chains of transmission while preserving the forty-chapter arrangement; it was completed in Muharram 817 AH .
- Hadi Dhawi al-Afham ila Tarikh al-Balad al-Haram, an epitome of Tuhfat al-Kiram .
- Al-Zuhur al-Muqattafah fi Tarikh Makkah al-Musharrafah, which further abridged Hadi Dhawi al-Afham, alongside subsequent summaries such as Tarwih al-Sudur and Ujalat al-Qura .
His student Najm al-Din Umar ibn Fahd drew upon Shifa al-Gharam and its six abridgments when compiling his own chronicle, Ithaf al-Wara bi-Akhbar Umm al-Qura .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of Shifa al-Gharam are preserved in several collections, including the State Library of Berlin (Ms. 9753), the Research Library of Gotha (Ms. 1706), the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (Ms. 1633), the Selim Agha Library (Ms. 816) and Köprülü Library (Ms. 1097) in Istanbul, the Library of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez (Ms. 1282), and Dar al-Kutub in Cairo .
Selections from the text were printed in Europe in the nineteenth century . The complete work was first published in two volumes in Mecca sponsored by Muhammad Surur al-Sabban through Maktabat al-Nahdah al-Hadithah . It was later re-edited by Ayman Fu'ad Sayyid and Mustafa Muhammad al-Dhahabi and published in Mecca in 1999 .
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