Tarikh Ajaib al-Athar fi al-Tarajim wa al-Akhbar
- Author died
- 1237 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Jīl
Tarikh Ajaib al-Athar fi al-Tarajim wa al-Akhbar (The Marvelous Remnants in Biographies and Chronicles), commonly known as Tarikh al-Jabarti, is a four-volume Arabic chronicle and biographical dictionary composed by the Egyptian historian Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1167–1237 AH / 1754–1822 CE) . It documents the history, social life, and prominent figures of Egypt from the late eleventh century AH through the early thirteenth century AH (1688–1821 CE) .
Background and Composition
The initial impetus for the work arose from a biographical project conceived by the Damascene historian al-Muradi, author of Silk al-Durar, who requested that the Cairo-based scholar Murtada al-Zabidi gather biographies of twelfth-century Egyptian notables . Al-Jabarti assisted his teacher al-Zabidi in compiling this material; following the deaths of al-Zabidi in 1205 AH and al-Muradi in 1206 AH, al-Jabarti was prompted by his own initiative to continue collecting biographical entries and expand the project into a comprehensive historical record arranged chronologically .
Al-Jabarti compiled preliminary notebooks starting around 1190 AH . For the period prior to his own direct recollection—up to around 1170 AH—he relied on oral accounts from elders, public documents, gravestone inscriptions, and earlier writings such as the chronicle of Ahmad Chelebi ibn Abd al-Ghani, which covered Ottoman Egypt up to 1150 AH . For events after 1170 AH, he drew on his own recollections, producing detailed contemporary documentation from 1190 AH onwards . He completed the first three volumes in their final form during 1220–1221 AH (1805–1806 CE) and drafted the fourth volume over the period spanning 1221 to 1236 AH (1806–1821 CE) .
Structure and Methodology
The work is organized annalistically across four volumes, combining political narration with necrologies:
- Volume 1: Opens with an introductory historical overview from 1099 or 1100 AH to 1142 AH, followed by deaths from 1100 to 1142 AH, and covers events and figures down to 1189 AH .
- Volume 2: Covers events and biographies from 1190 AH up to 1212 AH .
- Volume 3: Covers the period up to 1220 AH, including the French occupation of Egypt .
- Volume 4: Concludes the chronicle, covering events from 1221 AH through Dhu al-Qada 1236 AH during the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha .
Within each year, al-Jabarti records political, military, and daily urban happenings sequentially on a day-by-day basis . At the close of each annual record, he appends obituary entries (tarajim) for that year's deceased notables, including religious scholars, state officials, and Mamluk commanders, detailing their lineages, careers, and works .
Scope and Historical Significance
Tarikh Ajaib al-Athar serves as the principal contemporary Arabic source for late Ottoman Egypt, the French Expedition led by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the rise of Muhammad Ali Pasha . Although focused primarily on Cairo and its urban life, it offers detailed observations of urban topography, mosques, palaces, and institutional changes . The orientalist Edward William Lane drew on its material for the annotations in his translation of One Thousand and One Nights .
Al-Jabarti wrote critically of Muhammad Ali Pasha's administrative reforms and fiscal policies, frequently condemning his governance while acknowledging certain architectural and military projects .
Censorship, Print Editions, and Translations
Because of its sharp censure of Muhammad Ali, the public distribution and printing of the book were suppressed in Egypt throughout much of the nineteenth century . In 1878, the section detailing the French occupation was published in Alexandria by Adib Ishaq in the newspaper Misr under the title Tarikh al-Faransawiyya fi Misr .
The complete work was printed for the first time in four volumes at the Bulaq Press in 1297 AH (1879–1880 CE), following the accession of Khedive Tawfiq . Subsequent Arabic printings appeared on the margins of Ibn al-Athir's al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh at al-Matba'a al-Azhariyya in 1302 AH (1884–1885 CE), as an independent work at al-Matba'a al-Ashrafiyya in Cairo in 1322 AH (1904–1905 CE), and in a modern critical edition edited by Abd al-Rahim Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Rahim published by Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (1997–1998) .
The chronicle was abridged by Sheikh Abdullah Abu al-Su'ud (d. 1295 AH / 1878 CE) under the title Minhat al-Asr bi-Muntaqa Tarikh Misr . A French translation titled Merveilles biographiques et historiques, ou chronique du Cheikh Abd-El Rahman El-Djabarti was prepared by Shafiq Bey Mansur, Abd al-Aziz Kahil Bey, Jibra'il Niqula Kahil Bey, and Iskandar Bey Amran, and published at the Imprimerie Nationale in Cairo between 1888 and 1896 .
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