Tarikh Ibn Haji

Tarikh Ibn Haji (also known as Tarikh Ibn Hijji or Dhayl Tarikh Ibn Kathir) is an annalistic chronicle of events and biographical obituaries by the Damascene Shafi'i jurist and traditionist Ahmad ibn Hijji al-Sa'di al-Husbani (751–816 AH / 1350–1413 CE) Mujam Tarikh al-Turath al…+1. Composed primarily as a continuation of late Mamluk historical writing, the work is a detailed contemporary record of Syrian, and especially Damascene, political, social, and scholarly life at the turn of the ninth century AH Tarikh Ibn Haji+1.

Author and Composition

The work was authored by Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Hijji ibn Musa al-Sa'di al-Husbani al-Dimashqi (d. 816 AH; another report gives 815 AH) Mujam al-Muallifin+1. Ibn Hijji designed the book as a historical continuation (dhayl) to the chronicle al-Bidayah wa-l-nihayah by his teacher Ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH), under whom he studied for six years al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya+1. Bibliographical sources also describe it as a continuation of Taqi al-Din Ibn Rafi''s al-Wafayat (which itself continued the chronicle of al-Birzali) or of al-Dhahabi's al-'Ibar Kashf al-Zunun an Asami a…+1.

According to his student Taqi al-Din Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Ibn Hijji began his chronicle from the year 741 AH, wrote six years of material, and later resumed from 769 AH, continuing until shortly before his death in 816 AH Kashf al-Zunun an Asami a…+1. Ibn Hijji left the work in an unfinalized draft (musawwadah) and instructed Ibn Qadi Shuhba to complete the lacuna between the two sections al-Ilan bil-Tawbikh liman…+1. Ibn Qadi Shuhba fair-copied Ibn Hijji's text, filled the gap, and incorporated additional material from Egyptian chronicles and biographies, producing his own expanded multi-volume history al-Ilan bil-Tawbikh liman…+1.

Scope and Method

The chronicle is arranged strictly year by year and month by month, recording for each month its notable public events (hawadith) followed by biographical obituaries (wafayat) of scholars, state officials, and prominent figures who died within it Tarikh Ibn Haji+1.

Ibn Hijji's narrative is distinguished by close attention to several facets of daily and administrative life in Damascus:

• Academic and institutional life: Detailed documentation of madrasas, teaching posts, curricula, waqf endowments, and inaugural lectures Tarikh Ibn Haji.
• Astronomy and meteorology: Precise tracking of lunar crescent sightings along with their corresponding dates in the Coptic and Julian calendars, rainfall patterns, droughts, eclipse prayers, and drought-relief supplications Tarikh Ibn Haji.
• Urban reconstruction: Accounts of construction projects, public markets, caravanserais, bathhouses, and city walls, particularly the rebuilding efforts in Damascus following the devastation caused by the invasion of Timur (Tamerlane) in 803 AH Tarikh Ibn Haji.
• Economic and social history: Recording of currency minting, debasement, commodity price swings (such as bread, meat, and oil), social celebrations, fires, and the movements and personnel of the Syrian pilgrimage caravan (al-mahmil al-shami) Tarikh Ibn Haji.

Reception and Preservation

Tarikh Ibn Haji served as an authoritative Syrian source for major 15th-century historians Tarikh Ibn Haji. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani relied heavily on it for his biographical dictionary al-Durar al-kaminah and chronicle Inba' al-ghumr, and al-Sakhawi similarly drew upon it Kashf al-Zunun an Asami a…. Later scholars such as al-Radi al-Ghazzi in Bahjat al-nazirin and Ibn al-Imad in Shadharat al-dhahab regularly quoted its reports and death dates Tarikh Ibn Haji.

Manuscripts of portions of the chronicle are preserved in European collections, including Berlin (MS 9458) and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (MS 4125), the latter written in the hand of Ibn Qadi Shuhba and containing the years 801–810 AH Mujam Tarikh al-Turath al…+1. The extant surviving portion of the chronicle covering the years 796–815 AH was edited by Abdullah al-Kandari and published in two volumes in Beirut in 2003 CE (1424 AH) Tarikh Ibn Haji+1.