Al-Nuwayrī, full name Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad bin ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Nuwayrī (, 5 April 1279 – 5 June 1333) was an Egyptian

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

historian and civil servant of the

Bahri Mamluk The Bahri Mamluks (), sometimes referred to as the Bahri dynasty, were the rulers of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt from 1250 to 1382, following the Ayyubid dynasty. The members of the Mamluk ruling class were purchased as slaves (mamluks) and manu ...

dynasty. He is most notable for his compilation of a 9,000-page encyclopedia of the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

era, titled ''The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition'' (, '), which pertained to

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

, amongst others. He is also known for his extensive work regarding the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

' conquest of Syria. Al-Nuwayri started his encyclopedia around the year 1314 and completed it in 1333.

Life

The name Al-Nuwayri is a nisba referring to the village of Al-Nuwayra in present-day

Beni Suef Governorate Beni Suef ( ') is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is situated in the center of the country and is located in northern Upper Egypt. Overview The governorate's capital is the city of Beni Suef, located about 120 km south of Cairo on the ...

. Al-Nuwayri was born 5 April 1279, in

Akhmim Akhmim (, ; Akhmimic , ; Sahidic/Bohairic ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis or Chemmis () and Panopolis (), it is located on the east bank of the Nile, to the northeast of Sohag. ...

, Egypt. For most of his childhood, he lived in

Qus Qus (, older name , from ) is a city in the modern Qena Governorate, Egypt, located on the east bank of the Nile. History Naming Its modern name is one of many borrowings in Egyptian Arabic from Coptic, the last living phase of Ancient Egyptia ...

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

, where he studied with

Ibn Daqiq al-'Id Taḳī al-Dīn Abū ’l-Fatḥ Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Wahb b. Muṭīʿ b. Abi ’l-Ṭāʿa, commonly known as Ibn Daqiq al-'Id (; 1228–1302), was a Sunni Egyptians, Egyptian scholar. He is widely accounted as one of Islam's great scholars ...

. He later studied at

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, specializing in the study of the

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

and the sira, in addition to history. Skilled in

calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...

, he reportedly made a copy of ''

Sahih al-Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

'' which he sold for 1000

dinar The dinar () is the name of the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, with a more widespread historical use. The English word "dinar" is the transliteration of the Arabic دينار (''dīnār''), which was bor ...

s. He worked as a civil servant in the administration of Sultan

An-Nasir Muhammad Al-Malik an-Nasir Nasir ad-Din Muhammad ibn Qalawun (), commonly known as an-Nasir Muhammad (), or by his kunya: Abu al-Ma'ali () or as Ibn Qalawun (1285–1341) was the ninth Mamluk sultan of the Bahri dynasty who ruled Egypt between 12 ...

starting aged 23, serving in various roles including property manager for the Sultan and superintendent of army finances in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

. At some point after 1312, he retired from government service and took a job copying manuscripts in order to support himself while compiling his encyclopedia. He died on 5 June 1333, in Cairo.

Encyclopedia

Al-Nuwayri's encyclopedia, ''The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition'', was divided into five sections (books): # Geography and astronomy # Man, and what relates to him # Animals # Plants # History The first four subjects comprised 10 volumes, while the last filled 21 volumes. ِAl-Nuwayri based his encyclopedia on several earlier works. In fact, the only wholly original portions are the discussion of financial secretaryship in book two, and some of the historical material in book five. The rest of the work was a compilation of a number of texts including ''Delightful Concepts and the Path to Precepts (Mabahij al-fikar wa manahij al-'ibar)'' by Jamal al-Din al-Watwat and

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

's ''

Canon of Medicine ''The Canon of Medicine'' () is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Avicenna (, ibn Sina) and completed in 1025. It is among the most influential works of its time. It presents an overview of the contemporary medical knowled ...

''.Muhanna, pp. 43, 69.

Editions and translations

* * Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Nuwayrī,
Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab
' (Cairo: al-Muʿassasa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma lil-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr, 1923–97) * Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Nuwayrī, ''Nihāyat al-arab fī funūn al-adab'' (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2004)

Life

Encyclopedia

Editions and translations

References

Further reading