1 This paper is concerned with an informant of the famous Egyptian historian al-Maqr?z? (died 845 ah/1442 ad), who quotes a short report by him in his well-known booklet on Ethiopia. This person is a Sheikh from North Africa called Shih?badd?n A?mad b. ‘Abdalkh?liq al-Maj???. The following lines bring together the material from some Arabic sources dealing with this globe-trotter from Maghrib, who remains unknown until now.

2 al-Maqr?z? [1] “was one of the great polymaths of the Maml?k period [2].” Born in Cairo in the sixties of the fourteenth century, he was active like his father in various scholarly and administrative functions. He began his public career as a scribe in the chancellery. Subsequently designated a deputy judge and market inspector (mu?tasib) in Cairo, he became also Im?m, chief administrator and preacher at two Mosques in Cairo [3], as well as professor of tradition (?ad??). He spent ten years in Damascus and held various teaching positions there too. Here he seems to have given up his official career to devote himself full-time to the study of history. Consequently, he had some professional and personal quarrels with some of his fellow historians and rivals, such as Ibn ?ajar al-‘Asqal?n? (died 852 ah/1449 ad) and al-‘Ain? (died 855 ah/1451 ad) [4]. Having first returned to Egypt, then he spent the following five years, from 1430 to 1435 ad (834-839 ah), in Mecca. Here he composed some of his short and remarkable treaties, such as the geography of ?a?ramaut from the year 1435 ad [5], or his booklet on Ethiopia and its Muslim rulers. Upon returning to Egypt and isolated from the spheres of power and wealth, al-Maqr?z? died after a long illness at the age of seventy-nine in Cairo, end of January 1442 ad [6].

3 al-Maqr?z?’s many historical and geographical works include a chronicle of the F??imids (Kit?b Itti‘?? al-?unaf?’ bi-akhb?r al-a’imma al-khulaf?’), a history of the Aiy?bids and the Maml?ks down to the end of his life (Kit?b as-Sul?k li-ma‘rifat duwal al-mul?k), a monograph on the economy, finances and periodic famines in Egypt (Igh?that al-umma bi-kashf al-ghumma), an extensive biographical dictionary on famous Egyptians (Kit?b al-Muqaff?), and an extensive topographical work, widely known as al-Khi?a? (al-Maw?‘i?wa-l-i‘tib?r f? dhikr al-khi?a? wa-l-?th?r), on the history, topography and architecture of Islamic Cairo, Fus??? and Alexandria as well as the Egyptian history in general [7].

4 al-Maqr?z?’s booklet on the Muslim rulers of Ethiopia, the Kit?b al-Ilm?m bi-akhb?r man bi-ar? al-?abasha min mul?k al-Isl?m, the “Book of the true knowledge of the History of the Muslim Kings in Ethiopia”, was finished in early summer of 1438 ad. As one of al-Maqr?z?’s first books to be edited and translated into an European language, the short text was edited by Friedrich Theodor Rinck [8] and published with a Latin version in 1790 [9]. Based on his Latin translation, a German version was made by the German scholar and husband of Marianne von Brentano, Theophil Friedrich Ehrmann only four years later [10]. Furthermore, the typescript of an unpublished English translation, made by George Wynn Brereton Huntingford [11] in the fifties of the late century, is available in the SOAS Library in London. The translation, accompanied by a small index of proper names and a list of the kings of Zaila‘ and Ethiopia, was based on Rinck’s Latin version as was the Cairo text of 1895 [12] on Rinck’s editio princeps.

5 Given the unsatisfactory situation of the text, a new edition, based on a half-dozen of manuscripts from Istanbul, Cairo, Leiden and Paris [13], seems pertinent [14]. Such an edition should also consider the various scattered quotations in the biographical and historical sources, such as as-Sakh?w?s ?au’ al-l?mi‘, Ibn ?ajar al-‘Asqal?n?’s Durar and Inb?’ al-ghumr, Ibn Taghribird?’s an-Nuj?m az-z?hira, al-Qalqashand?’s ?ub? al-a‘sh? as well as al-Maqr?z?’s Durar al-‘uq?d and Sul?k.

6 al-Maqr?z?’s Ilm?m is divided into three parts. The first two, covering about two fifth of the text, deal with Ethiopia’s geography and the surrounding Muslim principalities. A read-through the text leaves no doubt that these two parts are in many ways typical compilations, but whereas other authors usually indicate their sources, al-Maqr?z? makes no effort to do so. In opposition to his statement at the beginning that he had collected his notes from “men who knew the history of the Muslim peoples who inhabit Ethiopia” while staying in Mecca in 1435 [15], this material is largely the product of copying from Ibn Fa?lall?h al-‘Umar?’s (died 749 ah/1349 ad) encyclopedic Mas?lik al-ab??r [16]. al-Maqr?z?’s monograph on the Arab tribes that came to Egypt, al-Bay?n wal-i‘r?b ‘amm? bi-ar? Mi?r min al-a‘r?b, is based on another chapter of Ibn Fa?lall?h’s mentioned work too [17]. David Neustadt, better known as David Ayalon, stated that “al-Maqr?z?’s impudence reached such a degree that he ascribed what he copied from the mas?lik to trustworthy informants he met in Mecca! [18]” One could object to this distinguished scholar, that “plagiarism” is part of the Arabic literature, and in addition, that the third extensive part of al-Maqr?z?’s Ilm?m is an independent and alone source for the history of Ethiopia during the 14^th and 15^th centuries [19]. His account about the troubled years following the death of king Yes??q (1413-1430 ad) and the continued success of the Ethiopian army in the wars against ‘Adal is remarkably accurate, the chronological imperfections being largely due to the uncertainties of the political situation in Ethiopia itself.

7 al-Maqr?z?’s comments on Ethiopia’s districts, Shoa, Damot, ‘Adal al-Umar?’, Hamasen in the north of Tigrê, the seven Muslim trading states in southern Ethiopia, fittingly called the “Muslim fringe” (a?-?ir?z al-isl?m?), ?f?t, Daw?r?, Ar?babn?, Hadiya, Shar??, B?l? and D?ra, then Nary? in the north, Samhar in the north-east, Ganz in the center and Laman?n [20], most all this information is taken from Ibn Fa?lall?h, the prominent author and administrator of the Maml?k era [21]. Having served in the chanceries of Damascus and Cairo, hence an apt expert on a wide variety of special fields related to administration and politics, Ibn Fa?lall?h had dealt with these subjects in his principal work, the Mas?lik al-ab??r wa-l-mam?lik al-am??r, “The routes toward insight into the capital empires”, an encyclopaedic survey of the world and its peoples.

8 Ibn Fa?lall?h had gathered his informations on Ethiopia first hand. During the years 1332 to 1338 ad he interviewed an Ethiopian jurisprudent from az-Zaila‘, ‘Abdall?h ibn Y?suf az-Zaila‘? [22]. A resident in Cairo for a long time, he died in the sixties of the fourteenth century [23]. Another informant was the Coptic Patriarch Benjamin who transmitted a report of a merchant named ‘Izzadd?n on climate conditions and mineral resources in Ethiopia, mainly on mines of iron and gold, or silver [24]. He also utilized the reports of a Nubian slave-trader on the very unpleasant practices on the castration of eunuch slaves, called ?aw?shiya, in Hadiya and the town of Washal? or Washelo [25]. The result is a detailed and vivid account of Ethiopia, its nature, vegetation, climate conditions and way of living of the inhabitants. The data so provided were extensivley quarried by the great compilers of the next generation, the Egyptian encyclopedist al-Qalqashand? [26] (died 821 ah/1418 ad) and al-Maqr?z?.

9 I would like now to examine one of the quoted sources in al-Maqr?z?’s Ilm?m. It is in the chapter on the kingdom of ?f?t or Auf?t, that al-Maqr?z? mentions one of his informants, the educated man of letters and poet Sheikh Ših?badd?n A?mad b. ‘Abdalkh?liq b. Mu?ammad b. Khalafall?h b. Mu?ammad al-Maj??? [27].

10 This North African globe-trotter had reported him that agricultural and other produce in ?f?t was cheap. A bunch of some 100 bananas was sold for a quarter of a dirham, while thirty pounds (??biq) [28] of meat was sold for a dirham and a half [29]. Compared with the previous translations of Ehrmann [30] and Huntingford [31] including Pankhurst’s short notice [32], they differ in that bananas and Damascus grapes are not the same, and the quotations of prices are mistranslated. Therefore, this is a good example to remind that a misinterpretation of a passage still lives on.

11 Who was this North African globe-trotter, al-Maj???? Fortunately, al-Maqr?z? has supplied his annalistic and topographical studies with a variety of biographical lexica. In his Kit?b al-Muqaff? al-kab?r or at-Ta’r?kh al-kab?r al-Muqaff? he has dealt with more or less detailed accounts of prominent men of Egypt since the Arabic conquest. The dimensions of this biographical dictionary are given different. According to al-Maqr?z?’s pupil Ibn Taghr?bird? (died 874 ah/1469 ad) and as-Sakh?w? (died 902 ah/1497 ad) a completed form would have filled more than eighty volumes, and according to as-Sakh?w? the existing parts had covered sixteen volumes [33]. Some years ago, the edition of the surviving parts by Mu?ammad al-Ya‘law? was published in eight volumes in Beirut.

12 al-Maqr?z?’s second and more specialized text, Kit?b Durar al-‘uq?d, is concerned with biographies of his prominent contemporaries. The published fragment, based on a rough draft (musauwada) in the author’s hand from the Gotha collection, contains 382 biographies of names beginning with Alif or ‘Ain [34]. Let us focus on the information that can be gleaned from the latter source of al-Maqr?z? [35]. Here one reads that A?mad b. ‘Abdalkh?liq b. Mu?ammad b. Khalafall?h al-Maj??? al-Maghrib? had travelled the lands in the east, west, south and north, and had earned his living by poetry. Aged long, he died on the 20^th of Rab?‘ II 802 ah, corresponding to the 20^th of December 1399 a.d., in Cairo. He had recited his extensive poetry to al-Maqr?z? and had complained as having never passed a year in forty years since his birth in which not a new damage on his body, his food, and his energy was to be found.

13 This statement was repeated by al-Maqr?z?’s fellow historian Ibn ?ajar al-‘Asqal?n? [36] and his pupil as-Sakh?w? [37] (died 902 ah/1497 ad), both of them adding that al-Maj???, his nisba or gentilic, refers to a village in North Africa, where he apparently came from. In the vast geographical Arabic literature a Berber tribe called the Maj??a in the neighbourhood of Fès can be identified [38]. Next, they indicate the correct pronunciation, not al-Muj???, as stated by Pankhurst [39]. Finally, both of them emphasize that al-Maj???, a capable and skilful poet who composed panegyric poems and numerous lampoons, passed the eve of his life with almost eighty years as a Sufi in the Sa‘?d as-Sa‘d?’ Kh?nq?h [40], a well-known establishment for Sufis at Cairo.