Arabic Language and Literature
Maryam Hashemi
Volume 16, Issue 43 , March 2017, , Pages 257-276
Abstract
The present article has been written with the aim of reviewing the book titled: “The Egypt Superiorities: Its Chronicles and Characteristics” by Ibn Zulaq on a scientific quest of Islamic-literary Historiography of the Fatimid civilization and the local history. This type of Islamic-literary ...
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The present article has been written with the aim of reviewing the book titled: “The Egypt Superiorities: Its Chronicles and Characteristics” by Ibn Zulaq on a scientific quest of Islamic-literary Historiography of the Fatimid civilization and the local history. This type of Islamic-literary Historiography with its rooted tradition and its specific originality has always been appreciated by Muslim historians, such as Ibn Zulaq. He wrote the local history of Egypt and his book became known as one of the original and orderly types of Islamic Historiography; that i. e., the local history of different cities of the Islamic world. This scientific work of Ibn Zulaq is a valuable effort and a long step in explaining the depth and transcendence of local Historiography of the Fatimids, and it is reviewed and evaluated by descriptive-analytic method. According to the results of this terse article, the factors of emergence of this type of Historiography from the viewpoint of Ibn Zulaq include patriotic motivation, its prominent position for him, and the personal interest of this local historian to record the historical events of his city and also the encouragement of local authorities. Moreover, the author benefited from historical-narrative approach and arrangement methods in the Islamic Historiography according to hadith-report method in reviewing the local history. The contents of the book are mostly presented in a chronological and cyclical classification.
