Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Maqqarī al-Tilmisānī (or al-Maḳḳarī) (أحمد المقري التلمساني), (1577-1632) was an Algerian scholar, biographer and historian who is best known for his, a compendium of the history of Al-Andalus which provided a basis for the scholarly research on the subject until the twentieth century.

Life

A native of Tlemcen and from a prominent intellectual family originally from the village of Maqqara, near M'sila in Algeria. After his early education in Tlemcen, al-Maqqari travelled to Fes in Morocco and then to Marrakesh, following the court of Ahmad al-Mansur. On al-Mansur's death in 1603, al-Maqqari established himself in Fes, where he was the imam of the Qarawiyyin Mosque. In 1617, he left for the East, possibly following a quarrel with the local ruler, and took up residence in Cairo, where he composed his best known work, Nafḥ al-ṭīb. In 1620, he visited Jerusalem and Damascus, and made five pilgrimages over six years. At Mecca and Medina he gave popular lectures on ḥadīth. In 1628, he was again in Damascus, where he continued his lectures on Muhammad al-Bukhari's collection of Ḥadīth ('Traditions'), and spoke much of the glories of Muslim Iberia, and received the impulse to write his work on this subject later. That year he returned to Cairo and spent a year in writing his history of Spain. Surviving manuscripts are now held in part at El Escorial, near Madrid. He died in 1632 during preparations to settle in Damascus.

Works

Editions