Seerah al-Maqqari — Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tilimsani al-Maqqari (1577-1632 CE): The Algerian Scholar in Morocco and Egypt Whose Nafh al-Tib min Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratib (The Fragrant Waft from the Moist Branch of al-Andalus — 8 Volumes of History, Biography, Poetry, and Culture of Medieval Andalusia) Is the Primary Compendium of Andalusian Islamic Civilization, Compiled After the Fall of Granada (1492) to Preserve a Culture That Was Disappearing From Living Memory

Seerah al-Maqqari (سِيرَةُ المَقَّرِيّ; full name: Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qurashi al-Tilimsani, known as al-Maqqari; born 1577 CE in Tlemcen [Algeria]; died 1632 CE in Cairo; 'al-Tilimsani' = from Tlemcen; 'al-Maqqari' = from the Maqqar clan; career: al-Maqqari served as a mufti in Fez [Morocco] and Cairo before settling in Cairo, where he spent his later years; he traveled to the major centers of learning in North Africa, the Hijaz, and Egypt; he met major scholars of the late 16th and early 17th centuries; context — the aftermath of 1492: al-Maqqari was born 85 years after the fall of Granada [1492 CE] — the final surrender of the last Muslim kingdom in Spain to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella; by the time al-Maqqari was writing, the Moorish exiles [Moriscos] were being expelled from Spain [final expulsion 1609-1614 CE, during al-Maqqari's lifetime]; Andalusian civilization existed in memory and in manuscripts preserved by exiles and their descendants in North Africa; the task al-Maqqari set himself was to compile this memory comprehensively before it dispersed further; major works: [1] Nafh al-Tib min Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratib wa-Dhikr Waziriha Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib [نَفحُ الطِّيبِ مِن غُصنِ الأَندَلُسِ الرَّطِيبِ وَذِكرُ وَزِيرِهَا لِسَانِ الدِّينِ ابنِ الخَطِيب — The Fragrant Waft from the Moist Branch of al-Andalus and the Account of Its Vizier Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib; 8 volumes]: the great compendium of Andalusian civilization; structure: [a] Part 1 [first 4 volumes]: history of al-Andalus — the Arab conquest, the Umayyad emirate and caliphate, the taifa kingdoms, the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties, the Nasrid kingdom of Granada; [b] Part 2 [last 4 volumes]: biography of Ibn al-Khatib [the great 14th-century Granadine polymath and vizier]; through the biography of Ibn al-Khatib, al-Maqqari preserved enormous amounts of Andalusian literature, poetry, and cultural history; the biography became a vehicle for encyclopaedic preservation of Andalusian texts; [c] quotation: Nafh al-Tib quotes thousands of lines of Andalusian poetry, hundreds of biographical notices of scholars and poets, historical documents, administrative texts, and literary correspondence; [d] the significance: Nafh al-Tib is the primary compendium of Andalusian Islamic civilization; for scholars studying medieval al-Andalus in any domain — history, literature, science, architecture, music — Nafh al-Tib is the first major reference; it preserved texts that no longer exist in any other form; [2] Azhar al-Riyad fi Akhbar 'Iyad [أَزهَارُ الرِّيَاضِ فِي أَخبَارِ عِيَاض — Flowers of the Gardens: Accounts of 'Iyad]: a biography of the great Andalusian scholar al-Qadi 'Iyad [1083-1149 CE] and his influence; another vehicle for preserving Andalusian culture; al-Maqqari's significance: al-Maqqari represents the last major act of Andalusian cultural preservation by a scholar writing in the Arabic literary tradition; his compilation in Nafh al-Tib was the final comprehensive gathering of the Andalusian corpus before it became definitively part of history rather than living tradition; without al-Maqqari, our knowledge of al-Andalus would be substantially more fragmentary) is the final archivist of a civilization's memory.