² On al-Jabartī, his life and activities, see Ayalon. See also al-Shayyāl, Jamāl al-Dīn, al-Tārīkh wa 'l-mu'arrikhūn fī Miṣr fi al-qurn al-tāsi' 'ashar, Cairo, 1958, 10–27Google Scholar, and its English version, A history of Egyptian historiography in the nineteenth century, Alexandria, 1962, 7–14.Google Scholar

³ It seems that this title was given by the owner of the MS. In GAL, Suppl., II, 731, this MS was mentioned among the works of al-Jabartī as Muddat al-Fransīs bi Miṣr, and in Landberg, , Catalogue de manuscrits arabes, Leiden, 1883, p. 21, No. 61, it is mentioned under the title Muddat al-Faransīs bi-Miṣr; but it is not mentioned as a separate work by other scholars (see p. 532, n. 38).Google Scholar

⁴ GAL, II, 364; cf. Ayalon, p. 247, n. 1.

⁵ Lane, E. W. (tr.), The Arabian nights' entertainments, London, 1883, I, note to ch. i, p. 66.Google Scholar

⁶ The vowelling of the title is according to the Rampur MS (see plate VIII). The same vowelling was applied by Browne, E. G. in A hand-list of the Muḥammadan manuscripts, Cambridge, 1900, I, 207Google Scholar, No. 1058 (Qq 214), while Brockelmann (GAL, Suppl., II, 730–1), Babinger (Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke, Leipzig, 1927, 340), and Macdonald (art. El, first ed.) and others transcribed it Muẓhir al-taqdīs.Google Scholar

⁷ 'Ajā'ib al-āthār, Būlāq, 1297/1879–1880, III, 116Google Scholar, 1. 30–117, 1. 2. Al-Jabartī, in speaking about the protocol of the trial of Sulaymān al-ḥalabī, the assassin of Général Kléber, said: This protocol is missing in Maẓhar al-taqdīs ed. Cairo, [1958], and MSS, hence we suggest that al-Jabartī is referring to Maẓhar in this paragraph.Google Scholar

⁸ See plates I–III.

⁹ Al-Makhṭūṭāt al-tārīkhiyya fī khizānat kutub al-matḥaf al-'Irāqī bi-Baghdād, Baghdad, 1957 (reprinted from Sumer, XIII, 1957). Cf. also Revue de l'Institut des Manuscrits Arabes (Ligue des États Arabes, Le Caire), I, 1955, 45.Google Scholar

¹⁰ See plate III.

¹¹ It seems that al-Kirmilī was influenced by J. Zaydān's remark in Tārīkh ādāb al-lugha al-'Arabiyya, IV, 284.

¹² See plates IV-V.

¹³ Browne, E. G., A hand-list of the Muḥammadan manuscripts, Cambridge, 1900, I, 118Google Scholar, Nos. 669–71. al-Sharqāwī, Maḥmūd, in his Dirāsāt fī tārīkh al-Jabartī, Miṣr fī al-qarn al-thāmin 'ashar, Cairo, 1955–1956, II, p. h, said that there is a copy of 'Ajā'ibin Cambridge University Library containing comments in al-Jabartī's hand. Cf. Ayalon, p. 229, n. 3.Google Scholar

¹⁴ I, ff. 48a–63a. In the margins the dates are 1098, 1101, 1102, 1106, 1111, 1105, 1090, 1099, 1104, 1115, etc.

¹⁵ II, f. 120.

¹⁶ II, ff. 51a–52a.

¹⁷ I, ff. 51a, 53a–b; II, ff. 2b, 179a.

¹⁸ I, ff. 6a, 81a–82a, 91b, 242b, 255b, 268b–269a; and immediately after the year 1288 in II, ff. 46b, 47a.

¹⁹ See for instance I, f. 151a; II, f. 159a. The biography of Muḥammad Khalīl al-Murādi (d. 1206/1791–2) was written in this way (II, ff. 158a–159a; cf. 'Ajā'ib, Būlāq ed., II, 233, 1. 15–236, 1. 24). This fact shows that the author wrote it in a sudden flash of recollection, thus he was not aware of the other two versions in the introduction of his book in which he stated his methods and motives for compiling it (ibid., I, 2, II. 6–15, and 6, 11. 16–30). See also Ayalon, 222–7.

²⁰ On other abbreviations of words used in MSS, see Wright, W., A grammar of the Arabic language. Third ed., reissued, Cambridge, 1955, I, 25–6.Google Scholar

²¹ See for instance plate v, margin. The most important critical note is written in the latter type, commenting on certain events in vol. II of the MS (I, f. 60b). This note states: ‘A similar [affair] to this is happening now between Muḥammad Bāshā 'Alī and Muḥammad Bey al-Alfī with his Khushdāshs in connexion with their correspondence with the Ottomans and this is [happening] in the year 1221[/1805–1806]. May God cause it to have a good outcome, because distress and plunder are harassing the villagers and I presume that the Shaykh, may God save him, [I mean] the author, has elucidated this in the clearest way in the following [pages]’. This note shows that the MS was already in the possession of this owner only a year after its compilation by al-Jabartī.

²² See plate V, below the last line of the text.

²³ See Catalogue des manuscrits arabes par le baron de Slane, Paris, 1883–1895, I, p. 336, Nos. 1861–3.Google Scholar

²⁴ BM Add. 26042–4. See Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda. Suppl., London, 1871, No. 1497, p. 682, col. b.Google Scholar

²⁵ For other MSS of 'Ajā'ib al-āthār see Rieu, C., Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the British Museum, London, 1894, p. 360; Maḥmūd al-Sharqāwā, I, 33–5; Ayalon, p. 229, n. 3, and GAL, Suppl., II, 730–1.Google Scholar

Jurjī Zaydān in Tārīkh ādāb al-lugha al-' Arabiyya, IV, 283, mentioned a copy of 'Ajā'ib in the library of Muḥammad Bek Āṣif in Cairo, transcribed by Aḥmad b. ḥasan al-Rashīdī in 1237/1821–2. Zaydān added that this MS was revised by al-Jabartī on 14 Rabī'1 1240/6 November 1824. I was not able to examine this MS. In the catalogue of Rampur Library (I, 641, Nos. 165–8) there is a MS copied from an autograph of al-Jabartī.Google Scholar

²⁶ See plates VI–VII.

²⁷ A hand-list of the Muḥammadan manuscripts, I, 207Google Scholar, No. 1058 (Qq 214). Cf. also Cl. Huart, , Littérature arabe, Paris, 1902, 415.Google Scholar

²⁸ See plate VI.

²⁹ In Dozy, Suppl., under al-mīqāt: ‘L'art de dresser les calendriers servant à indiquer les heure⋅ de la prière’.

³⁰ See plates VIII–IX.

³¹ See Fihris al-makhtūtāt al-muṣawwara, Cairo, 1959, II, pt. 3, p. 281Google Scholar, no. 1232. Cf. Fihrist-i kutub-i 'Arabi mawjūda-i kutubkhāna-i riyāsat-i Rāmpūr, Rampur, 1928, II, pt. 1, no. 3634–F 3302.Google Scholar

³² See Maḥmūd al-Sharqāwī, op. cit., I, 44, n. 1.

³³ See Yawmiyyātal-Jabartī, ‘Maẓharal-taqdīs bi-zawāldawlatal-Faransīs’, ed. by 'Atā, Muḥammad, Cairo, [1958], 2 vols. (Ikhtarnā Lalca, nos. 59–60). The title of the second vol. is Maẓhar al-taqdīs bi-dhahāb dawlat al-Faransīs, ‘Yawmiyyāt al-Jabartī’. See II, 198, II. 7–9. This is because Sha'bān is the eighth month while Ramaḍān is the ninth.Google Scholar

³⁴ op. cit., I, 36, 43.

³⁵ See Maḥmud al-Sharqāwī, op. cit., I, 44, n. 1. Al-Sharqāwī thought that this was the date of transcription.

³⁶ See Rieu, , Supplement, pp. 359–60, No. 561. It is worth while mentioning here that the most accurate details about al-Jabartī MSS are to be found in this catalogue.Google Scholar

³⁷ For other MSS of Maẓhar al-taqdīs see GAL, Suppl., II, 730–1, and Ayalon, p. 245, n. 1.

³⁸ See plates X–XII. Voorhoeve, P., in Handlist of Arabic manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden, Leiden, 1957, 3Google Scholar, lists this under the title 'Ajā'ib āl-āthār(following Goeje, de and Juynboll, , Catalogus codicum arabicorum bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno-Batavae, second ed., II, pt. 1, Leiden, 1907, p. 100, No. 988).Google Scholar

³⁹ Catalogue de manuscrits arabes provenant d'une bibliothèque privée à El-Medīna, appartenant à la maison E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1883, p. 21, No. 61. Cf. also GAL, Suppl., II, 731, and p. 524, n. 3, above.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ See plate X.

⁴¹ See plate XI. The fact that this booklet lacks the basmala shows that the author considered it as a part of other material which was in his possession as he stated in his various versions. Cf. 'Ajā'ib, Būlāq ed., I, 2, II. 6–15, 6, II. 16–30; II, 233, 1. 15–236, I. 24.

⁴² cf. p. 527, n. 21, and p. S36, n. 57.

⁴³ See plate III.

⁴⁴ See, for example, plate XI.

⁴⁵ e.g. Būlāq ed., II, 73, 11. 4–8, 151, 11. 16–21; II, 115, 1. 16, 357, 11. 4–12, are missing from these MSS.

⁴⁶ A new edition of 'Ajā'ib al-āthār, edited and annotated by Hasan Muḥammad Jawhar, 'Abd al-Fattāḥ al-Sirnajāwī, and Ibrāhim Sālim, is in progress (Cairo, 1958– ). The editors do not mention the MSS on which they have based their edition. They repeat the fictional version of Shaybūb concerning, Ajā'ib's compilation, in his book 'Abd al-Raḥmān al-Jabartī, Cairo, 1948 (Iqra', no. 70). A Russian version of the first part of vol. III of 'Ajā'ib al-āthār entitled: Egipet v period ekspeditsii Bonaparta, 1798–1801, translated with introduction and notes, by I. M. Fil'shtinisky, and another of vol. IV entitled: Egipet pod vlast'yn Mukhammada 'Ali, 1806–1821, translated with introduction and notes by Kh. I. Kil'berg, was published by Akademiya Nauk SSSR. Institut Narodov Azii (Pamyatniki Literatury Narodov Vostoka: Perevody, IV), in Moscow, 1962–3.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Būlāq ed., I, 1, 1. 25–2, 1. 2 of the editor's preface.

⁴⁸ See for instance III, 5, 1. 30, 83, 1. 14, 87, 11. 24–5, 113, 11. 23–5, 116, 11. 32–3, 133, 11. 23–1.

⁴⁹ See III, 116, 133 (margin). A good example illustrating this attitude of the editor is the following passage in MS 'Aj. Cam. of a proclamation to the people of Egypt issued by the French Army on 2 July 1798: Comparing al-Jabartī's version of this proclamation with the text of the original proclamation in the British Museum (general catalogue shelf-mark 1296.h.12(1)) we found that al-Jabartī was very accurate in copying the text except for some slight differences; e.g. the word Haya appears in the proclamation as ḥayāt (with it ṭawīla), and al-Jabartī wrote Farānsāwi, while in the text the word is written Farānsāwi.

In the Būlāq edition this corrupted paragraph became (III, 5, 11. 1–3):

⁵⁰ On the style of al-Jabartī see Kremer, A. von, Beiträge zur arabischen Lexikographie, Wien, 1883–1884.Google Scholar

⁵¹ In MSS Maẓ. Bam., BM, and Bay., and in the ed. of 'Aṭā, some passages (see 'Aṭā's ed., II, 124, 1. 18–126, 1. 5, 129, 1. 17–131, 1. 6) are omitted in the MSS and Būlāq ed. of 'Aja'ib al-āthār, while in MS Maẓ. Cam. ff. 2a, ^. 21; 99; 171b, 1. 4 (cf. 'Aṭā's ed. I, 12, 1. 14; II, 124, 1. 18–126, 1. 5; 179, 1. 16) the name of al-'Aṭṭār is not mentioned and his poem is omitted in f. 99. Cf. also Rieu, Supplement, 360, where he mentioned these missing passages in MS Maz. BM.

⁵² II, 124–6; 129–31.

⁵³ See f. 82 (in 'Aṭā's ed., II, 77, 11. 2–19).

⁵⁴ See also al-Shayyāl, al-Tārīkh wa 'l-mu'arrikhūn, 25. Al-Shayyāl, op. cit., p. 25, n. 1, added (in 1958) that a critical ed. of Maẓhar will be published by Muḥammad Shafīq Ghurbāl.

⁵⁵ Such as the passage about Muḥammad Kurayyim (MS Mudda, ff. 12b, 1. 2I–13a, 1. 3; cf. 'Ajā'ib, III, 63, 11. 1–2; Maẓhar, I, 70, 11. 17–18).

A good example illustrating the elaborate and detailed context of MS Mudda is the important passage which deals with the battle of Abū Qīr, the naval power of the British Army, and the attempt of the French to strike at Britain in India by occupying Egypt and the Suez region. In Maẓhar, I, 67, 11. 2–5, cf. 'Ajā'ib, III, 15, 11. 15–17, this brief passage appears:

while in MS Mudda (ff. 11a, 1. 20–llb, I. 2) the passage is:

⁵⁶ Būlāq ed., I, 6, 11. 17–19.

⁵⁷ ibid., I, 178, 11. 4–6, 373, 1. 33–374, 1. 13; II, 7, 1. 30; III, 357, 11. 3–7. We are not dealing here with the way in which al-Jabartī collected his material and the contradictory versions which he gave (see Ayalon, 222–7), but the fact that in MS 'Aj. Cam. the second version was written in the margin (see p. 527, n. 19, above) might shed a new light on the problem. Moreover, our research led us to the conclusion that between 1200/1785–6 and 1206/1791 al-Jabartī collected mainly biographies for al-Murādī and few important chronological data and that between 1207/1792 and 1212/1797 he did not record anything. This confirms Professor Ayalon's suggestions, pp. 227–8.

⁵⁸ See especially the two places where the author said: fī al-'am al-māḍī ‘in the last year’, MS Mudda, ff. 12b, 11. 10–12; 13a, 11. 19–20.

⁵⁹ See Brockelmann, , GAL, II, 480;Google ScholarGAL, II, 2nd ed., 632; Sarkīs, , Mu'jam. al-maṭbū'āt, Cairo, 1928Google Scholar, col. 676; Babinger, , Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen und ihre Werke, Leipzig, 1927, 340;Google ScholarShaybūb, Khalīl, 'Abd al-Raḥmān al-Jabartī, Cairo, 1948, 112; and al-Shayyāl, al-Tārīkh wa 'l-mu'arrikhūn fī Miṣr, 26, 243. It seems that von Kremer was the first scholar who expressed this opinion and the others followed him. Macdonald, art. El, first ed., shows clearly this influence in his statement: ‘Another detailed diary of the French occupation (Muẓhir al-taḳdīs) is still unprinted in Arabic, but has appeared in Turkish, and in an imperfect (so von Kremer, Aegypten, II, p. 326) French version by Cardin’.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ I, 32, 11. 1–3.

⁶¹ p. 256; cf. 'Ajā'ib, III, 208, 1. 22.

⁶² See Journal, 5. Brockelmann, , GAL, II, 480, and Suppl., II, 371, quoting Schlechta-Wssehrd, stated that this Turkish translation was printed in Istanbul in 1217/1802. This date is impossible because Muṣṭafā Bahjat translated Maẓhar(or started translating it) in Muharram 1222/March 1807 and finished the task in Rabī' I 1225/April 1810. Professor Heyd was kind enough to look for the printed version of this translation in the main libraries of Istanbul, when he was in Turkey in the summer of I960, but he could not trace it. This printed version is not mentioned by Babinger, op. cit.Google Scholar

The only catalogue which lists this printed translation is Catalogue of Arabic and Persian manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at Bankipor, XV, Calcutta, Patna, 1929, pp. 159–60, No. 1075. According to this catalogue, this book was translated by Muṣṭafā Bahjat and published in Istanbul in 1281/1864. This date is also given by Charles Rieu, Supplement, p. 360, with a reference to Schlechta-Wssehrd, Denkschriften der K. K. Akademie der Wiss., Phil.-hist. Cl. (Wien), VIII, 13 (but Denkschriften, VIII, was published in 1857, and p. 13 contains no mention of a printed translation).Google Scholar

With reference to the MSS of the Turkish translations, Professor Heyd found five MSS in the Istanbul Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi. On three of them the name of the translator is ‘Ra'is al-aṭṭibbā' Muṣṭafā Bahjat’ while on the other two the name is Ahmad 'Āṣim. The date of the termination of all the five MSS is 1 Rabī' I 1225. Professor Heyd compared some pages of a copy from the first group with one of the second group and found that the texts were word for word the same.

We were able to obtain a microfilm of a MS of Muṣṭafa Bahjat's translation from the National-bibliothek in Vienna (see arabischen, Die, persischen und türkischen Handschriften der Kaiserlich-Koniglichen Hofbibliothek zu Wien, Wien, 1865–1867, II, p. 316, Nr. 1144). With the help of Dr. ḥusayn Atay of Ankara University, we were able to examine this MS and found that it is a summarized version of Maẓhar al-taqdīs written in a very eloquent Turkish style with a preface by the translator on the French revolution and its development up to the occupation of Egypt (see its French translation by Cardin in Journal d'Abdurrahman Gabarti, 5). It is astonishing that the date of the finishing of the translation given in the preface is 1222 (see also Cardin, 5), while in the colophon it is 1225.Google Scholar

⁶³ The complete French translation of 'Ajā'ib al-āthār is: Merveilles biographiques et historiques, ou chroniques du Cheikh Abd-el-Rahman el-Djabarti, traduites de l'Arabe par Chefik Mansour Bey, Abdulaziz Kalil Bey, Oebriel Nicolas Kalil Bey et Iskender Ammoun Effendi, 9 vols., Cairo, 1888–1896.Google Scholar