^{page 856 note 1} According to Ahmad Zakī Pasha, editor of the first volume of Ibn Fadlallāh's Masalik al-absār, Cairo, 1924, p. 1, the Topkapu Sarayi MS. contains notes in the author's handwriting: G. S. Colin, “Quelques poetes arabes du XTVe siécle,” Hespéris, vol. xii, 1931, p. 241, makes a similar remark when describing the seventeenth volume of the masālik (Bibl. nat. arabe 2327): “…il apparait que ce ms., s'il n'est pas tout entier de la main meme d'al-'Umari, represente neanmoins une premiére mise au propre des notes de l'auteur, avec, en marge, de nombreuses additions qui pourraient bien être de son écriture. Dans plusieurs cas, l'emplacement destine a certaines biographies avait été laissé primitivement en blanc; une fiche y fut surement collée… puis se trouva détachée… Tout semble bien indiquer qu'il s'agit d'un texte revu et complété par l'auteur en personne…” The same may be said of another volume in the British Museum (Add. 9585), which was completed in the same year as the Dam'at al-balci (18 Dhu-1-qa'da 745/23 March, 1345). Here and there blank spaces have been left in the MS., and in other places portions of the text have been erased to allow for additions or amendments. Part of the MS. is doubtless in the author's own hand.

^{page 856 note 2} A much earlier example of a miniature vignette (tenth century A.D.) inserted at the end of a MS. is reproduced by T. Arnold and A. Grohmann, The Islamic Book, London, 1929, pi. i, but the interpretation given to it is misleading. I propose to return to it in a forthcoming article.

^{page 856 note 3} For the full text of the fragment, a translation, and commentary, see infra, pp. 864 ff.

^{page 856 note 4} On this family and also the life of Ibn Fadlallah see the excellent study of R. Hartmann, “Die politische Geographie des Mamlukenreiches,” ZDMG., vol. lxx, 1916, pp. 1 ff.; also G. Wiet, Les biographies du Manhal Safi ( = Mem. de I'Inst. d'Egypte, vol. xix), Cairo, 1932, p. 217.

^{page 857 note 1} He did this in a work entitled Fawaāid al-sumar fi fatfdīl āl ‘Umar, said to have filled four volumes, but of which no MSS. seem to have survived.

^{page 857 note 2} The last to hold an administrative post was Hamza b. ‘Alā al-din ‘Alī, who died in 797/1395. Cf. Ibn Furāt, Ta'rīkh, ed. C. Zurayq, Beirut, 1938, vol. ix, p. 419.

^{page 857 note 3} In the same year, Ghāzān Khān occupied Damascus and deported a member of the Banü Fadlallāh family as hostage among other notables of the town; cf. J. Somogyi, “Adh-Dhahabīs record of the destruction of Damascus by the Mongols,” Goldziher Memorial Volume, Budapest, 1948, vol. i, p. 379.

^{page 857 note 4} For a list of his teachers, see R. Hartmann, op. cit., pp. 4–5. In addition to the above-mentioned accomplishments, al-Kutubī credits him with a knowledge of astrology and with an unparalleled knowledge of the history of the Mongols, the Turks, and the dynasties of India (Faviat al-wafaydt, Cairo, vol. i, 1299/1881, p. 8.)

^{page 857 note 5} The text of the diploma appointing him to this post has been preserved by Qalqashandī, Ṣubḥ al-a shā, Cairo, 1917, vol. xi, pp. 298–308.

^{page 857 note 6} Details of this incident are given by Maqrizī, Sulūh, ed. Ziyāda, Cairo, 1942, vol. ii, pp. 465 ff., idem, Khitat, Cairo, 1270/1853, vol. ii, p. 58; Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, Al-durar cU-kdmina, Hyderabad, 1348/1929, vol. i, p. 332. Having been called upon by the sultan to draft the diploma, Ibn Fadlallah exclaimed: ” How dare you appoint a convert (aslamī) to the post of kātib al-sirr… He who serves you can have no success, and I consider it unlawful to continue in your service (khidmatuka ‘alayya harām) (Ibn Ḥajar, op. cit., vol. i, p. 332).

^{page 857 note 7} The relations between this amir and his suzerain were excellent. Tengiz enjoyed quasi-independence from the central authority. “He hardly ever asked the sultan for anything without it being granted. He never made an appointment of amir or deputy (nā'iḇ), of qādī or chamberlain (hājib), of vizier or secretary (kātib), in fact, any appointment, be it high or low, in return for bribes” (Ibn Ḥajar, op. cit., vol. i, p. 524). Under his wise rule Syria enjoyed a long period of security and prosperity. Ibn Fadlallah could not have chosen a less auspicious time to voice his protest, for the sultan, who was already allied to Tengiz by marriage (he had married one of his daughters), was about to select two of his own daughters as brides for two sons of Tengiz.

^{page 857 note 8} The fine imposed amounted to 10,000 dīnārs. “His property was seized and approximately 50,000 dirhams were taken. He sold his furniture and wardrobe and disposed of some real estate in Damascus until he had handed over 140,000 dirhams” (Maqrizī, Sulūk, vol. ii, pp. 465–6). This means that he paid 60,000 dirhams less than the prescribed sum (1 gold dinar was equal to 20 silver dirhams in A.H. 738, but rose to 25 dirhams in 739/1339).

^{page 857 note 9} His place as assistant to his father was taken by his young brother ‘Alā’ al-din (who was only twenty-four years old). For the biographies of this man see G. Wiet, op. cit., p. 248.

^{page 858 note 1} He was suspected of indending to desert to the Mongols, taken to Egypt, and poisoned in the gaol of Alexandria on 13 u al-hijja 740/11 June, 1341; cf. Ibn Hajar, op. cit., vol. i, p. 525 f.; Magrīzī, itat, vol. ii, p. 56; K. V. Zettersteén, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Mamlukensultane, Leiden, 1919, p. 212.

^{page 858 note 2} The Banū Fadlallāh owned a magnificent mansion in Cairo, which was considered one of the finest buildings in the town (Maqrizi, Khitat, vol. ii, p. 59), but most of their landed property lay at Damascus. It is there that they felt at home, and there that they all wished to be buried. Cf., e.g., Muhyi al-din, who was first buried in Cairo, but exhumed shortly afterwards and taken to Damascus to be buried in the family mausoleum (Ibn Hajar, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 425). Cf. also the rescript allowing Ibn Fadlallah to return to his homeland (awtanihi) on compassionate grounds, which has been preserved by Qalqashandī (Subh al-a'shā', vol. i, pp. 96–7).

^{page 858 note 3} His name was Muhammad b. Yahyā; for a biography, see Ibn Ḥajar, op. cit., vol. iv, pp. 414–5.

^{page 858 note 4} This information is supplied by his friend Ibn al Wardi, who was in close touch with him during the last years of his life (Tatimmat al-mukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashār, Cairo, 1285/1868–9, vol. ii, p. 354; also Ibn ‘Imād, Shadharat al-Dhahab, Cairo, 1351/1932–3, vol. vi, p. 160).

^{page 858 note 5} On the Great Plague and the Islamic accounts of it, cf. G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, Baltimore, 1948, vol. iii, 2, pp. 1650 ff.

^{page 858 note 6} Ibn Ḥajar, op. cit., vol. i, p. 333.

^{page 858 note 7} Manuscripts of this work are scattered hi the libraries of Europe and the Orient, some have notes in the hand of the author (see above, p. 356, note 1). For the MSS., see Brockelmann, GAL, vol. ii, p. 141, and Suppl. ii, p. 175 f., where the edited portions of the text and the available translations are also listed. To this should now be added 0. Spies, Ibn Fadlallah al-'Omari's Bericht iiber Indien, Leipzig, 1943. Ibn Fadlallāh's survey of the parts of the Islamic world with which he was familiar are excellent, and bear witness to his powers of observation and to his descriptive talent. For those parts which he had never visited, he had to rely (i) on earlier accounts, (ii) on oral information, such as that on Anatolia given him by Balaban al-Janawi (= Domenichino Doria of Genoa) during the time they spent in prison together (Fr. Taschner, al-'Umarī's Bericht über Anatolien…, Leipzig, 1929, esp. p. 30), (iii) documents to which he had access in his official capacity. These parts, naturally, lack the directness and vivacity which make his accounts of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt such excellent reading (cf. H. v. Mzik on Spies's edition of the description of India in OLZ., 1944, cols. 233–4).

^{page 858 note 8} Written in 741/1341, first published at Cairo in 1312/1894; parts translated and annotated by Pv. Hartmann, op. cit.

^{page 858 note 9} W. Björkman, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Staatshanzlei im islamischen Ägypten, Hamburg, 1928, passim.

^{page 859 note 1} Fawāt al-wafāyāt, vol. i, p. 8.

^{page 859 note 2} The famous secretary of Saladin (d. 596/1200), who was using the same florid style.

^{page 859 note 3} Ibn Ḥajar, op. cit., vol. i, p. 333.

^{page 859 note 4} Ibid., vol. ii, p. 134.

^{page 859 note 5} Habib Zayyat, Al-khizana al-sharqiya, Beirut, 1937, vol. ii, pp. 12–16.

^{page 859 note 6} Masālik al-absär, ed. A. Zaki Pasha, vol. i, p. 350.

^{page 859 note 7} Hajji Khalfa (Kashf al-zunūn, ed. Istanbul, 1941, vol. i, col. 761) attributes to Ibn Fadlallah a work entitled Damat al-baki wa-yaqzat al-sahi. This seems to be a mistake, arising from the amalgamation of two titles which appear side by side in Kutubi's biography of Ibn Fadlallah (Fawat, vol. i, p. 8), and also in that of Ibn Taghribardi (Manhal, MS. Paris 2068, f° 146 v); they are: Dam'at al-baki (as in our colophon) and Yaqzat al-sahir (not sāhī, as in Hajjī Khalfa). No MS. of the second work seems to have survived. Books with similar titles were composed by other writers. Khalil b. Aybak al-Safadi (d. 764/1364) compiled an anthology of pederastic poetry, under the title Dam'at al-bākī wa lau'at al-shflki (GAL., vol. ii, p. 32, and Suppl. ii, p. 29); it was printed in Cairo in A.H. 1302 and 1313. Another work with a very similar title, Lau'at al-sftaki wa dam'at al-baki, is ascribed to Mansur b. ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Harui (d. 967/1559) (OAL., vol. ii, 335, Suppl. ii, 463). The titles of all these works may have been inspired by a line in Hariri's twentieth Maqama, which is also written in a homosexual vein. That Ibn Fadlallah himself was not free from this vice is shown by his long urjuza given at the end of the first volume of his Masalik (ed. Ahmad Zaki, pp. 375–383).

^{page 860 note 1} Cf. Maqrizī, Sulūk, MS. Paris, arabe 1726, f°. 547v-548r:—

^{page 860 note 2} A unique MS. of this work has survived; cf. M. J. de Goeje and M. T. Houtsma, Catalogue codicum arabicorum academiae Lugduno-Batavae, Leiden, 1888, p. 195, No. cccli (cod. 670 Warn.).

^{page 860 note 3} One of his correspondents, Khalil b. Aybak al-Safadi, has also left us his correspondence, under the title of Kilāb alhān al-sauāji baina-l-bādī wal-r¯ji; (this is available in several MSS., cf. Brockelmann, OAL., vol. ii, p. 335, and Suppl., vol. ii, p. 463, including the autograph at Berlin Ahlwardt, No. 8631). The letters which Safadi received from Ibn Fadlallah (Paris MS., arabe 2067, ff°. 34r–49r) during these years exceed in number those reproduced in the Shatawiyat (Leiden MS. Or. 670, flf°. 132v–138v). The Shatawiyat contain forty-nine outgoing and forty-nine incoming letters.

^{page 861 note 1} MS. Leiden Or. 670, ff°. 9v–10r, from a letter to the poet Jamāl al-dīn Ibn Nubāta al-Misrī:

^{page 861 note 2} Written and illustrated by Yahya b. Mabjnud al-Wasitl in 634/1237.

^{page 861 note 3} K. Holter, “Die islamisehen Miniaturhandschriften vor 1350,” Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, vol. liv, 1937.

^{page 862 note 1} Ibid., p. 28, No. 75.

^{page 862 note 2} H. Buchthal, “Three illuminated Hariri Manuscripts in the British Museum,” Burlington Magazine, November, 1940 (p. 148 and note), remarks rightly that “the name and profession of the copyist is not contained in the colophon”, but attributes the MS. to “a local Mamluk school in Syria”.

^{page 862 note 3} K. Holter, op. cit., p. 30, No. 82.

^{page 862 note 4} “Kazwinistudien,” Der Islam, vol. iv, 1913, p. 260; cf. also H. Buchthal, O. Kurz, and R. Ettinghausen, “Supplementary notes to K. Holter's check list…,” Ars Islamica, vol. vii, 1940, p. 162, no. 82, to which should be added a reference to M. Meyerhof, “Die literarischen Grundlagen der arabischen Heilmittellehre,” Ciba Zeitschrift, viii, September, 1942.

^{page 862 note 5} I intend to devote separate articles to these two important MSS.

^{page 862 note 6} L. A. Mayer, “A hitherto unknown Damascene artist,” Ars Islamica, vol. ix, 1942, p. 168.

^{page 862 note 7} Reproduced ibid., plate facing p. 168.

^{page 862 note 8} On the interpretation of this technical term, cf. the divergent views of M. Minovi, “The so-called Badi’ script,” Bulletin of the American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology, vol. v, 1937, pp. 143–6, and N. Abbott. “The contribution of Ibn Muklah to the North-Arabic script,” American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. lvi, 1939, pp. 70–83.

^{page 863 note 1} Ibn Ḥajar, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 134; a kinder view of this calligrapher is that of the continuation of Ibn Khallikān's Wafāy¯t, Fadlall¯h b. Abi al-Fakhr al-Saqā'ī tālī kitāb wafāyāt al-a'yān Paris MS. arabe 2061, f° 596r.

^{page 864 note 1} Cf. K. Holier, “Die frühmamlukische Miniaturenmalerei,” Die graphiachen Ktinste, Vienna, 1937, vol. ii, pp. 1–14, and idem, “Die Galenhandschrift und die Makamen der Wiener Nationalbibliothek” Jahrb, d. kunsthist. Samml., Sonderheft 104, 1941.