Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti

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Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti or in Egyptian Arabic el Gabarti (Arabic: عبد الرحمن الجبرتي [full name Abd al-Rahman bin Hasan bin Burhan al-Din al-Jabarti; Arabic عبد الرحمن بن حسن بن برهان الدين الجبرتي]; ‎1753-1825) was an Egyptian Muslim scholar and chronicler who spent most of his life in Cairo. While little is known of his life, al-Jabarti is believed to have been born in the village of Geziret Tell el Gabarti in the northern Delta province of Beheira, from which he got his name.^[1] At the end of his life, al-Jabarti chose to be buried at the same northern Egyptian village to which he traced his descent.^[2] It has also been suggested that al-Jabarti was born in Cairo and that his name "al-Jabarti" comes from the school where he taught, Riwaq al-Jabarta, a section of Al-Azhar University in Cairo.^[3] Another theory is that his great-great-grandfather came from the Eritrean Jabarti tribes.^[4]

Trained as a shaykh at al-Azhar University, al-Jabarti began keeping a monthly chronicle of events in Cairo. This chronicle, which is generally known in English simply as al-Jabarti's History of Egypt, and known in Arabic as Aja'ib al-athar fi al-tarajim wal-akhbar (عجائب الاَثار في التراجم والاخبار), became a world-famous historical text by virtue of its eyewitness accounts of Napoleon's invasion and Muhammad Ali's seizure of power. The entries from his chronicle dealing with the French expedition and occupation have been excerpted and compiled in English as a separate volume entitled Napoleon in Egypt.

[edit] References

1. ^ al-Jabarti, 'Abd al-Rahman. History of Egypt: 'Aja'ib al-Athar fi 'l-Tarajim wa'l-Akhbar. vol.1. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart Publishing. 1994.
2. ^ Marsot, Afaf Lutfi el-Sayyed. "A Comparative Study of Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti. and Niqula al-Turk," Eighteenth Century Egypt: The Arabic Manuscript Sources. Los Angeles: Regina Books, 1990.
3. ^ Abdulkader Saleh, "Ǧäbärti," in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha. Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, p.597.
4. ^ Barakat, Ali. Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti: dirasat wa-buhuth (Studies and Research). Egyptian Book Association. Cairo. 1976.

[edit] Further reading

Napoleon in Egypt: Al-Jabarti's Chronicle of the French Occupation, 1798. Shmuel Moreh, translator. ISBN 1-55876-070-9