Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti's History of Egypt: Ajaib al-Athar fi'l-Tarajim wa'l-Akhbar.

• Author: Hanna, Nelly

To appreciate fully the publication of a complete English translation of the text of al-Jabarti's Aja ib al-athar, we must place the work within its historiographical context. The major primary sources for the history of Egypt are often very voluminous works. For this reason, many have not been edited; others, like al-Nuwayri's encyclopaedic Nihayat al-arab, or Ibn Taghribardi's biographical dictionary, al-Manhal al-safi, are taking years, even decades, to appear in print in Arabic for the first time. Given this situation, it is not surprising that we have so few translations of major primary sources. The most important chronicles of Egyptian history, al-Maqrizi's Suluk (four volumes), Ibn Taghribardi's Nujum (sixteen volumes), Ibn Iyas' Bada i al-zuhur (five volumes), not to mention the biographical dictionaries, also numerous and equally voluminous, have largely remained outside the reach of the English-reading public because of the major difficulties that translations of works of such scope imply. Although some works have been partially translated into French (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme), or into English (Popper's Hawadith al-duhur), few of the longer works are available in English or French in their entirety. Thus, the appearance of a complete translation of a work of such central importance as al-Jabarti's Aja ib al-athar is, viewed from this perspective, a momentous event. It is probably the largest of these translated works to appear, bringing to English readers one of the major sources for the history of Egypt, in general, and of the eighteenth century, in particular.

The project conceived and carried out by Moshe Perlmann and Thomas Philipp has come to fruition at a propitious time. The last few years have witnessed a growing interest, particularly among younger scholars, in studies of the Ottoman world - from Eastern Europe to Anatolia to the Arab lands. The old views are slowly being superseded as new archival materials are published. Within this context, the Aja ib is a welcome addition. There is no need to review here the importance of Jabarti as an observer and historian. So the appearance of this major work in English, following so soon after the English translation of Damurdashi's chronicle, adds considerably to the fundamental research sources for eighteenth-century Egypt.

Perlmann and Philipp's project is a feat in itself. Started in 1978, it is the result of many years of teamwork involving a number of translators...