By Faith Harvey
Historical documents on Egypt’s past tend to compare and contrast with other communities, people, and cultural ideas, but Al-Maqrizi’s Khitat looks directly at Egypt in an objective and honest way, says Nasser Rabbat, director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Middle East Studies last week hosted Rabbat for a lecture titled “Al-Maqrizi’s Khitat: A Transhistorical Paean to Cairo,” about his latest book exploring Al-Maqrizi’s life and footprint on Egyptian history.
Nasser Rabbat during a lecture at UC Santa Barbara hosted by the Center of Middle East Studies. On the screen is the cover of his book, Writing Egypt: Al- Maqrizi and his Historical Project displayed. Photo by Shiva Balaghi.
Rabbat has spent decades of his life studying Al-Maqrizi (1364-1442), his Mamluk-era life, and beyond. To Rabbat, Al-Maqrizi serves as the “voice of the nation's conscience,” who influenced scholars for years after his death.
Many famous Egyptian works drew from Al-Maqrizi’s gathered stories and documentations of Egyptian history —including the Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned Description de l’Égypte , an 1809 catalog of Egypt’s known historical documentation. He also influenced Ali Mubarak, a 19th century Egyptian scholar who renovated the city of Cairo to look the way it does today.
MIT Islamic architecture scholar Nasser Rabbat showing his audience the Khan Al-Khalili, an open air bazaar in Cairo that houses gifts and other objects.
Even contemporary "novelists and poets assimilated the Khitat as a voice of the undying spirit of Egypt and a parable of resistance to corruption and oppression," Rabbat explained. Al-Maqrizi’s Khitat holds conversation on finances and land boundaries, with an emphasis on calling out stealing, inequality in Egypt, and the logistics of property ownership.
Shedding light on this corruption and unfair ruling classes was Al-Maqrizi’s way of showing what he feared for Egypt’s future, setting him apart from other historians who simply recorded Egypt’s reality without feeling. With this honesty, Al-Maqrizi created a “novel way of writing urban history and is a pioneer in the art of history recital,” Rabbat said.
Al-Maqrizi’s observations live on today through contemporary works and in Egyptian media, such as Rabbat’s book and through the works of 20th century Naguib Surur, a famous Egyptian poet who said Al-Maqrizi’s Khitat was his “roadmap in a sea of darkness,” as he reflected on his homeland. Al-Maqrizi is also depicted in Egyptian cartoons, most recently in a 2016 edition of The Time-Travels of the Man who Sold Pickles and Sweets by Khairy Shalaby.
The Khitat of Al-Maqrizi finds no boundaries when applied to history, as his messages and feelings remain in line with Egypt’s cultural and political changes, from then to now, Rabbat said.
Faith Harvey is a third-year UCSB student, majoring in Communication studies and minoring in Professional Writing. She is a Web and Social Media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.