At a glance
- Era
- The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
- Region
- Egypt & Nile
Overview
Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab is al-Nuwayri's (d. 733/1333) encyclopaedia in thirty-one volumes and some nine thousand pages — one of the four best-known encyclopaedias of the Mamluk period — written between 714/1314 and 731/1331 2.
Plan and method
Five funun, each in five parts of varying chapters: the first describes the cosmos from heaven to earth and closes with Egypt, its people and monuments; the second, man; the third and fourth, fauna and flora; the fifth, history — more than two-thirds of the whole, running from Creation to 731. Al-Nuwayri modelled the division on al-Watwat's (d. 718) Mabahij al-Fikar, whose four funun all recur in the book, and added history as a fifth; in the introduction to the history he explains that he abandoned the annalistic method for dynastic ordering so the reader can follow each episode to its end. He held to three principles: keep to the stated plan, avoid excess detail, avoid repetition 1.
Copies and reach
The work was being copied and sold in his lifetime: volume one is dated 714; the sole surviving autograph, volume 19 of the first version, is dated 9 Jumada II 718; volumes 29-30 are dated 725. The second copy's first volume was finished on 20 Dhu al-Qa'da 721 and its eighteenth on 26 Ramadan 722; a copy in his hand sold for two thousand dirhams 2 3.
Three volumes in the harvest
- Volume 1, in the Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya printing, Cairo, 1342/1923 4. Its first art, "on the heavens and the upper phenomena, and the earth and the lower landmarks", has five parts: the heavens and what is in them, from the start of their creation to the angels and the planets; clouds, thunderbolts, thunder and lightning; nights, days, months, seasons, festivals and feasts; and the earth, mountains, seas and rivers 5 6.
- Volume 6, in the Turathuna series of the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance, whose title page gives the author's dates as 677-732 AH 7. It holds chapters on the conditions of the imamate, the king's qualities, counsel, the vizierate, army commanders and judgeship 8 9 10 11, quoting al-Mawardi at length; see the vizierate.
- Volume 14, in the first Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya printing, 1362/1943 12 13, from the fifth art, history: those who came after Moses, Joshua son of Nun, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, Saul (Talut), David and Solomon; then Zechariah, John, Mary and Jesus 14 15 16; then the kings of nations such as China and the Turks 17 18.
Connections
- Authored by
- al-Nuwayri
People and things also explored
Al-Nuwayri's birth at Akhmim, 21 Dhu al-Qa'da 677/5 April 1279· Al-Nuwayri in the audition sessions: Sahih al-Bukhari under Wazira bint al-Munadhdha, 715/1315· The second copy of the Nihaya: eighteen volumes in under ten months, 721-722/1321-1322· Al-Nuwayri sent to Syria to run the diwan al-khass, Jumada II 701/January 1302· Al-Nuwayri's death at Cairo, 21 Ramadan 733/5 June 1333· The Iwan al-Bahri dream: al-Nuwayri still at the Nasiriyya, 13 Dhu al-Qa'da 729/8 September 1329· Ibn Abbada has al-Nuwayri flogged and confiscates his property, c. 710/1310· Al-Nuwayri joins the exiled al-Nasir at al-Karak, Rabi' II 709/September 1309
Sources
- Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 8 pp. 159-160
- Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 8 p. 159
- Al-Durar al-Kamina fi A'yan al-Mi'a al-Thamina — Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (Dar al-Jil, Beirut) , 1/197
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 1 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1342/1923) , p. 2
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 1 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1342/1923) , p. 9
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 1 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1342/1923) , p. 10
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 6 (Turathuna series, al-Mu'assasa al-Misriyya al-Amma li-l-Ta'lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Tiba'a wa-l-Nashr, Cairo) , p. 2
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 6 (Turathuna series, al-Mu'assasa al-Misriyya al-Amma li-l-Ta'lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Tiba'a wa-l-Nashr, Cairo) , p. 4
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 6 (Turathuna series, al-Mu'assasa al-Misriyya al-Amma li-l-Ta'lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Tiba'a wa-l-Nashr, Cairo) , p. 5
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 6 (Turathuna series, al-Mu'assasa al-Misriyya al-Amma li-l-Ta'lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Tiba'a wa-l-Nashr, Cairo) , p. 6
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 6 (Turathuna series, al-Mu'assasa al-Misriyya al-Amma li-l-Ta'lif wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Tiba'a wa-l-Nashr, Cairo) , p. 8
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 14 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1362/1943) , p. 5
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 14 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1362/1943) , p. 6
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 14 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1362/1943) , p. 7
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 14 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1362/1943) , p. 8
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 14 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1362/1943) , p. 10
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 14 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1362/1943) , p. 340
- al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab, vol. 14 (Matba'at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, Cairo, 1362/1943) , p. 348
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/nihayat-al-arab-fi-funun-al-adab/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-06.
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