A Window to the Past?

Tracing Ibn Iyās's Narrative Ways of Worldmaking

Anna Kollatz

• Publisher: V&R Unipress
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9783847014485
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

The only Arabic voice to have witnessed the Ottoman conquest of Cairo, Ibn Iy?s, is an eminent historical source for the late Mamluk period. This book is the first to take stock of the author's complete works, approaching him through an examination of his narrative voice and writing strategies. Tracing Ibn Iy?s's working process by compilation analysis, it shows how the author adapted his representations of Egyptian history to his writing projects and audience. Ibn Iy?s's ways of worldmaking are shaped deeply by beliefs, biases and intellectual trends as well as the impact of the social and historical context the author wrote in. Knowing these conditioning factors allows to understand his presentation of history as an individual voice of his time.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Body
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Transliteration and Dates
• I Introduction
• II Stricken with Decline?
• III Ibn Iyās Through His Own Lenses
• IV Why and to Whom Does Ibn Iyās Write? Comparing Prefaces
• V Beyond Badāʾiʿ al-zuhūr
• VI A Litterateur at Work: First Contacts between Egypt and Muslim Domination
• VII Narrating Mamluk Transitions of Rule
• VIII The Ottoman Conquest Narrated
• IX Concluding Remarks and Research Prospects
• Bibliography
• Index of Names
• Index of Subjects