Читать книгу A Physician on the Nile - ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī - Страница 21

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كتاب الإفادة والاعتبار

في الأمور المشاهدة والحوادث المعاينة بأرض مصر

تأليف الفقير إلى الله عزّ وجلّ

عبد اللطيف بن يوسف بن محمّد البغداديّ

وفّقه الله لطاعته

بسم الله الرحمٰن الرحيم

The Book of Edification and Admonition

An Eyewitness Account of the Land of Egypt and of Recent Events There

written in hope of the mercy of God, Mighty and Glorious is He,

by ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad al-Baghdādī,

may God guide him to be His obedient servant¹

In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate

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الحمد لله ربّ العالمين وصلواته على خاتم النبيّين محمّد النبيّ العربيّ وعلى آله الطاهرين، وبعد فإنّي لمّا أنهيت كتابي في أخبار مصر المشتمل على ثلاثة عشر فصلًا رأيت أن أفرد منه الحوادث الحاضرة والآثار البادية المشاهدة إذ كانت أصدق خبرًا وأعجب أثرًا وأنّ ما عداها قد يُوجد بعضه أو كلّه في كتب مَن سلف مجتمعًا أو مفترقًا فألفيت ذلك في فصلين منه فجرّدتهما وجعلتهما مقالتين في هذا الكتاب وزدت ونقصت بحسب ما اقتضتْه الحال رجاءً أن يخفّ إنهاؤه ويلطف موقعه عند عرضه على صاحب الأمر وإمام العصر إمام الأنام ومفترض الطاعة بموجب شريعة الإسلام خليفة الله في أرضه ومنتهى مقرّ وحيه والقيّم على العالَم بإمضاء أمر الله تعالى فيهم ونهْيه سيّدنا ومولانا الإمام الناصر لدين الله أمير المؤمنين ذي المواقف المقدّسة النبويّة الطاهرة الزكيّة الممجّدة المعظّمة الإماميّة الباهرة أنوارها الزاهرة آلاؤها لئلّا ينطوِي عن العلوم الشريفة شيء من أخبار بلاده وإن تراخت أو يُخفى بعض أحوال رعاياه وإن تناءت وليعلم حفدة سدّته وخواصّ دولته والعاكفون بحظيرة قدسه والطائفون بحَرم كعبته مقدار ما يدافع الله تعالى عنهم به فيزدادوا لله تعالى شكرًا ليزيدهم بدوام دولة أمير المؤمنين عليهم فضلًا {وَمَا كَانَ ٱللهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَأَنْتَ فِيْهِمْ}.

Praise to God, Lord of the worlds, and may His blessings rest upon Muḥammad, the Seal of the Prophets, the Arabian prophet, and upon the virtuous members of his family. When I finished my earlier book of accounts of Egypt, comprising thirteen chapters,² I had the idea of extracting from it the reports of present-day events and of conspicuous monuments and other features that I myself had observed, for I saw that these passages gave the truest information and made the most striking impression. Besides, most if not all of the rest of the material in that earlier book is probably to be found in the works of previous writers, either presented as a whole or scattered throughout their pages. Realizing that all of this first-hand material appeared in two of my thirteen chapters, I excerpted them and turned them into the two parts of the present book, adding or omitting information as circumstances required. My hope is that this shorter work will prove less weighty to deliver and more finely pointed in effect when I present it to the ruling authority and leader of the age—the leader of mankind, obedience to whom is an obligation under the sacred law of Islam, God’s vicegerent on His earth and the ultimate repository of His revelation, supreme governor of the people of the world by the exercise among them of the commands and prohibitions of God the Exalted—namely, our lord and master the caliph al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh, Commander of the Faithful, he whose manifold status is sanctified, hallowed, and purified by prophetic heritage, is exalted and glorified by caliphal precedent, is resplendent with illumination, effulgent with benediction. My aim in offering him this book is that no news of his territories, however remote, should be concealed from the sublime corpus of his knowledge, and that nothing be hidden from him regarding the conditions of his subjects, however distant. My intention, too, is that those close to him—the entourage who serve at his threshold, the great men of his state, those who throng his beatific enclosure and who circle the sanctuary of his sacred precinct—that all these should realize how surely God the Exalted defends them by their caliph’s hand, and should thus express a greater gratitude to the same Exalted God; and that He, in turn, might prolong the rule over them of the Commander of the Faithful, and bestow thereby upon them an even greater grace.³«And God would not chastise them while you are among them.»⁴

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وعلى العبد التقرّب بالإنهاء وإن كانت العلوم النبويّة إليها الانتهاء فإنّ الله سبحانه تعبّد أن يُدعى جهرًا وإن كان يعلم السرّ وأخفى ليظهر على الجوارح ما تكنّ الضمائر فيكمل للمرء المسلم مراتب الإيمان الثلاث عقد بالقلب وقول باللسان وعمل بالجوارح. جعلنا الله ممّن ترقّى إلى هذه الدرجة في طاعته بطاعة خليفته في أرضه صلوات الله عليه وعلى الخلفاء الراشدين من قبله وعلى سيّد المرسلين أفضل صلٰوة ربّ العالمين صلوة دائمة إلى يوم الدين.

It is the duty of a servant to seek his master’s favor by keeping him informed—even if that master already possesses prophetic and therefore ultimate knowledge.⁵ God Himself, may He be glorified, has enjoined obedience by requiring His servants to address Him aloud,⁶ although He knows their secrets beforehand. His purpose in concealing thoughts within their minds is so that hidden intentions will be made manifest through physical actions and so that, for each individual Muslim, all three stages of faith might thus be brought to perfection: that is, the resolution of the heart, the word of the tongue, and the deed of the hand. We beseech God to include us among those who have risen to this level of obedience to Him, by our obedience to His vicegerent on His earth, may God’s blessings be upon him and upon the rightly-guided caliphs who preceded him.⁷ And may the most abundant blessings of the Lord of the worlds rest upon the master of messengers, Muḥammad, blessings everlasting till the Day of Reckoning.

إحصاء فصول الكتاب

The Chapters of the Book

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المقالة الأولى وهي ستّة فصول

الفصل الأوّل في خواصّ مصر العامّة لها

الفصل الثاني فيما تختصّ به من النبات

الفصل الثالث فيما تختصّ به من الحيوان

الفصل الرابع في اقتصاص ما شوهد من آثارها القديمة

الفصل الخامس فيما شوهد بها من غرائب الأبنية والسفن

الفصل السادس في غرائب أطعمتها

المقالة الثانية وهي ثلاثة فصول

الفصل الأوّل في النيل وكيفيّة زياداته وإعطاء علل ذلك وقوانينه

الفصل الثاني في حوادث سنة سبع وتسعين وخمس مائة

الفصل الثالث في حوادث سنة ثمان وتسعين وخمس مائة

Part One, consisting of six chapters

Chapter One: General characteristics of Egypt

Chapter Two: Characteristic plants and trees of Egypt

Chapter Three: Characteristic features of the animal world in Egypt

Chapter Four: A description of the ancient Egyptian monuments examined by the author

Chapter Five: Unusual Egyptian buildings and boats examined by the author

Chapter Six: Unusual Egyptian foods

Part Two, consisting of three chapters

Chapter One: The Nile and the manner of its annual rises, with an explanation of the causes of this phenomenon and the laws of nature governing it

Chapter Two: The events of the year 597 [1200–1]

Chapter Three: The events of the year 598 [1201–2]