Weighing Merchandise and Writing History in Ottoman Cairo

Notes on Ibn al-ʻAjamī (Part I)

抄録

In this paper, we attempt to unveil the personality of Ibn al-‘Ajamī, the hitherto unexplored author of Mabāhij al-ikhwān wa manāhij al-khillān fī ḥawādith al-duhūr wa al-azmān and its sequel called Ta’rīkh āl ‘Uthmān. The paper first reviews the descriptions in these historical writings, of which only two manuscripts are known at this point and examines their characteristics and importance as the chronicles of Ottoman Cairo. Focusing on three points: Ibn al-ʻAjamī’s family relations, Būlāq as his place of residence and work, and he as a weigher, we seek to reveal the reality of this little-known “laboring citizen historian” who was in the economic middle strata and made his living from steady work supporting the market economy of Cairo, the largest Arab trading city in the early modern era.