Crusades-Encyclopedia
			Return to Crusades-Encyclopedia
	Al Makrisi Also Known as Maqrizi
The Arab historian Taqi ad-Din al Makrisi (b.1364-d.1442), also known as Maqrizi, has enriched modern understandings of the crusades through his work, The Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings [Text.M. Ziyade's edition, Cairo, 1934] The work was composed more than a century after Louis IX's crusade to Egypt as Al Makrisi was only born 120 years after St. Louis IX expedition to Egypt. Yet the work offers a valuable Muslim account of the crusades during this period due to the relative rarity of such sources. Much of his work is based on earlier sources, many of which still survive including Ibn Wasil, Sibt Ibn al Jauzi, Ibn Abd az Zahir, and other lesser known sources.(1) According to Dr. Paul Halsall's Internet History Medieval Sourcebook, the account purports to offer the "...history of the Sultans Curdes-Ayyubids, of the race of Saladin and of the two Dynasties that have reigned in Egypt; the one under Turkish slaves known as MamlukesBaharites, the other of Circassians." Concerning the portion of the text that is devoted to the Crusades of St. Louis IX, Al Makrisi provides a lengthy and detailed overview of the Seventh Crusade [provided below] and the capture and ransom of St. Louis IX. Only a small portion of the account actually deals with the Eighth Crusade, which is unsurprising in light of how the events of the Eighth Crusade were cut short by St. Louis IX's death early in the Crusade. Al Makrisi- Account of the Crusade of St. Louis Internet History Sourcebooks Crusades Chroniclers and Authors of Primary Sources- Crusades-Encyclopedia Saints and the Crusades- Crusades-Encyclopedia St. Louis IX- Crusades-Encyclopedia Seventh Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia Eighth Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia 1. Francesco Gabrieli. Arab Historians of the Crusades.(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), xxxiv. (c) Andrew Holt, May 2005- Permission is granted for copying in electronic form and print distribution for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.