الملامح الاقتصادية في كتاب نزهة الانام في محاسن الشام لابي البقاء البدري المتوفى سنة (894هـ/1488م)

Abstract

As we studied the subjects of the book, we’ve reached many results, the most prominent of these results are: -

The historian was eyewitness for the events of his time, he lived his childhood in Damascus his home town in Mamluk age, at the period when the Mamluk Sultans ruled Circassians city, he wrote most of his events closely, and himself mentioned many news that no other historian mentioned before.

The book included rich subject in the political, social and religious history, the historian accompanied the events and the importance of the book come from the honesty of the author and the narrators that narrate the book. As we notice the book contains verses and sayings of prophet Mohammed, maybe because of the education of the writer and his influenced by the verses and his accompany to the elders, judges and scientists.

The book also contains a precise details about the political, social and economic conditions of Damascus, Al Badri was not a perfect narrator to the news and incidents that he narrate at the contradictory most of his narration he abbreviated it, or he changes in the phrases as it required by the thread, but in most cases he doesn’t tempted to elaborating and extension in his narration as in the long and famous histories.

The author followed in his authorship the descriptive method because he viewed the events, and he used many improvers verbal, he tended to poetry more than historical writing and he relied on the narration of the previous poets, scientists, writers and even doctors as it was prevailed in his time.

He used some common slang words, as well as improvers verbal, although he included it in the book, in order to harmonize all the minds that reads his book from the genius to the modest or maybe because he was influenced by the resources he took his subjects from or simply because his feelings and his modesty when he raises his subjects. The book also contained some subtleties and jokes.

We can consider this book (Tabula Rogeriana) from the literature sources because it contains many poems as it was prevailed in his time, or as it says, to reach the mind of the Arabic person u should understand their poems, it is easy to be memorized. That’s why the writer tends to poetry and literature more than histories and he made it as source to the book although it a history book.

The book speaks about some historical novels that related to both interglacial, Umayyad, Abbasi and Zanki. Although the author of the book lived in the Circassian Mamluk age but we didn’t found any Turkish and Mamluk terms that was prevalent in his time. Like, Attabk, and khana gun, tasht house, and Gashanqir and other that we read in the sources, and who lived it at that time from the authors.

The author defines in his book the economic conditions of Damascus (Agriculture, industry and trade) . That was flourished because of Damascus’s geographical location. Which is lined by the rivers, and green lawns and meditated it the Islamic world (Baghdad) . Besides its location in the way of pilgrimages to Mecca, and because of this it become a world- famous thanks to the availability of the initial raw materials and its production to the prescription drugs, as well as food and essential oils and other things.