Nuwayri

Nuwayri is the patronymic of a celebrated Arabian historian of the 8th century. of the Hegira, whose complete name was AHMED IBNA-ABID-AL-WAHHAB ALBEKR, AL-TEYMI AL-KISND, and who was further distinguished by the honorable surname of Shehabu-d-din (bright star of religion). He was born at Nuwayreh, a small town of the province of Bahnassd, in Egypt, in the year 682 of the Hegira (A.D. 1283-84). Nuwayri distinguished himself as a theologian of the sect of Shafei, and also as a rhetorician and grammarian, and he wrote several works on these subjects, the titles of which have not reached us. But the work which has made Nuwavri "known among European scholars is his Nehdyetu-ldrab fi fonzuni-ladab. a sort of cyclopedia, consisting of thirty books or volumes, and divided into five "fen" (subjects), each of which is further subdivided into "kasm" (sections), containing each a certain number of "bab" (chapters). The first four "fen" treat of the physical sciences and .the several branches of natural history and moral philosophy. The fifth and last, which is likewise the most valuable for Europeans, is wholly occupied with a history of the Mohammedan, settlements both in the East and West. The sixth "bab" (chapter) of the same contains a narrative of the conquest of Africa, Spain, and Sicily by the Saracens, together with a chronological history of the sultans of the family of Umeyah, who filled the throne of Cordova from A.H. 138 to 428 (A.D. 755 to 1036), and a short account of the principal events of their, reigns. Nuwayri died, according to Haji Khalfah, in the year 732 of the Hegira.