Nuwayri, Al-

Nuwayri, Al- 

(full name, Ahmad ibn Abd al Wahhab al-Nuwayri). Born Apr. 6, 1279; died June 17, 1332, in Cairo. Egyptian encyclopedist.

Al-Nuwayri was the author of one of the three best known encyclopedias of the Mameluke period, namely, the 31-volume work The Limit of Desire in the Sciences of Writing. Al-Nuwayri’s encyclopedia contains information up to the year 1331; it is a highly accurate and comprehensive work. The encyclopedia, the product of about 20 years’ work, was translated into many European languages.

WORKS

Nihayat al-arab fi funun al-adab, parts 1–18. Cairo, 1925–55.

REFERENCES

Krachkovskii, I. Iu. “Arabskaia geograficheskaia literatura.” Izbr. soch., vol. 4. Moscow-Leningrad, 1957. Pages 402–05.
Zaydan, Jirji. Tarikh adab al-lughat al-arabiyah, vol. 3. Cairo, 1913.
Yusuf Asad Daghir. Masadir al-dirasat al-adabiyah, vol. 1. Beirut, 1961.