Ibn Tagri Birdi Sources

• Tsafrir and Foerster (1992b:232) relate that Tagri Birdi's earthquake account quotes from the book Mir'at al-Zaman by 13th century writer Sibt ibn al-Jawzi. Karcz (2004) states the same thing perhaps on the authority of Amikam Elad.


• Karcz (2004) adds:

  It is probable that these two successive earthquakes [A.H. 130 and A.H. 131] are responsible for the hesitant and possibly confused accounts of 13th century Sibt ibn al Jawzi, d.1257 (A. Elad, 1991, pers. comm.) followed by 15th century Ibn Tagri Birdi (Shaltut, 1929), which report strong earthquakes (plural) in Syria in AH 130, with heavy damage in Jerusalem, in the wake of which people of Damascus fled into desolate areas for 40 days and add and it was said that the earthquakes took place in AH 131.

The late-fifteenth century Egyptian author, Ibn Taghribirdi (ii/2.239), has a less detailed version of this passage in the year 459 a.H., which is too early. These authors also refer to the scarcity of food in Egypt, which continued till 461 a.H., or even later (al- Maqrizi, Khitat, i. 337, ii. 277). Much of Ibn al-Sabi's history is preserved verbatim in Sibt ibn al-Jauzi's Mirat al zaman.