سهم تراجم‌نگاری در انتقال داده‌های فرهنگی و اجتماعی مصر؛ بررسی موردی «درر العقود» و «المقفی الکبیر»

Biographical writing is one of the oldest and, concurrently, most frequent forms
of historiography in the Islamic civilization. While initially organized with the aim of recording the biographies of prominent individuals, it possesses a vast capacity within its deeper layers for the transmission of cultural, social, economic, and civilizational data of Islamic societies across various historical periods. However, in the contemporary research on Islamic history, this genre has often been regarded merely as a source of biographical dictionaries (rijāl) or as a supplementary aid for Hadith and jurisdiction studies, with its potential for the reconstruction of social and cultural history receiving less independent and methodological attention. In this regard, the main issue of the present research is to explore this overlooked capacity and examine the contribution of biographical writing toward the transmission of cultural and social data of Egypt, focusing on two important biographical works by the historian Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Ali Maqrizi: "Durar al-'Uqūd al-Faridah fī Tarājom al-A'yān al-Mufīdah" and "Al-Muqaffa al-Kabīr." The central question of
the research is what purpose and method of Maqrizi was to record the biographies of individuals in these two works, and how, with what perspective, he transferred the cultural, social, religious, economic, and scientific data in the form of biographies. Furthermore, this study endeavors to demonstrate how the structural and contextual differences between these two books influence the type of cultural data extractable from them, and what contribution each of these works makes the reconstruction of Egypt's cultural and social history in the medieval Islamic centuries. The primary goal of the article is to explain the position of Maqrizi's biographical writing as a tool for the socio-cultural historiography and to show how, through the biographies of individuals, one can access layers of public
life, power relations, economic structures, scientific networks, the status of women, the condition of religious minorities, religious rituals, and the cultural patterns of Mamluk 
society. Among the secondary objectives of the research are comparing the cultural approach of "Durar al-'Uqūd" and "Al-Muqaffa al-Kabīr," explaining Maqrizi's method in selecting and elaborating data, and evaluating the effectiveness of these works for the social history studies. The necessity of this research stems from the fact that the classical political historiography, which focuses on events, states, and wars, has often been unable to represent the daily lives of people, cultural developments, and social relations. In contrast, biographical writing, by focusing on the "historical individual," provides an opportunity to ask questions that have had less room for expression in official chronicles; questions about the geographical origins of scholars, the routes of knowledge transmission, prevalent professions and trades, the economic status of different classes, the social role of women, religious rituals, and even popular beliefs. The present research indicates that Maqrizi's works, especially when compared to many of his contemporary biographers, possess a higher capacity to answer these questions. The research methodology is descriptive-analytical with a comparative approach. This means that first, the structure, purpose, and method of each of Maqrizi's two works are examined independently, and then the cultural and social data extracted from them are analyzed and compared across categories such as religious, economic, political, scientific, anthropological, and gendered data. In this process, in addition to relying on al-Maqrizi's original texts, sources from his own era or close to it, such as the works of al-Sakhawi, Ibn Taghribirdi, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani,
al-Safadi, and Ibn 'Adim, as well as contemporary research on al-Maqrizi and Islamic historiography, have been utilized. The research findings show that "Durar al-'Uqūd
al-Farīdah" is more than just a biographical dictionary; it is a mirror of the social and cultural life of Egypt in the 9^th century A.H (15^th century CE). Its focus on Maqrizi's contemporaries and the recording of lived experiences has led to the transmission of valuable data about poverty and wealth, prices, occupations, pilgrimage rituals, the role of Sufis, public morality, and even livelihood crises. In contrast, "Al-Muqaffa al-Kabīr," with its broader historical and geographical scope and focus on emirs, officials, and state figures, offers rich data on the structure of power, religious policy, foreign relations, courtly customs, and official religious discourse. Thus, these two works are not rivals but complements to each other in reconstructing Egypt's cultural and social history. In conclusion, Maqrizi's role in Islamic historiography extends beyond that of an annalist or a biographer of individuals. By linking personal biographies to social, political, and cultural contexts, he presents a model of "civilizational biography" in which humans, institutions, and culture are represented in an interconnected network. His works, especially "Durar
al-'Uqūd" and "Al-Muqaffa al-Kabīr," demonstrate how biographical accounts can be used to reconstruct a dynamic image of the Islamic world, trans-regional connections, Islamic cosmopolitanism, and the cultural-social transformations of a land. This role places Maqrizi among the most prominent cultural and social historians of Islamic civilization.