出版社：Middle East Documentation Center (MEDOC), University of Chicago
摘要：The past decade has seen an uneven development in Mamluk historiographic studies. On the one hand, a considerable number of important Mamluk sources—chronicles, biographical dictionaries, geographical and administrative encyclopedias as well as treatises on historical theory—have been edited and thus added to our growing Mamluk library. On the other, we continue to witness a dearth of articles, and even fewer monographs, devoted to Mamluk historians and their writings;1 not since the pioneering works of Jean Sauvaget, Claude Cahen, Donald Little, and Ulrich Haarmann have we seen any ground-breaking study of the historical thought and writing of this extraordinary era, which is commonly believed to have been one of the most prolific in Islamic history for its output of historical and archival documentation. This review thus offers a welcome opportunity not only for stock-taking, but also for sharing thoughts with interested colleagues. My comments are informed by my research on al-Yu≠n|n| (d. 1326) and a concomitant process of contemplating what has been achieved and what has not, in my own work and in the field at large. Among the various issues, I find three especially important: the editing of Mamluk sources, the study of the biographies of Mamluk historians, and the study of the development of genres and forms in Mamluk historical texts.
