توظيف الرسائل الديوانية عند القلقشندي

الملخص EN

Al-Qalqashandī relied on administrative documents more than any other Arab historian.

His works contain a great number of documents which constitute an essential part of his approach to history.

Al-Qalqashandī’s concern with documents stemmed from the many administrative positions which he held under the Mamluks.

His use of documents was due to his belief that they give a firm support to the idea or subject under consideration.

He furnished numerous letters and correspondence between the various rulers and the bureaucrats of the chancelleries.

His concern with administrative documents indicates his desire to strengthen his arguments by referring directly to primary sources.

He took great care to personally inspect and read most of the documents which he mentions in his works, referring to their sources and their locations in most instances.

In his analysis of documents al-Qalqashandī followed the modern approach of employing both internal (content) criticism and external (formal) criticism.

His external criticism of documents consisted of describing them.

He discussed the different kinds of paper and their various uses, the various styles of handwriting, the pens, the organization of the page and the extent of the blank spaces on the sides of the pages for every type of document.

Many texts which al-Qalqashandī presents point to his taking a scientific and practical approach in their internal criticism.

This approach was based on a comparative method which highlighted the differences between the documents issued by his predecessors and contemporaries.

Above all al-Qalaqshandī was concerned with the formulation of documents.

Al-Qalqashandī distinguished himself through his style of dealing with historical documents and his creation of a distinct methodology that was based on his own research efforts and furnished with the stock of documents that he possessed thanks to the administrative positions that he held.