الشّعر ودوره في السّرد في الكتابات التّاريخيّة المملوكيّة في مصر

Abstract

This study examines historical writings from the Mamluk period (1250–1517). Previous research on Mamluk historiography shows that the use of literary and narrative elements was more prominent among non-scholarly historians, especially military figures who were mostly Egyptian. However, these studies have largely overlooked poetry’s role in producing historical narratives and historiography. This research offers a detailed comparison of how a group of historians from the Mamluk period in Egypt used poetry creatively. It treats historical texts as literary works, going beyond the idea that they are simply sources of historical information for researchers and scholars. In fact, Mamluk historical literature includes numerous poems because of their semantic and aesthetic approaches to historical narration. While these texts provide historical knowledge, their authors aimed to go beyond presenting information and, instead, craft a new, imaginative depiction of events. In other words, these historians relied on semantic and aesthetic tools, especially poetry, to create new meanings when depicting social reality. In Mamluk historiography, poetry was not just decorative; it actively shaped historical narratives and further immortalized events.