أبو الفداء ٢_a .. كتاب مائة أوائل من تراثنا ، الكاتب عبد الهادي حرصوني

It is known that the Levant was invaded in the eleventh century by hordes of Turkmen, and that these Turkmen pushed the tribes of the north of the Levant and the Jazira towards the interior and the desert, and thus Hama became the most important market for the desert tribes, and the matter necessitated the presence of strong authorities in Hama to limit the activity of the tribes and to monitor their movements. Thus, over time, a special administrative apparatus was provided for this city, and all conditions were prepared for the establishment of an independent state in it. In the days of Salah al-Din, at the end of the twelfth century, this happened, and an independent Ayyubid state arose in Hama. With the death of Salah al-Din and the disintegration of his empire, the kings of Hama sometimes became involved in the disputes of the members of the Ayyubid house, and they took a position of neutrality at other times and occupied the role of a truce mediator between This role gave the kings of Hama special respect, and it seems that these kings also succeeded in establishing truce relations with the Hashishites on the one hand and the princes of the Bedouin tribes on the other. That is why their state was blessed with stability, and a large number of scholars sought refuge in it, and it witnessed great cultural activity. After the fall of the Ayyubid kingdoms in Cairo and elsewhere, and the rise of the Mamluks, the kingdom of Hama continued to live, and perhaps this was due to the fact that the Bedouin tribes preferred to deal with an independent king in Hama over dealing directly with the Sultanate, and that the Sultanate, in turn, wanted for the same reason a continuation in Hama whose own capabilities could deal with the nomads. This approach has been known since ancient times in the Levant, and we can add to this the invasions of the Ilkhanid Mongols on the Levant, and the activity of the Mamluks against Armenia. The number of the Sultanate with the Kingdom of existence
It seems that his class in his era was from an Arab-Islamic culture, and military and political training. When he became a young man, he joined the army of Hama, and participated in a number of missions and campaigns inside and outside the Levant. He also visited the court of the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo repeatedly, which made him enjoy a high position in it, and at the beginning of the fourteenth century The rule in Hama went through several crises, which ended in the year 1310 AD with the issuance of a royal decree appointing Abu al-Fida as king of Hama. In Abu al-Fida’s political and military life, before and after the king, there were no distinct incidents that caused him his great fame, and wrote for him what he enjoyed of immortality. He achieved that through Culture, and because of his contributions in its fields. Perhaps the most important work that Abu al-Fida produced was in the field of geography and history, and the name of his book on geography is Taqweem al-Buldan. D was quoted as degradation

A number of Abu al-Fida kings sat on the throne of Hama, most of whom were described as knowledgeable, cultured, and works of classification. The prestige and fame that Aba al-Fida received from an early age what his sons received
A large number of his information is from Muslim writers, Arabs, Persians and Turks. He was also considered the third Arabic book famous in the West after the Qur’an Al-Karmam and One Thousand and One Nights. Several translations into French have appeared for him since the eighteenth century. When the researcher reads this book, he clearly sees the emergence of the geographical trend in it. And the tyranny of geographical information, and presenting it in a balanced, centered manner that does not contain scattering, as is the case with Yaqoot, for example, and thus Abu Al-Fida is considered one of the pioneers who contributed to the development of the science of modern geography. It is known that Aba Al-Fida was not a traveler, rather he collected from what he collected from the books of geography and travels and from some oral narrations, and thus he was a researcher in geography. Abu al-Fida presents his information in an easy and balanced presentation in which the Arabic geographical terminology was published, and when his book was published, it filled a large void, because it contained a summary of the geographical information that the Muslims gathered. It did not affect the status of the book, especially if we take into account the work of its author in kingship and politics, and from this angle if we compare him with al-Bakri, a statesman like him, we find that Aba al-Fida was more coherent and less contradictory and wrong, and for this he deserved immortality and his name was associated with the name of the city of Hama Which became known as the city of Abi al-Fida. In the field of history, Abu al-Fida wrote a book on the history of the city of Hama that has not reached us, and another book called al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bishr. This book was printed more than once, but in an unscientific way.
The book explained the author's motives for writing it and his goals from it, as well as the names of its sources, and at the top of these sources was the book Al-Kamil in History by Ibn Al-Atheer, and in fact Abu Al-Fida summarized what came in the book of Al-Kamil, then added to that the news after Ibn Al-Atheer

The process of abbreviating Al-Kamil’s book indicates a high taste, depth of knowledge, and an increased interest in the news of the Levant, especially the Kingdom of Hama. And a evaluated view, but all of this does not negate the important fact that his book is an essential source for Islamic history, especially with regard to the Levant, and the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras. And true spirit lived in the era of philosophy is