1273-1331

Arab historian and geographer. Al-Fida', who served as a local sultan under the Mamluk rulers of Egypt, wrote two important works, Mukhtasar ta'rikh al-bashar (Brief history of man), which covered pre-Islamic and Islamic history in the Middle East up to 1329; and a geography called Taqwim al-buldan (Locating the lands, 1321.) Neither work represented original scholarship, but rather consisted of writings by other authors compiled, edited, and expanded by al-Fida'; both, however, became highly influential among European Orientalists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.