George Elmacin
George Elmacin (or Girgis Al-Makin) (1205–1273), also known as Ibn al-'Amid, was an Arabic Christian historian.
Life
The details of his life come from passages at the end of his own history. He was born in Cairo in Egypt in 1205. His full name in Arabic was Ğirğis ibn Abī Ùl-Yāsir ibn Abī Ùl-Mukārīm ibn Abī Ùt.-T. ayyib al-ÿAmīd (called) al-Makīn. His great grandfather was a merchant from Tikrit in Iraq who settled in Egypt.
He was a Coptic Christian and was known in the east as Ibn al-Amid. He held high office in the military office (dīwān al-ğayš) in Cairo.
Such a position carried risks. He was twice imprisoned, possibly because of links to the contemporary unrest in Syria at the time of the Mongol invasion; in one case for over a decade.
After his release, he wrote his chronicle in the years 1262-8, after his career (and his time in prison) was over.
Later he moved to Damascus, where he died in 1273.
Works
His sole surviving work is a world chronicle in two parts, entitled al-Majmu` al-Mubarak (The blessed collection). The first portion runs from Adam down to the 11th year of Heraclius. The second half is a history of the Saracens, which extends from the time of Mohammed to the accession of the Mameluke Sultan Baybars in 1260. The second half is mainly derived from the Persian writer Al-Tabari, as the author tells us, and was used by later Moslem and Christian writers.
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