ABRAHAM

See also:

• ABRAHAM MAPU (1808-1867)

MAPU (1808-1867)  , Hebrew novelist . His works are chiefly historical romances in Hebrew . His most famous books were The Love of Zion and the Transgression of Samaria . Besides their intrinsic merits, these novels stand high among the works which produced the romantic movement in modern Hebrew literature . Mapu's plots were somewhat sensational, incident being more prominent than characterization . But underlying all was a criticism of contemporary life . His novels made a deep impression and became instantly popular . Mapu's Hebrew style is simple and classical . An English translation of the Love of Zion bears the title Amnon, Prince and Peasant, by F . Jaffe (1887) . Mapu's stories have been often translated into other languages . See N .

Slouschz, The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1909), ch. v . (I . A.) MAQQAR!, or MAKKARI [

Abu-l-`Abbas Ahmad ibn Mahommed ul-Maggari] (c . 1591-1632), Arabian historian, was born at Tlemcen in Algeria and studied at Fez and Marrakesh, where he remained engaged in literary work until he made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1618 . In the following year he settled in Cairo . In 162o he visited Jerusalem and Damascus, and during the next six years made the pilgrimage five times . In 1628 he was again in Damascus, where he gave a course of lectures on Bukhari's collection of Traditions, spoke much of the glories of Moslem Spain, and received the impulse to write his work on this subject later . In the same year he returned to Cairo, where he spent a year in writing his history . He was just making preparations to settle definitely in Damascus when he died in 1632 . His great work, The Breath of Perfume from the Branch of Green Andalusia and Memorials of its Vizier Lisdn ud-Din ibn ul-Khatib, consists of two parts . The first is a compilation from many authors on the description and history of Moslem Spain; it was published by Wright, Krehl, Dozy and Dugat as Analectes sur l'histoire et la litterature des Arabes d'Espagne (Leiden, 1855-1861), and in an abridged English translation by P. de Gayangos (London, 184o-1843) . The whole work has been published at Bulaq (1863) and Cairo (1885) .

- For other works of Maqqari see C . Brockelmann's Gesch. der arabischen Litteratur (

Berlin, 1902), U . 297 . (G . W .