سمنار
On the morning of Sunday, September 27, 2026, the Center for the Revival of Arab Scientific Heritage at the University of Baghdad organized a scholarly seminar titled "The Contributions of Arab Encyclopedias during the Mamluk Era to the Preservation of Islamic Sciences (648–924 AH / 1250–1527 CE)." The seminar was presented by Assistant Professor Dr. Rasha Issa Faris, a faculty member at the Center. She discussed the exceptional scholarly renaissance witnessed during the Mamluk era, which was manifested in the widespread phenomenon of encyclopedic writing and the compilation of seminal works to safeguard them from loss—particularly following the massive destruction wrought by the Mongol and Crusader invasions. During the presentation, the researcher highlighted the role of encyclopedias authored by leading scholars of that era—foremost among them Al-Nuwayri, with his famous work *Nihayat al-Arab fi Funun al-Adab*, and Al-Qalqashandi, as well as the works of Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar. She noted that these works served as "repositories" for the religious sciences—including exegesis (*tafsir*), Hadith, and jurisprudence (*fiqh*)—by documenting and transcribing complete texts from original sources that are now lost, while organizing them according to precise methodological approaches. She emphasized that these Mamluk efforts and encyclopedias formed a vital civilizational bridge that preserved scientific, linguistic, and Islamic heritage, ensuring the secure transmission of knowledge across the ages to successive generations.

سمنار