The April Weather in the Reports of Tlemcen, Tlemcen, Al-Misqat, and Al-Jannah… Through "Nafh al-Tib" by Al-Maqri: Praise, Descriptions, and Poetic Excerpts

Abstract

Heritage books did not lack sciences, arts, and reports across various fields, nor did they omit mention of historical events. Each author, however, had his own way of conveying them in a style he favored and appreciated. Thus, these works were characterized by encyclopedic breadth and literary genre plurality—if we may put it this way. Among such books, we find Nafh al-Tib by Al-Maqri, in which he blended travel literature with historical narration in an aesthetically literary manner. He addressed many issues relevant to human life in society, including the sense of exile and nostalgia for one’s homeland, as presented in the seventh part of his work Nafh al-Tib. There, his creativity excelled in praising and describing the city of Tlemcen, both the birthplace and the place of residence. Therefore, we aimed to record and clarify these descriptions to benefit from this esteemed work.