(CE:2136a)
SHIBAB AL-DIN AHMAD NUWAYRI. Shibab al-Din Ahmad ‘Abd al-Wahhab al- Nuwayri (d. 1332) wrote an encyclopedia called Nihayat al-Arab fi funun al-adab (The Limits of Desires in the Arts of Literature). Among other things, it is an important source of information about the Nubian campaigns of the Mamluk sultan Qalawun, which contributed greatly to the final dissolution of the Christian kingdom of MAKOURIA. Nuwayri's account provides the most detailed surviving information about events and conditions in Nubia toward the close of the Middle Ages. Much of this material was subsequently copied in the Kitab al-suluk (Book of Behavior) of al-MAQRIZI.
WILLIAM Y. ADAMS