Kitab al-'ifadah wa al-'i'tibar fi al-'umur al-musahadah wa al-hawadit al-mu'ayanah bi-ard Misr, by 'Abd al-Latif al-Bagdadi (1162-1231 AD) is a fascinating work; it represents one of the best known and most important manuscripts concerning Egypt during the period between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD. The author, through his gaze and with a clear and shrewd use of language and style, describes several characteristic aspects of the Nile country: the landscape, the animals, the plants, the monuments, the boats, the peculiar dishes, without forgetting the effects of the famine, or the misery caused by the ailments and hunger that hit the country between 1200 and 1202 AD.
Translated into German (1790), Latin (1800), French (1810), and more recently into English (1965), there was, until now, still no translation into Italian of this masterful work. This omission prompted the authors to work over a period of several years on the present volume which, in addition to providing the first Italian translation (accompanied by the transcription of the original Arabic manuscript), provides essential and necessary commentary notes aimed at explaining different passages of the manuscript. Some preliminary chapters also attempt to focus on themes, the author and his philosophy in order to provide the reader with a wider image of the conceptions of the period in which he lived and what this description represented and still represents: a masterpiece of realism which continues to stir the imagination in the modern age.
