The Sheikh and Imam Taqi-ed-din El-Maqrizi, so called from the quarter El-Maqriz, in Baalbek, whence his family came- was born at Cairo, towards the end of the fourteenth century. He is one of the most celebrated of Arabic writers, and is reckoned a great authority in matters relating to Egypt and to her people. For this reason an English translation of his history of the Qibt of Misr - or Copts of Egypt- and of their church, may perhaps prove acceptable to some who take interest in these matters, and cannot read original. The author added to it a few notes, taken chiefly from the annals written by the Melkite patriarch, Sa'id Ibn Batrik, ou Eutychius , in the tenth century; and from El-Makin, another Christian author.
