Murtada ibn al-‘Afif, also known as Murtadi, son of Gaphiphus (1154 or 1155-1237 CE), was an obscure Arabian writer who studied in Alexandria, Damascus, and Cairo. While he is credited with having written many books, no titles survive, not even the original title of his only complete work to survive to modern times, the book known variously as the Egyptian History or the Prodigies of Egypt, which reported traditional folklore associated with the pyramids, the Flood, and the wonders of Egypt. In French and English translations (the Arabic original was lost) the Prodigies of Egypt influenced the English Romantics, and it preserves some legends of Egypt not found in other sources. This edition reprints the 1672 translation of John Davies to bring this medieval treasury to modern readers in its classic and widely-cited English translation.
