Maqrizi's delightful book is known to students of Arabic history by one untranslatable word of its lengthy title: al-Khitat, roughly rendered as Sketches. It is the crowning achievement of it's author, Ahmed ibn Ali al-Maqrizi (1364 - 1442) This annotated translation by Dr. Karl Stowasser has given new life in the English speaking world to an Arabic classic. It was a labor extending over twenty years and demanding the rich background of linguistic and historical knowledge that Dr. Stowasser brought to it. In his work on Maqrizi, his aim was to produce not just a highly readable translation but a full scholarly edition as well.