Qutb al-Din ibn 'Ala'addin al-Hanafi (d.1582-3 AD), Al-I'lam bi I'lam balad Allah al-Haram (A History of Mecca), copied by Ibrahim ibn Yusuf al-Muhtar al-Sharifi al-Hanafi al-Makki, Arabian peninsula, 16th century

The title page of the present manuscript lists the name of the author, Qutb al-Din ibn 'Ala'addin al-Hanafi. The colophon mentions that he died in Mecca at the age of nearly 70 at the beginning of 990 AH/1582-83 AD.

Brockelmann states that the author was born in 1511, and  this work was completed circa 1577 during the reign of Sultan Murad III (r.1574-94) (Brockelmann II, pp.500-1 and SIII, p.745).

Various sources give two different titles for this work: on the history of Mecca (balad) and the other on the history of the holy sanctuary at Mecca (bayt). The British Library lists the name of the author as  Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Nahrawali al-Makki and the title of the text as Al-I’lam bi-a’lam (akhbar) bayt Allah (masjid) al-haram. There are three copies in the British Library dated as follows: Mss. no.ADD 7332, 1010 AH/1601 AD; ADD 7333, 1055 AH/1645 AD; and OR 4633, 1169 AH/1756 AD (Stocks and Baker (ed.) 2001, p.249). There are two further copies in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, one of them dated 1019 AH/1610 AD (see Lyons 1966, p.81, vols.V  4251, IV  3891 and VI  4960; and Mingana 1934, pp.410-2).