The Thesis presents a critical edition of the first volume of Khayr al-Din ibn Taj al-Din Ilyas al-Madani’s al-Maqalat al-Jawhariyya `ala al-Maqamat al-Haririyya, accompanied by an introduction dealing briefly with the Maqamat as a literary genre, the commentaries on the Maqamat, the description of various manuscripts of al-Maqalat and the authorship of the work. The text itself consists of, a preface, the commentary on Hariri's preface, followed by the commentary on the first twenty-five Maqamat of unequal length. Volume two of al-Maqalat consists of the commentary on the remaining twenty-five Maqamat. This has been found too long to include in this work. It is hoped, however, that it will be possible to edit this volume separately in the future. This work, al-Maqalat, was brought to my notice by the book Makamat by Theodore Preston,* Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University, who in his preface mentions al-Maqalat and describes it as "an excellent running commentary on the Makamat." The two volumes of the work are contained in the Burchardt collection of the Cambridge University Library, and "it is a very lucid and valuable work and well deserves to be edited. " My first task in the attempt to edit al-Maqalat, then, was a search, extending from Cambridge to Cairo, Alexandria and Patna, for the manuscripts of that and other books of commentary on the Maqamat, most of which are still in manuscript form. * Published in London, 1850.

L'étude est divisée en trois parties : La première partie est consacrée à un résumé historique de la Maqamat et de ses miniatures ainsi qu'un bref aperçu de l'art du livre arabe et de l'intérêt européen qu'il suscite. La deuxième partie présente les types de maisons trouvées suite aux fouilles archéologiques des sites de l'époque islamique. La troisième partie est consacrée aux différents types de maisons et d'aménagements intérieurs, décrits par les miniatures de Maqamat al Hariri. / The purpose of this work is to study the shape of the houses at the end of the Abbasid period, after five illustrated manuscripts of the Maqamat al-Hariri, historically attributed to the last period of the reign of the Abbasids . The images are in miniatures, containing details of various parts of the house, we have exploited in an attempt to configure and visualize the shape of the house that dates back to this period. The study is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to a historical summary of the Maqamat and miniatures, as well as a brief overview of the Arabic art of the book, and the European interest.The second part is devoted to types of houses found in the excavations of various Islamic archaeological sites. The third part is devoted to various forms and portions of the house, shown by the miniatures of the Maqamat of al Hariri.