Makkari, AHMED EL-, Moorish historian, was born at Makkara near Tlemçen, in Algeria, about 1585, travelled in Morocco, and in 1618 made the pilgrimage to Mecca. This he subsequently repeated five times, besides seven pilgrimages to Medina, and two to Jerusalem. At Damascus he created an enthusiastic impression by his preaching in 1627. His chief residence, however, was at Cairo, where he died in 1631.
His principal work was his History of the Mohammedan Dynasties of Spain, partly translated into English by Gayangos (2 vols. 1840-43), and edited by Dozy, Wright, and others under the title of Analectes sur l'Hist. et la Litt. des Arabes d'Espagne (Leyden, 1855-61, and also printed at Bûlâk, 1862). See Wüstenfeld, Die Geschichtsschreiber der Araber.