Quatremère edited and translated part of Al-Maqrizi's, (1364–1442), Arabic History of the Mameluke Sultans (2 vols., 1837–41), "not because he had all that much interest in the history of Mamluk Egypt, but rather because he was fascinated by the vocabulary of fifteenth-century Arabic and particularly in those lexicographic nuggets that had not been defined in the standard of Arabic dictionaries".
Little remains of the ancient city other than portions of the much-repaired Roman bridge, which is now incorporated into a 15th–century Mameluke construction that still serves as one of the city's two bridges over the river.