Michael Jan de Goeje

“ From very early times the Arabs had great delight in verses and tales, and the development of their language was certainly much influenced by this fact. In ancient times story-tellers and singers found their subjects in the doughty deeds of the tribe on its forays, in the merits of horse or camel, in hunting adventures and love complaints, and sometimes in contests with foreign powers and in the impression produced by the wealth and might of the sovereigns of Persia and Constantinople. ”

“ Ṭabarí and his contemporaries, senior and junior, such as Ibn Ḳotaiba, Ya'ḳúbí, Dínawarí, preserve to us a good part of the information about Persian history made known through such translations. [4] But even more important than the knowledge conveyed by these works was their influence on literary style and composition. Half a century later began versions from the Greek either direct or through the Syriac. The pieces translated were mostly philosophical ; but the Arabs also learned something, however superficially, of ancient history.
The 3d century was far more productive than the 2d. ”

“ Madáiní's History of the Caliphs is the best if not the oldest published before Ṭabarí; but this book has quite disappeared and is known only by the excerpts given by later writers, particularly Beládhorí and Ṭabarí. From these we judge that he had great narrative power with much clear and exact learning, and must be placed high as a critical historian. His plan was to record the various traditions about an event, choosing them with critical skill; sometimes, however, he fused the several traditions into a continuous narrative. ”

“ The History of the Time before Mohammed has been published by Fleischer (1831) . Not less famous is the great Encyclopædia of his contemporary Nowairí (d. 732) , but only some extracts are as yet in print. Ibn Sayyid an-Nás (d. 734) wrote a full biography of the Prophet; Mizzí (d. 742) an extensive work on the men from whom traditions have been derived. We still possess, nearly complete, the great Chronicle of Dhahabí (d. 748) , a very learned biographer and historian. A complete edition of the geographical and historical Masálik al-Abṣár of Ibn Faḍlalláh (d. 749) is much to be desired. ”

“ The materials were supplied in the first place by oral tradition, in the second by the dictata of older scholars, and finally by various kinds of documents, such as treaties, letters, collections of poetry, and genealogical lists. Genealogical studies become necessary through Omar's system of assigning state pensions to certain classes of persons according to their kinship with the Prophet, or their deserts during his lifetime. This subject received much attention even in the 1st century, but books about it were first written in the 2d, the most famous being those of Ibn al-Kalbí (d. 146 a.h.) ”

“ TABARÍ and Early Arab Historians. Arabian historians differ from all others in the unique form of their compositions. Each event is related in the words of eye-witnesses or contemporaries transmitted to the final narrator through a chain of intermediate reporters (ráwís) , each of whom passed on the original report to his successor. Often the same account is given in two or more slightly divergent forms, which have come down through different chains of reporters. ”

“ For example, Hasan of Basra (d. 110 a.h.; 728 a.d.) had a great mass of such notes, and he was accused of sometimes passing off as oral tradition things he had really drawn from books; for oral tradition was still the one recognized authority, and it is related of more than one old scholar, and even of Hasan of Basra himself, that he directed his books to be burned at his death. The books were mere helps, and what they knew these scholars had handed on by word of mouth. ”

“ His narratives are detailed and often tinged with romance, and he is certainly much inferior to Wáķidí in accuracy. Besides these are to be mentioned Abú 'Obaida (d. 209) , who was celebrated as a philologist and wrote several historical monographs that are often cited, and Azraḳí, whose excellent History of Mecca was published after his death by his grandson (d. 244) . With these writers we pass into the 3d century of Islam. But we have still an important point to notice in the 2d century; for in it learned Persians began to take part in the creation of Arabic historical literature. ”

“ Shabba (d. 262) , who composed an excellent history of Basra, known to us only by excerpts. Of the works of Zobair b. Bakkár (d. 256) , one of Ṭabarí's teachers, a learned historian and genealogist much consulted by later writers, there is a fragment in the Köprülü library at Constantinople, and another in Göttingen, part of which has been made known by Wüstenfeld (Die Familie Al-Zobair, Göttingen, 1878) . Ya'ḳúbí or Ibn Wáḍiḥ wrote a short general history of much value, published by Houtsma (Leyden, 1883) . ”

“ Nevertheless the value of the book is very great: the author's selection of traditions is usually happy, and the episodes of most importance are treated with most fulness of detail, so that it deserves the high reputation it has enjoyed from the first. This reputation rose steadily; there were twenty copies (one of them written by Ṭabarí's own hand) in the library of the Fátimite caliph 'Aziz (latter half of the 4th century) , whereas, when Saladin became lord of Egypt, the princely library contained 1200 copies (Maḳrízí, i. 408 sq.) ”

“ The great book exists complete in the viceregal library at Cairo, and ought to be published at once. [6]
The Annals are a general history from the creation to 302 a.h., and are in the course of publication at Leyden. They will fill some 7000 to 7500 pages, one and a half printed pages corresponding roughly to one leaf of Ṭabarí's original MS. Ṭabarí added a supplement about his authorities, an abridgment of which is to follow the Leyden edition. It contains biographical notices of traditionalists, contemporaries of Mohammed, and their successors to the second half of the 2d century. ”

“ Even under the first Omayyads there were in the mosques of most great cities preachers who edified the people by stories about Islam and its victories, and there is ample evidence that these men did not stick to actual fact. ”

“ The latter scholar also published text and version of the History of the Berbers, and there is a poor Egyptian edition of the whole work. Of the historical works of the famous lexicographer Fírúzabádí (d. 817) only a Life of the Prophet remains. Maḳrizi (d. 845) is spoken of in a separate article; Ibn Hajar (d. 852) is best known by his Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries of the Prophet, now in course of publication in the Bibliotheca Indica. Ibn 'Arabsháh (d. 854) is known by his History of Tímúr (Leeuwarden, 1767) . 'Ainí (d. 855) wrote a General History, still extant. ”

“ This has been essayed by Brünnow in his study on the Khárijites (Leyden, 1884) , in which the narrative of Mobarrad in the Kámil is compared with the excerpts of Madáiní given by Beládhorí and those of Abú Mikhnaf given by Ṭabarí. The conclusion reached is that Abú Mikhnaf and Madáiní are both well informed and impartial.
Among the contemporaries of Wáķidí and Madáiní were Ibn Khidásh (d. 223) , the historian of the family Mohallab, whose work was one of Mobarrad's sources for the History of the Khárijites; Haitham ibn 'Adi (d. 207) , whose works, though now lost, are often cited ”

“ Ambition is extinct." One cannot say how far this story is true, but it is probable enough that his materials, at least for the Annals, were many times greater than the book itself. Where the same topic comes up in the Annals and in the Commentary we often find different traditions quoted, or the same tradition derived through different channels, and this shows the copious variety of his sources. ”