266 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abbott, Nabia, Studies in Arabic Literary Papyri, vol. 1: Historical Texts (Chicago, 1957).
Donner, Fred M., NmTatives ofislamic Origins: The Beginninr; ofislamic Historical Writing
(Princeton, 1998).
al-Duri, Abd al-Aziz, The Rise of Historical Writing Among the Arabs, ed. and rrans.
Lawrence I. Conrad (Princeton, 1983).
Humphreys, R. Stephen, Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry (Princeton, 1991).
Khalidi, Tarif, Islamic Historiography: The Histories ofMas'udi (Albany, 1975).
--Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period (Cambridge, 1994).
Lassner, Jacob, Islamic Revolution and Historical Mernory (New Haven, 1986).
Muth, Franz- Christoph, Die Armalm von at-Tabari im Spiegel tkr europiiischm
Bearbeitungen (Frankfun am Main, 1983).
Noth, Albrecht and Conrad, Lawrence I., The Early Arabic Historical Tradition: A Source-
Critical Study (Princeton, 1994).
Radtke, Bernd, Weltgeschichte tmd Weltbeschreibung im mittelalterlichen Islam (Beirut and
Stuttgart, 1992).
Robinson, Chase F., Islamic Historiography (Cambridge, 2003).
Rosenthal, Franz, A History ofMuslim Histcriography, 2nd edn (Leiden, 1968).
Shboul, Ahmad A. M., Al-Mas'udi and his World {London, 1979).
Shoshan, Bon, The Poetics of Islamic Historiography: Deconstructing Tabari's History
(Leiden, 2005).
Chapter 13
Islam: The Arabic and Persian Traditions,
Eleventh- Fifteenth Centuries
Konrad Hirschler
Islamic historical writing of the Middle Period developed directly from the early
Islamic tradition, and its legacy remained deeply inscribed into the ways history
was written and represented between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries.
However, historians also started to develop new styles and new genres, they
turned to previously neglected aspects of the past, their social profile changed,
and the writing of history became a more self-conscious, and to some degree self-
confident, cultural practice. Most importantly, those issues that had motivated
earlier historians, such as the legitimacy of the Abbasid Caliphate, declined in
significance and historians of the Middle Period turned to new and more diverse
~ ubj ects. T hese developments have been appropriately described as 'a sea change
10 the ways in which the past was imagined and constructed' . 1 Furthermore, the
questions with which modern scholarship has approached the Middle Period
(c. woo to 1500) over the last decades have been of a distinctively different nature
than those used for analysing the early Islamic period. For instance, the reliability
of the source material and the impact of salvation history on historical narratives
have not been of central significance for studying the Middle Period. Rather,
issues such as the relationship between scholarly historical writing and other
more popular realms ofcultural practice have been in the focus ofanalysis. Finally,
it has to be underlined that compared to the early and modern Islamic periods,
we lack even the most fundamental studies of many historians of the Middle
Period, a field of research that will surely gain pace. 2
' R. ~rephen Hump~reys t't ~·· 'Ta'rikh', ~n P. ~· Bearman t't a/. (eds.), EncyclopMdia ofls/nm, 2nd
edn (Le1den, 2000, onlme vers1on: hnp://bnUonhne.nl/subscriber/emry?emry=islam_COM- u84).
2
• This is especially relevant for historians in the Arabic-writing lands. Although al-Maqriz.i, for
msrance, belongs to the better-studied authors (cf. for instance the articles in Mamluk Studia Rn~it'tu,
7:2 [2ooJJ), even he still awaits a monograph. A.n oursranding historian such as lbn 'Asakir has been
~sc~ed in J~es E. Lindsay (ed.) •. Ibn_ 'Asakir and Early lslnmic History (Princeron, 2001) , bur
stgmficantly thts focuses o n h ts conmbunon to the study of the early period, nor his own.
268 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
ARABIC AND PERSIAN HISTORICAL WRITING
The most salient element of the sea change during the Middle Period was the
increasing linguistic division between the eastern Persian- and the western Arabic-
writing worlds. While Arabic retained its predominance in ~he Maghreb and ~he
central lslamic lands (Egypt, Greater Syria, Mesopota.rma, and the Arabtan
Peninsula), Persian gradually replaced it as the preferred language for historical
writing in Iran and further to the east. This ascent of Persian was a slow process
that cook place over several centuries, starting in the mid-tenth century when
centralized Abbasid rule ea.tne to an end. The consequent regionalization of polit-
ical authority led to the formation of a number of Persian and Iranian dynasties,
such as the Sa.rnanids in Transoxania and Khurasan, the Buyids in Iran and Iraq,
and the Ghaznavids whose lands stretched from northern India to Iran. In paral-
lel to these political changes and under the patronage of these new rulers, the
Persian literary 'renaissance' initiated the gradual demise of Arabic as the lingua
franca for historical writing. This divide was not a mere linguistic technicality;
rather ic initiated the development of rwo distinct, though initia1Jy still closely
connected, traditions of historical writing that came to differ in genre and
style.' f b" d p . hi . a1 . . l d
Most importantly, the bifurcation o Ara 1c an efSlan stone wnung e
to differenr narrative structures: while the former tended to retain the exact chro-
nology and the annalistic structure of earlie~ works for ~rganiz~g the ~storical
narrative, Persian-writing historians often displayed less mterest m prectse chro-
nologies of events. Concomitantly this disregard for the ~ct chrono~ogic:aJ
sequence opened the way for more continuous and more unified narrauv.es m
Persian, whereas many Arabic texts remained co some extent chronologtcally
ordered Lists ofdiscrete and often very disparate events. 4 A comparison ofJovayni's
famous Persian chronicle with the work of one of the outstanding Arabic chron-
iclers of the Middle Period, al-Maqrizi, clearly shows the difference. The former
avoids a rigid chronological order and repeatedly uses 'flashbacks' and other liter-
ary means to introduce material that would not fit into a sequential flow of
J The best overview of t:he period's historiography is Chase F. Robinson, Islamic HisUJr-Wgrnphy
(Cambridge, 2003). On Persian historiography cf. Julie Mcisami, Persian Hi.storio~nphy ~o the Er~d
of the Tiuelfth Century (Edinburgh, 1999); Judith Pfeiffer and Sh?le~ A. Qutnn, HIStory a11d
Himriogrnphy ofPost-Mongol Cerz_tra/ Asia and. the M_uid~ East: Studtes m Honor offohn E. Wo~ds
(Wiesbaden, 2006); Charles Melville (ed.), Pernan HzstonogrnphJ (Lon~on, 2012); and Elron Dame!
a 11/., 'Historiography', in Ehsan Y~sha~er (ed.), E_IUJCioP_ntdt~ lrnmca (Lond~n and N~ Yo~k,
2003, online version: hnp://www.uaruca.comlarudes/~ISron~raphy), espeoally. sec:uon;s IV.
Mongol period' (Charles Melville) and 'v. Timu.rid period .(Mana. S1.uppe). C?n Arab1c hisronogra·
phy cf. Tarif Khalidi, Arabic Historical Thought m the Clam~nl Pmod (Cambndge, 1994); and Fran1.
Rosenthal, A History ofMuslim Historiography. 2nd edn (Le1den, 1968). . .
4 On narrariviry in Persian chronicles cf. Marilyn R. Waldman, Toward a Theory of Hzstoncttl
Na"ntive: A Case Smdy in Pmo-lslamicnu Historiography (Columbus, 1980).
Islamic Historical Writing, rooo-rsoo 269
events.5 Al-Maqrizi's chronicle, on the contrary, has the events in a strict chrono-
logical order according to years, months, and occasionally even days that pro-
duces a fractured narrative.6 The second major difference berween the two
traditions was that Persian hisrorical texts came to display more ambitious liter-
ary qualities. Taking up the preceding example, it can be argued that Jovayni
produced with his chronicle one of the masterpieces of Persian prose literature,
while the same cannot be stated of al-Maqrizi's work that is with regard co irs
literary qualities rather pedestrian. This was to some degree linked to the social
background of historians in the Persian tradition who, compared to their Arabic-
writing counterparts, were more often employed as court officials. These 'courtier-
historians' used a common grand style in both official documents and chronicles
so that especially those authors who held high secretarial positions tended to
display their literary abilities in their works of history.
Examples of this latter tendency can also be found among Arabic-writing
authors, such as the twelfth-century 'Imad a1-Din who composed his Al-Barq
al-Shami [The Syrian Bolt] in rhymed prose and employed a highly ornate lan-
guage that showed rhewriter'sconcern to prove his literary ambitions. Nevertheless,
while 'lmad al-Din was certainly not an isolated example, most learned authors
of Arabic historical works, such as Ibn al-Athir, ai-Maqrizi, and Ibn Taghribirdi,
tended co use a plain and easily accessible language? In the Persian tradition, in
contrast, the use of a highly literary language was the standard, not the exception.
The prime example for this tendency is the fourteenth-century history Tajziyat
aL-amsar wa-tazjiyat al-a'sar [The Allocation of Cities and the Propulsion of
Epochs] by Shehab-a1-Din Wassaf that was highly popular and, in contrast to
' Imad al-Oin's work, widely influential for future generations ofhjstorians.8 The
increased 'literary' qualities of historical narrative in the eastern lands were not
only evident in stylistic devdopments, bur also in the considerable importance
that the genre of historical epic poems gained as exemplified by 'Abd-Allah
Haren's influential work that extolled the deeds ofTrmur (d. 1405) as the ruler of
Central Asia and eastern Iran. 9
However, the Arabic and Persian traditions of historical writing remained con-
nected, in part because they both developed our of the same practice of historical
s Jovayni, Tarikh-e jnhnn-goshay, ed. Mirza Qnvini, 3 vols. (Leiden, 1911-37); trans. John A.
Boyle as Gmghis Khan: The History ofthe World Conqul!ror, 2nd edn (Manchester, 1997).
6 Al-Maqrizi, Kitab a~suluk li·mn'rifot duwaln/-mrtlrek, ed. Muhammad M. al-Ziyada eta/., 4
vols. (Cairo, 1934-73).
7 Ibn al-Athir, The Clnonick ofIbn nl-Athir for tilt Cnzsading Period from al-Kamil fi 'L-tn'rikh,
rrans. Donald S. Richards, 3 vols. (AJdetshor, 2oo6-8); al·Maqriz.i, /(jrnb nl·tuluk /i-mn'rifot duwal
nl·mululr; and Ibn Tagh.ribirdi, AI-Nujum p[.zahirnfi mu/uk Misr wn-al-Qnhira, ed. Fahim Shalrur
a nl., 16 vols. (Cairo, 1929-72).
8 'Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, Al-Bnrq nl-Shami, ed. Falih Husayn (Amman, 1987) (on rhis work cf.
Lur:z Richrer-Bernburg, Der syrischt Blitz: Snladim Sekretiir zwischm Selbstdarstellrmg tmd
Gt!scmchtsschreibung [Swttgarr, 1998]); Wassaf. Tarikh·e Wassaf, lith. edn (Bombay, 1853).
9 'Abd-Allah Hatefi, Timur-1111me-ye Hatifi, ed. Abu Hashim H.Yusha' (Madras,1958) .
270 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
writing in the early period. This close connection is exemplified by the first major
hisrorical work in Persian, a translation of al-Tabari's Arabic universal chronicle.
However, this book was not just a translation, but its author, the Samanid wazir
Bal'ami, reworked and restructured the Arabic account into a characteristically
more continuous Persian narrative by oh1itting chains of narrators and reducing
the number of alternative versions of the same event. 10 The main feature shared
by both traditions was thar they employed similar Islamic narratives that placed
history into the framework of the genesis and subsequent developmenr of the
Muslim communiry. These narratives stood in contrast, or at least fitted uncom-
fortably, with Iranian hisrorical narratives and the initial tendency of Persian-
language writers to draw on neo-Sasanid themes for rhetorical embellishment
and exemplary tale-ceiling. Ferdowsi's Persian Shah-nama (Book of Kings] is not
only the monumenral example in its employment of such an Iranian historical
model, but it was also the lase historical work that adopted this outlook in the
early stages of the Middle Period. Persian-writing historians now ceased (at least
temporarily until the Mongol period) to write history with reference to the tradi-
tion of pre-Islamic Iranian rulers, adopting Islamic narratives instead as the dom-
inant model.
Both traditions came co share a further characteristic, namely an increasingly
local outlook of historians who started to focus on one specific tm.vn or region.
This regionalization of historical writing was to some extent initiated by the
regionalization of political authoriry, i.e. one of the causes that had furthered in
the first place the linguistic division between the Arabic and Persian traditions. 11
The heyday oflocal chronicles in Persian, for instance, occurred in the pre-Mon-
gol period within a highly regionalized political structure of small principalities.
Local and regional histories were certainly no new phenomenon in the elevenrh
century-the classical period had already produced several histories of specific
towns, such as Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur's Ta,rikh Baghdad [History of Baghdad] and
al-Azdi's Ta'rikh al-Mawsil [History of Mosul].' 2 However, historians of the
Middle Period did not only start to write local and regional histories in larger
numbers, but these works were also more voluminous. Taking the example of
Damascus, we now have the Dhayl Ta'rikh Dimashq (Continuation of the History
of Damascus] by Ibn ai-Qalanisi and in the following century a similar work by
Abu Shama. 13 In the eastern lands similar local chronicles were written, for
instance in the Caspian provinces. Here we find a local tradition that stretches
10 Bal'ami, Tarikhnamab-i Tabari, ed. Muhammad Rawshan, 2 vols. (Tehran, 2oor). On rhis
work cf. Andrew C. S. Peacock, Mtdiatval Islamic Historiography and Political Legitimacy: Bal'ami's
Ttirikhnama (London, 2007).
11 On local historical wriring sec ch. 22 by John Hudson in this volume.
1
l Of both w?cks only par~ hav~ survived: See Ibn A?i T~.r Tayfur, Ba~hdAd /it:z'rikh_ ai-kh~fa
al-'abbasiya, ed. lzzat Husaym (Ca1ro, 1949); and ai-Azdt, Ta rikh a/-Maws-rl, ed. Ali Hab1ba (Cairo,
1967).
13 Abu Shama, Al-Dhayl •ala al-rarvdArayn, ed. Muhammad ai-Kawthari (Cairo, 1947).
Islamic Historical Writing, Iooo-rsoo 271
from the pre-Mongol period, with Ebn Esfandiyar's early thirteenth-century
Tarikh-e Bayhaq [History of Bayhaq] to Zahir-al-Din al-Mar'ashi's chronicle in
the second half of the fifteenth cenrury. 14 All of these Arabic and Persian local
chronicles displayed some interest in the wider political field of their region, but
their authors' main contribution was to offer the most detailed accounts of the
politics and the cultural life of their respective hometown as was possible.
Persian historical writing only took on a clearly distinct cl1aracter from that of
Arab~c :Vith the. inc~rporation of the Persian-writing lands into the Mongol
~mpue m the mid-thirteenth century. At this point Persian moved from being an
Important language for writing history to being the dominant language in the
eastern lands, and the Mongol conquests left major traces in the themes and sryle
of historical works of the Middle Period. The particularly close connection
between historians and political elites ensured that authors had excellent know-
ledge of Mongol politics beyond the traditional geographical boundaries of
Persian history. The prime example of this is the governor and historian Jovayni,
who could draw in his influential chronicle on his own experience of travelling to
!"fongolia.' 5 Similarly, Rashid-al-Din's high posicion in the Ilkhanate put him
mto an excellent position to deal in his universal chronicle not only with the
Ilkhanate, but with the entire Mongol Empire. 16
With the rise of the Mongols, some historians also started to redeploy Iranian
historical narratives. The best early example for this trend is the universal history
of al-Mosrawfi, another statesman and historian, who integrated the Mongols
into the interpretive framework of pre-Islamic and Islamic Persian history.
Al-Mostawfi's vision was not isolated and references ro the glorious Sasanid past
became current in the Mongol period. 17 Such Persian allusions became, besides
the well-established Islamic and the newly introduced Turko-Mongol elements,
crucial components in ascribing political legitimacy ro the new Mongol rulers.
The return of these references led furthermore to a renewed interest in Ferdowsi's
Shah-nama, which was not only a crucial point of reference in Jovayni's chronicle
but in many other Persian works of the period. This reorientation of history from
the Mongol period onwards was also evident in rhe clearer sense of Iran as a
14
Charles Mdville: 'T~e ~urco-Mong~l P~riod' •. in Melville (ed.), Persian Hiswriography
(London, 2012); Melvrlle, Persran Local H1stones: Vrews from the Wings', Iranian Studits, 33:1
(zooo), 7-14 and the other articles in this special issue on regional histories· and Beatrice F. Manz
'Local Hiscories of Southern Iran:, in Pfeiffer and Quinn (eds.), History and Historiogrnphy.of Post:
Mongol Cmtrai -1sza and tbt M!ddk East, 267-81. Al-~ar'ashi~ Tm·ikh-e Tabaristan 11 Ruyan u
MrmmdAran, ed. Abbas Shayan ( fehran, 1954-5); and Tarrkh-t Grla11 u Day/amistan, ed. Manuchihr
Surudah (Tehran, 1969).
•s Jovayni, Tarikh-e jahan-goshay.
16
Rashid-al-Din, jamt' al-tawarikh (on editions cf. Charles MelviiJe, 'Jarne' al-rawarik'. in
Yarsharer
11
(ed.), Encyclopaedia lranica, http://www.iranica.com/artides/jame-al-tawarik). -
AJ-Mostawfi, Tarikh-e gozida, ed. A. Nava'i (fehran, 196o); and Assadullah S. Melikian-
C~. 'Conscie~ce ~u passe er resistance culrureUe dans l'lran Mongol', in Denise Aigle (ed.),
L 'fran fou a Ia dommatron Mongolt (Paris, 1997), 135-77·
272 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
geographical entity that historians started to develop. The most sui Icing example
is that of Naser-al-Din Bayzawi who displayed in his thirteenth-century Mongol
universal history (the only work that he composed in Persian) , a clear concept of
the land of Iran. 18
HISTORY AS BIOGRAPHY
Historians in the Islamic tradition considered biographical dictionaries, the pre-
modern equivalent to the modern 'Who's Who', to be works of history (ta'rikh)
no less than they did chronicles. That the term ta'rikh encompassed a wide vari-
ety of genres into which chronography and prosopography comfortably fitted is
evident from considering the titles of works: while Ibn 'Asakir's Ta'rikh madinat
Dimashq [Hisrory of Damascus] is a pure biographical dictionary, Ibn al-Qalanisi
chose exactly the same title for his chronicle. These biographical dictionaries
adopted, as much as the chronicles, increasingly local and regional outlooks.
Returning to the example of Damascus, Ibn 'Asalcir's Ta'rikh madinat Dirnashq
had obviously a distinctively regional outlook on the town's scholars and nota-
bles. This regional focus is also evident in al-Dhahabi's Ta'rikh al-Islam wa-wafo-
yat al-mashahir wa-al-a'Lam [Hisrory of Islam and Obituaries of the Famous and
Learned] that consists mostly of biographies. Despite the title's claim to be a
universal history, the biographies clearly show the Syrian- and even Damascus-
focused profile of the work. Similar biographical works appeared for most other
towns and regions, such as Syrian Aleppo (Zubdat al-halab fi ta'rikh Halab [The
Cream of the History of Aleppo] by Ibn al-'Adim), Egypt (Al-Nujum al-zahirafi
muluk Misr wa-ai-Qahira [The Shining Stars Concerning the Kings of Egypt and
Cairo] by Ibn Taghribirdi), and Khurasanian Bayhaq (Tarikh-e Bayhaq [The
History of Bayhaq] by Ebn Fondoq). 19 This derailed and rich material in chroni-
cles and biographical dictionaries expressed the authors' increasingly regionalized
geo-political outlook and displayed their intimacy with many of the events and
persons they were describing.
Among the various historical genres during the Middle Period, the biographi-
cal dictionary experienced the most remarkable transformation. In addition to
the rise of local and regional biographical dictionaries, the second uend was that
18 Melville, 'The Turco-Mongol Period', Naser-al-Din Bayz.awi, Nrzam al-rawarikh. ed. Mir H.
Mohaddeth (Tehran, 2003).
19 Ibn 'Asakir, Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq, ed. Salah al-Oin al-Munajjid and Sukayna al-Shihabi,
68 vols. (Damascus, 1951- ). On Ibn al-' Adim cf. David Morray, An Ayyubid Notable and his World
(Leiden, 1994). On biographical dictionaries c[ Paul Auchterlonie, ' Historians and the Arabic
Biographical Dictionary: Some New Approaches', in Robert G. Hoyland and Philip F. Kennedy
(eds.), Islamic &fl«rions, Arabic Musingr: Studia in Honour of Profnsor Alan jonn (Cambridge,
2004), 186-:!.0o; and R. Stephen Humphreys, Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry (London,
•995). 187-208.
Islamic Historical Writing, rooo-I500 273
their number increased on an unprecedented level and that the works became
considerably more voluminous. The eleventh-century Ta'rikh Baghtktd aw madi-
nat al-salam [History of Baghdad] by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi encompassed some
7,8oo enuies, Ibn 'Asalcir's Ta'rikh madinat Dimashq exceeds IO,ooo entries, and
ai· Dhahabi's fourteenth-century Ta'rikh at-Islam includes tens of thousands of
biographies that cover the most obscure 'scholars' of his hometown. 20 Even for a
second-rank city such as Aleppo, the author Ibn al-'Adim could easily bring
together over 8,ooo persons. 21 This quantitative growth was accompanied by a
diversification of topics: for example, more specialized dictionaries appeared,
such as al-Safadi's work on blind scholars.n The third main development was that
biographical dictionaries began to move beyond their traditional remit, which
had been to compile the biographies of religious scholars. An example is Ibn
Khallikan, who included in his dictionary, in addition to the usual jurisprudents,
judges, exegetes, etc., as a matter of course individuals from a wider variety of
backgrounds, such as poets, court officials, mathematicians, and physicians.23
This led to the appearance of biographical dictionaries devoted to professional
groups who had hitherto not been systematically covered, such as Ibn Abi
Usaybi'a's work on physicians. 2~ The trend that historians casted a wider net led
also to the increasing inclusion of women: in the fifteenth century, al-Sakhawi
wrote a separate volume on women in his At-Daw' ai-Lami' li-ahl al-qarn al-tasi'
[The Shining Light on the People of the Ninth Century], an Egypt-focused
dictionary. 25
The existence of such a rich and varied tradition of biographical dictionaries
was arguably the most distinctive feature of Islamic historical writing in Arabic.
While hiscorical writing in Latin Europe, South Asia, and China knew compara-
ble genres, it is only in Arabic historical writing of this period that biographical
dictionaries came to play such a dominant role. Traditionally, this development
has been ascribed co issues such as the importance of hadith-studies and the
resulting interest in the life of transmitters, tied as it was co assessing the rdiabil-
ity of Prophetic traditions. However, in the Middle Period the transmission of
hadiths had turned into a largely written practice and scholars had starred to
consult written collections rather than relying on lines of oral uansmission.
Consequently, the biographies of individual uansmitters that had been crucial
20
Al-Khacib al-Baghdadi, Ta'rikh Baghdad aw madinat a.~salam, 14 vols. (Cairo, 1931). T h e final
ten volumes of al- Dhahabi's seventy-volume work alone coma in some 6,300 emries.
21
Morray, An Ayyubid Notable a11d his World, 146. The number for Ibn al-'Adim is escimared as
only one quaner of his work has survived.
12
Al-Safadi, Nakt al-bimyan fi nultat al-'umyan, ed. Tariq Tanrawi (Cairo, 1997).
23
Ibn Khallikan, Wnfoyat a./-a)an wa-abiUI' al-zaman, ed. lhsan 'Abbas, 8 vols. (Beirut, 1968-72).
On Ibn Khallikan c[ Hartmut Fahndrich, 'The Wafayar al-A'yan of Ibn Khallikan: A New
Approach',journal oftht Amnican Or£mtal Socil!ty, 93:4 (1973), 432-45.
2
~ l bn Abi Usaybi'a, 'Uyun al-anba'fi tabaqat al-atibba', 3 vols. (Beirut, 1998).
2
, On women and biographical dictionaries c£ Ruth Roded, Womn1 in Islamic Biographical
s
Collections: From Ibn Sa.'d to Who Who (Boulder, 1994).
274 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
for assessing the reliability oflines of oral transmission became less imp.ortant ~d
hadith-studies ceased to be a major driving force behind the production of bto-
graphical dictionaries on this scale. The continuous growth and the increasing
diversity of biographical dictionaries has been more profitably explained by other
factors, such as local pride (in the case oflocal biographical dictionaries), attempts
to advance an alternative ro the rulers' history as registered in the (universal)
chronicles, and the social utility of this material.26 The argument on the social
utility focuses on the social function that biographical dictionaries performed,
which was comparable to the role of documentary sources in other traditions. As
much as deeds and charters were crucial in securing the transmission of elite
status over generations in Latin Europe and China, biographical dictionaries bore
testimony to those informal relationships between individuals that secured the
stability of Middle Eastern societies. The role of these informal relationships-
and thus of the biographical dictionaries- was crucial in societies that were char-
acterized by the limited role of formal and inheritable ascriptions of status, where
there was consequently a relatively weak tendency to preserve documents, such as
deeds, charters, and the like. It is in the biographical dictionaries that the civilian
elites remembered their--often very recent- past with the intention of securing
their future. 27
Although biographical dictionaries were particularly significant in Arabic his-
torical writing, they played only a relatively marginal role in the eastern wo.rld.
This marginal position in the Persian tradition was reflected to some extent tn a
linguistic bifurcation that appeared within the eastern lands themselves. Although
we have biographical dictionaries on towns in the Persian-writing lands such as
Bukhara, Nishapur, and Isfahan, these were, in contrast to the chronicles, often
written in Arabic. 28 The Khurasanian hisrorian Ebn Fondoq, for instance, wrote
his local chronicle in Persian, but turned to Arabic for writing his continuation
of a biographical dictionary. Furthermore, it is suiking that biographical diction-
aries on the eastern lands were often not transmitted and only a relatively small
number of them are extant, showing that they did not enjoy the same central
position as in the Arabic-writing lands. Finally, dictionaries written in ~h~ e~tern
lands developed with hagiographical works a genre that had a dtstmcnvely
16 On political history cf. Wadad ai-Qadi, 'Biographlcal Dictionar~es as the Scholars' Altcrnativ~
History of the Muslim Commun ity', in Gerhard Endress (ed.), Orgamzmg Knowldg~: EmycwpaedtC
Activities in tht Pre-Eiglm:mth Cmtury Js/amic World (Leiden, 2006), 23-75· . Seljuks, the Ayyubids, and the Marnlu.ks were warrior elites who originated from
17 On the issue of documenrary sources see Andreas Gorke and Konrad H1rschler (eds.),
Mmmscript Nom a.r Dowmmtary Sources (Beirut, 2ou). C£.also Michael Chamberlain, X:rz.o~vltdge
and Social Practiu in M~diroal DamtlSms, II9o-I350 (Cambndge, 1994), 1- 26; and for a CrltlCJSm of
Chamberlain's position see Marina Ruscow, 'A Perition to a. Woman ar the Fatimid Court (413-414
a.h./1012-23 c. e.)', Bulktin oftlu School ofOrimtal andA.frican St11dus, 73 (2010), 1- 27. .,
18 Translations into Persian were often only produced at a later stage such as al-Maf.trrukh.is
eleventh-century work on Isfahan thar was rranslated into Persian in the fourteenth century. See
jfugen Paul, ' The Histories of Isfahan: Mafarrukhi's Kitab Mahasin Isfahan', Iranian Stt~dits, 3r1
(2000), 117-32.
Islamic Historical Writing, rooo-IJOO 275
different social outlook. In these hagiographical works the civilian elites are hardly
visible, but it is the shaykhs and their followers, often drawn from among the
commoners, who play the central role.
From the twelfth century onwards, history in the form of biographical diction-
aries arguably furthered a new historical genre, namely biographies of living men.
These works were 'monographs' that focused on one specific individual, typically
a ruler. One of the first to be celebrated by his contemporaries in such works was
the Ayyubid ruler Salah al-Din/Saladin (d. 1193). The authors of such biographies
were high-ranking officials of his entourage, such as the Syrian Ibn $haddad, who
composed his AL-nawadir al-Sultaniya wa-al-mahasin al-Yusufiyya [Rare and
Excellent History of Saladin], and 'I mad al-Din, the author of the above-men-
tionedA/-Barq ai-Shami. The appearance of this genre was also closely connected
to the rise of pseudo-historical popular narratives, as we shall see, with their epic
hero at centre stage. Both genres, historical biography and popular epic, cele-
brated the feats of the individual in a wider historical setting. The connection
between the two genres is best exemplified by the early Marnluk ruler Baybars (d.
1277) who was the hero of popular epics and also the subject of the scholarly
biography AL-Rttwd aL-zahirji sirat al-Malik al-Zahir [The Flowering Garden] by
Ibn '.Abd al-Zahir. Such biographies of rulers did not only exist as monographs,
but were occasionally closely intertwined with annalistic chronicles, for instance
in the work by al-'Ayni, another high-ranking Egyptian administrator, who wrote
a chronicle-cum-biography of the Marnluk Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh (d. 1421) . 29
In the eas,tern lands biographies on individuals only starred to appear in larger
numbers during the late fifteenth century under the Timurid dynasty, such as
Khvandarnir's glorification of his patron, the Timurid poet and statesman Mir-
'Ali Shir Nava'i (d. 1501).30
HISTORIANS AND THE RULING ELITES
The trend that had high-ranking officials producing an increasing number of
Arabic biographies points to a further development in the Middle Period, namely
that authors of historical works became closer ro political and military elites.
Political authority in the central Arabic-writing lands of this period rested in the
hands of what bas been called 'military patronage states'. Dynasties such as the
the Caucasus and Central Asia. Common to their rule was the sophisticated use
29
Al-'Ayni, Al..Sayfal-muhannadfi sirat ai-Mnlik al-Mu'ayyad, ed. Fahim Shaltur (Cairo, 1967).
On biographies in the Mamluk period cf. Pecer M. Holt, ' Literary Offerings: A Genre of Courtly
Lirerarure', in Thomas Philipp (ed.), Th~ Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society (Cambridge,
1998), 3-16.
30
Ghiyath-al-Din Khvandamir, Makaum ai-nlthlnq, ed. Muhammad A. 'Ashiq (Tehran, 1999).

276 The Oxford History of Historical Writing
of distributing iqta'iit (a temporary and revoca~I: ~ignme~t of a specific tax
income) and distributing employment opportumues t~ ~wqdj(en~o:-:ments) so
as to establish patronage relationships with powe~ful ~litary and_ct~tltan house-
holdsY Within this socio-political framework, htstonans, ~: maJO~t.ty of whom
belonged to the civilian elite, were drawn clo~er to the pohncal-m!lttary leader-
ship; many were now positioned on the fron;1er between the r;vo gr~ups. I~ the
Mamluk period numerous authors who were sons of ~e people (~wkid al-nas)-
that is, the offspring of the Mamluk military elite-:-remfo_r~e~ thts. trend. Barred
from military service, they embarked on careers m the avtltan. elttes and often
authored historical works. Due to their background and theu knowledge ~f
Turkic languages, they were not only in a unique posicion to report o~ the p~lt,­
cics of the Mamluk state, but also felt a close affinity ro the ruling elttes
ouclook.32 • •
This liminal position of many historians is first and ~oremosr. evtdent m a new
orientation of Arabic historical writing during the Mtddle Penod, one that has
been described as the siyiisa outlook, wirl1 a characteristic focus on rule or gove~n­
ance. Due to their new social posicion, historians had a nuanced understandi_ng
of politics that they proudly displayed in their chronicles.33 ln the genre of bto-
graphical dictionaries this siyiisa oucloo~ was expre~s:d by the larger n~ber of
court officials who started to appear bestdes the reltgwus scholars. For mstance,
in the Egypt-focused dictionary Al-Manhal al-safi wa-al-musta~ ba'da_ al-wafi
(The Pure Spring] by Ibn Taghribirdi, who be~onged to the ~wkid ~~~nas, ~ourt
officials are at centre stage.34 The pattern was different for Pers1an-wnnng histor-
ians, as history had been traditionally written in closer proximi~ to cou~, ~d
religious scholars had played a less promine~t rol~ in ~e producuon of htstoncal
knowledge. The salient role of the couruer-hist~nan. ~as ~u~r~er enhanced
throughout the Middle Period as a result of the lingUistic dlVlstOn that arose
within the eastern lands themselves. Those experts in the religious scie_nces, su~h
as Qur'an interpretation, law, and hadith, continued to compose m A:~b1c.
Persian, in contrast, was used for those fields that were nor part of the relig10us
sciences in a narrow sense, particularly for those genres' that ~ere pop~ar at
courts, such as history. Consequently, historians in the east, especially dunng th_e
Mongol and Timurid periods, were less and less drawn from the world of r~t­
gious scholarship, but were more directly attached to the courts as secretaries,
3t Michad Chamberlain, 'Milirary Pauonage States and the Political Econo~y of dte Frontier,
1ooo-1250•, in Youssef M. Choueiri (ed.}, A Companion to rh~ History of tht Middk Bart (Malden,
Mass., 2005}, 135-53. . .
J l Ulrich Haarmann, 'Arabic in Speech, Turkish tn L!~eage: Mam u
1 ks d Th ·
~.
s · dt
Cl~ ons an e
lntdlecmaJ Life of Fourteenth-Cenmry Egypt and Syr1a, journal of Snmtzc Studlts, 33 (1988),
81-ll4. . . . d, 8
JJ KhaJidi, Arabic HistqricaJ Thought m tht ClassicaL Pmo I 2- 231. . Arabic and Islamic Studits, 10 (2010) , 45-74·
3-4 Al-Manhal al-safi wa-al-mustmvfo ba'da al-wafi, ed. Muhammad Amin n aL, 9 vols. (Cairo,
1984- 90}.
Islamic Historical Writing, rooo-rsoo 277
administrators, and in other functions. Authors of historical works who were
firmly embedded in the religious sciences (such as the above-mentioned Bayz.awi,
the thirteenth-century Shafi'ite jurist and Ash'arice theologian who produced
only a single chronicle) remained in the minority.
However, the proximity between historians and ruling elites in both traditions
did not mean that historical writing turned into a mere exercise in legitimizing
the powerful, nor that historians lost their authorial agency. 35 Even dynastic his-
tories that paraded as 'panegyric' works often expressed ideas that ran against the
expectations of the rulers. To move between different ruling houses enabled
authors to retain room for manoeuvre, as in the case oflbn Khaldun, who artfully
served at most political centres in North Africa and Muslim Spain in the course
of his career. While holding paid positions of patronage, it seems that scholars
were not in any close way controlled by the military and political elites, maintain-
ing a considerable degree of independence.36 At the same time, the system of
patronage was not all-encompassing and those authors who were excluded &om
patronage could continue to produce, often quite critical, historical narratives, as
in the case of the Egyptian al-Maqrizi. 37 The popularization of historical writing
contributed to the production of quite independent works and we repeatedly
encounter historians of rather modest background, such as the Damascene Ibn
Tawq, who operated at a distance from the networks of the political and military
elites.
The integration of many historians inco the political and miJicary elites con-
tributed from the fourteenth century onwards to a new development that is best
labelled as the 'encyclopedic age' and that affected works in many fields of
knowledge. Historians started to write comprehensive works with tides that
reflected their position and that frequently included verbs such as 'to survey, to
comprehend, to control, to consummate'.38 While universal chronicles had been
well established and large-scale works had been a standard feature of Islamic
historical writing, d1e sheer number ofencyclopedic works indicated a new trend
in the later Middle Period as evidenced by chronicles such as Ibn Taghribirdi's
Al-Nujum al-zahira ji muluk Misr wa-al-Qahira and aJ-Maqrizi's J(jtab ai-suluk
li-ma'rifot duwal al-muluk [Guide to the Knowledge of the Ruling Dynasties].
This encyclopedic tendency contributed also to the above-mentioned quantita-
tive growth in the genre of biographical dictionaries with massive works such as
the Ta'rikh al-Islam and the Siyar al-a'lam al-nubala' [Lives of the Nobles] by
al-Dhahabi as well as al-Safadi's At-Waft bi-al-wafoyat [Comprehensive (Book) of
JS On this cf. Konrad Hirschler, Meduval Arabic Historiography: Authon as Acton (London,
2006}.
J6 Carl F. Petry, 'Scholastic Stasis in Medieval Islam Reconsidered: Mamluk Pauonage in Cairo',
Potties Today, 14 (1993), 323- 48.
" Konrad Hirschler, 'The Pharaoh-Anecdote in Premodern Arabic Hisroriography', Journal of
38 KhaJidi, Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period, 184.
278 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
Obituaries] and al-Sakhawi's Al-Daw' al-lami' li-ahl al-qarn al-tasi'. The authors
intended these works, be they chronicles or dicdonaries, as reference books that
provided not only the scholar, but also che lay reader with summaries of the past.
The best example of such works is the monumental encyclopedia Nihayat al-
arab fi fomm al-adab [The Highest Aspiration on the Branches of Knowledge)
by the Egyptian author al-Nuwayri who concluded this work with a universal
hiscory. 39
The siyasa-orientation of many historians intensified furthermore a theme that
had been well-established in Islamic chronography, be it Arabic or Persian, nan1dy
the centrality of the concept of dawla in the sense of 'dynasty' and 'rule of a
dynasty'. Dawla was central co Ibn Khaldun's writing: there it constitutes the
ultimate aim of political acts and is closely connected to two other crucial con-
cepts of his, group-solidarity ( '~abiya) and civilization ('umran). 40 T he term dawla
was also crucial in less theoretical reflections, and historians were routinely engaged
in writing their present dynasty into a line oflegitimate Muslim rulers. Dynasries
that came to power by conquest from the outside, such as the Mongols and the
Mamluks, both posed in this regard considerable challenges for the authors of
historical works. However, by invoking the antonym of dawla,fitna or 'civil strive',
and concepts of divine predestination, authors could frequently present their
respective dynasty as the best of all possible alternatives. This salience of the theme
of dawla was reflected in the tides of many historical works where the term dawla
made a frequent appearance, such as in Abu Shama's Kitab al-rawdatayn fi akhbar
al-dawlatayn [Book of the Two Gardens on the Rule of the Two Dynasties]. This
prominent position of dynastic history influenced also the organization of chroni-
cles. Ibn Taghribirdi, for example, divided his chronicle into the rules of the
Mamluk Sultans, subordinating annalistic organization as a secondary dement.
In contrast to the modern significance ascribed tO this topic, a theme that was
of less importance than d.awla was the Crusades. 41 No Arabic work was written
specifically on these events with the exception of Sirat al-Afranj al-kharijin ila
bilad at-Sham fi hadhihi sinin [The Way of the Franks who Went out to Syria in
Those Years] by the twelfth-century Syrian author Hamdan b. 'Abd al-Rahim.
This work is lost, however, and it appears to have remained marginal since it was
not quoted in other Arabic texts of the period. Historians of the Middle Period
J9 AJ-Dhahabi, Siyar al-a'lam al-rmbnla', ed. Shu'ayb al-Arna' ur tt a/., 25 vols. (Beirur, 1981-8);
and al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-arab fi fimun al-adab, 33 vols. (Cairo, 1923- 98). . 44
4° Ibn Khaldun, Tht Muqaddimah: Anlllfrodu.ction to Hisrory, trans. Franz Rosenthal (Pnnceron,
•967). . .
41 Translations of Arabic chronicles imo European languages often focus on chis one smgle aspect
and wrongly evoke the impression that the texts centred on events linked with the Crusades. The
most striking example is certainly Am in Maalouf, Tht Crusatks through Arab Eyn (London, 2006),
but scholarly works fall also into this category such as Hamilton Gibb's rranslarion of fbn al-Qalan-
isi's local Damascus chronicle, which he enrirled The Damascw Chronicle of the Crusades (London,
•932).
Islamic Historical Writing, rooo-IJOO 279
did not coin a term for 'Crusades' or ' Crusaders' who were identified instead by
the standard ethnic term for Latin Europeans, 'Franks'. The chroniclers referred
to the Crusades only insofar as they were relevant for political developments in
the region. The project of setting the Crusades into a wider framework of
European expansion that also affected Spain and Sicily was developed only by a
few authors, such as al-Sularni and Ibn al-Athir, and never struck a chord in the
period's chronicles. Even those historians who spent extensive time at European
court~, such as the Syrian Ibn Wasil (at the Stauffer court in Apulia), hardly had
anyilimg to report on European history or the backgrotmd to the Crusades.42 If
~ O~tside invasion was of relevance for mese historians, it was the Mongol inva-
SIOn In me east. Ibn al-Athir, for instance, has an extensive passage on their
advance to the west. In this passage he reports-with considerable hyperbole--
the supposed cruelty of the new conquerors. Significantly, he compares the inva-
sions wim events from salvation history but omits any comparison or link wim
the Crusades. 43 It was only in the late nineteenth century that the Crusades devel-
oped into a central subject of remembrance in the Middle East and that Arabic
histories on the Crusades came to be written.44
POPULAR HISTORY AND HISTORY'S POPULARITY
The prominent position of dynastic history, and consequently political history,
was-especially in Arabic historical writing-accompanied by an opposed devel-
opment. During the Middle Period some authors starred to show an increased
interest in memes linked ro everyday life events; texts accordingly started to
include informacion on considerably wider sections of the populacion. 45 In the
above~mencioned works by Abu Shama, Ibn Tawq, and al-Maqrizi but also in
ch~o~cles such a~ Ibn Iyas's Bada'i' al-zuhur ji waqa'i' ai-duhur [The Unique
Shinmg Concermng Past Events], the horizon is considerably broader than in
chronicles of previous centuries-a development mat reflects the wider spectrum
of individuals included in biographical dictionaries. 46 Popular protest and
u On al-Sulami cf. Niall Chri$rie, 'Motivating Listeners in the Kirab al-}ihad of'AJi ibn Tahir
al-Sularni (d. no6)', Crusadts, 6 (2007), 1-14; and on rbn Wasil cf. Hirschler, Mtdiroal Arabic
Historiography.
Ibn al-Athir, .The Chroniclt ofIbn ai-Athir for tht Cmsading P~riod from al-Kamil ji 'l-ttz'rikiJ,
43
trans. DonaldS. R1cbards, 3 vols. (Aldershor, 2006-8), iii. 202-4.
On rhe developmenr of the modern historiography of the Crusades c£ Carole Hillenbrand,
Tht CI"USIUits: lslamic Pmpectivn (Edinburgh, 1999), 589-616.
.•~ -r:he classical studies on the basis of t:his material are for political history Ira Lapidus, Muslim
Czttts m the Later Middit Agn, 2nd edn (Cambridge, Mass., 1984); and for cultural history Boaz
Shosban, Popular Ctt!turt in Mtdiroal CAiro (Cambridge, 1993).
• -16 Abu Sbama, A/-Dhayt 'ala al-rawdmaJ11; Ibn Tawq, Al-Ta'/iq: yawmiyat Shihab a/-Din Ahmad
zbn Taw1, 83t":91JII4J~IJ09, ed. Ja'far al-Muhajir, 2 vols. (Dama.~cus, 20oo-2); ai-Maqrizi, Kirab
al-sulttk lt-ma rifot duwa/ a/-muiuk; and Ibn Iyas, Bada'i' ai-zuhurf rwaqa'i' al-duhur, ed. Muhammad
Mustafa, 9 vols. (Cairo, 1960-75).
280 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
discontent had now their place in the narratives, popular culture became worthy
of commentary, and 'minor' politics below the level of the highest military and
political elites made its appearance. To some extent, this popularization of history
was linked to the above-described rise of local historical writing that allowed
more scope for information of this kind, and that was produced by authors who
were more inclined to report events from their hometown's everyday life. However,
this trend has also to be seen within a wider transformation of cultural practices
and mentalities in the Middle Period, namely the convergence of scholarly his-
torical writing and popular epic. Epics on fictive or part-fictive heroes such as
Dhat al-Himma, 'Antar, Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan, and Baybars paraded as historical
narratives and enjoyed remarkable popularity. These popular histories were char-
acterized by a simple language where colloquialisms are more prevalent than in
historical writings by members of the elite. 47 This popularization of history was a
two-way development where popular epics became more historical (and recorded
in written form) while chronicles became more interested in the popular sections
of the urban centres and adopted some of the language of popular epics. 48
Such popular hisrories had a rather unstable textual transmission in which the
narrators and scribes constantly reworked andre-caste the texts. Scholarly works,
in contrast, had already started to emerge in the Early Period as relatively fixed
books with reasonably stable titles and contents although the transmission of
these scholarly works, especially of those linked to the early Muslim communi-
ty's sacred history, was largely based on oral and aural practices.49 Typically, these
works had been uansmitted by way of reading sessions in which a given book
was read aloud by the author or a scholar who had acquired the authorization to
teach this book. All those present acquired after the completion of the session
the authorization to uansrnit the book themselves. During che Early Period it
had already been evident that some of the participants were actually engaged in
written practices. Some would follow the reading in their own copies that they
had brought along, while others wrote out their own copies during the reading
session. In the Middle Period this trend continued and Islamjc historical
47 On this genre cf. Stefan Leder, ' Religion, Geselischaft, ldenritiit-Ideologie und Subversion in
der Mythcnbitdung des arabischen, VoU<.Sepos', in Christine Schmitz (ed.), Mensch-Heros- Gott:
Weltemwurfe und Lebensmodelle im Mythos der Vormodeme (Stuttgart, 2007), 167-80; Udo Steinbach,
J)iit al-Himma: KulturgeschidJtliche Urttmuchungen zum arabischm Volksroman (Wiesbaden, 1972);
Peter Heath, The Thirsty Sword: Sirat 'Antar and the Arabic Popular Epic (Salt Lake City, 1996); Driss
Cherkaoui, Le roman de 'Antar: une perspective littiraire et historique (Paris, 2001); Lena Jayyusi, The
AdtJtntures of Sayf ben Dhi Ya.zan: An Arabic Folk Epic (Blm>mingcon, 1997); Thomas Herzog,
Geschichte und lmaginaire: Entstehung, Oberliefonmg und Bedeutung der Sirat Baibars in ihrem sozio-
politi.schen Kontext (Wiesbaden, 2006); and Marina Pyrovolaki, 'Furuh al-Sham and Other Furuh
Texrs: A Study of rhe Perception ofMarginal Conquest Narratives in Arabic in Medieval and Modern
Times', D.PLUl. thesis, Oxford University, 2008.
~8 For the issue of the popularization of Mamluk historiography cf. the discussion starred by
Ulrich Haarmann, Quellensmdien zur friihen Mamlukmzeit (Freiburg, 1969).
4~ For rhe Early Period cf. Gregor Schoeler, The Genesis ofLiterature in Islam: From the Aural to
the Read (Edinburgh, 2009); and ch. 12 by Chase F. Robinson in this volume.
Islamic Historical Writing, IOOQ-IJOO 281
writing in the scholarly realm turned into an emphatically written culture, such
that aspects of orality and aurality dwindled away and survived mainly as ossi-
fied remnants of past practices. Beyond doubt, reading sessions were still held
for some historical works, especially for those that contained material pertinent
to the genesis of the Muslim community. Nevertheless, it was evident that the
transmission of knowledge in the field of history had by and large become based
on written practices. This change ran par'lllel to the introduction of paper to the
Middle East from the eighth century onwards and the subsequent spread of this
relatively cheap and easy-co-produce writing material. Paper was available in all
regions by the year 1000 and had replaced at this point other writings material,
such as parchment, even for writing the Qur'an.5°
The increasingly written transmission of historical works in the form of stable
books was also reflected in library collections where such works were well-repre-
sented. We have only indirect evidence from narrative sources on libraries in the
Early Period such as the Abbasid Dar al-Hikma in Baghdad, the Umayyad library
in Cordoba, and the Fa timid collection in Cairo. 51 This evidence points already to
the wide circulation and popularity of historical works, such as al-Tabari's univer-
sal chronicle, but the quantitative information inspires little confidence. While an
early eleventh-century report refers for example to twenty copies of this work in
the Cairene library, an early thirteenth-century source gives for the same period a
number of 1,220 copies for this collection.52 With the spread of smaller, but more
numerous, endowment libraries we are better informed for the Middle Period as
documentary evidence starts to be available. For instance, the mid-thirteenth-
century catalogue of a minor local library in a Damascene mausoleLUn shows mat
among the collection's some 2,ooo works, eighty were historical titles. These
include classical books such as al-Tabari's chronicle and the chronicles of che early
Islamic conquests by al-Azdi, Sayfb. 'Umar, Ibn A'tham, and al-Baladhuri, as well
as books that were authored in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries such as those
by Ibn al-Athir, 'Imad al-Oin, and Ibn Shaddad.53 The popularity of historical
works is also evident from other sources such as endowment records where an
early sixteenth-century document for a small coUection in the Cairene Azhar
mosque has for instance some twenty-five titles of history among its 250 books.54
50
Jonathan Bloom, Paper before P1int: The History and Impact ofPaper in the Tslamic World (New
Haven, 2001).
51
For an overview of medieval Libraries c£ Anke von Kiigelgen , 'BUcher und Bibliotheken in der
islam.ischen Weir des "Mictelalrers"', in Michael Srolz and Adrian Merrauer (eds.), Buchkultur im
Mittelalter: Schrift, Bild, Kommunikation (Berlin and New York, 2005), 147-76.
52
Al-Muasabbihl, 'Nusus da'i'a min akhbar misr', ed. Ayman F. Sayyid, Annales Islamologiljttes,
17 (1981), 1- 54, at 17; and Abu Shama, Kitab al-rawdatayn fi akhbar al-dawlatayn al-Nuriya wa-al-
Salahiya, ed. Ibrahim al-Zaybaq, 5 vols. (Beirut, 1997), ii. 2ro.
53
On rhis cf. Konrad Hirschler, The Wlitten Word in the Mediroal Arabic Lands: A Social and
Culn~ral History ofReadin~ Practices (Edinburgh, 2012).
~• Endowmem record Ali al-Abshadi al-Azhari, 919fr513: 'Abd a!- Latif Ibrahim, Dirasat fi al-
frnttlb wa-al-maktabat al-islamiya (Cairo, 1962).
282 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
The spread of historical books and the popularity of history took place in par-
allel with a gradual, but distinctive, change in the self-view of historians in the
Middle Period. Authors of historical works became not only increasingly self-
conscious, as expressed in the rise of historiographical reflections, bur also more
self-confidem in the pursuit of their learned endeavours. Introductions to h istori-
cal works, for instance, show that the authors proudly referred to themselves
more regularly as historians (mu'arrikh) and an Ibn Khallikan could confidently
declare in the introduction to his biographical dictionary his long-standing inter-
est in history: 'Since my youth l have been avid for the reports of the ancientS and
their dates of birth and death.... So I read the books in this discipline and learned
from the transmissions of the great masters.' 55 References to scholars as historians
nor only appear in self-descriptions, but they are also increasingly used in bio-
graphical en tries for profiling scholars. 'Historian' starred to appear side by side
and on rhe same level with those terms that had a long pedigree .in scholars' biog-
raphies such as 'exegete', 'jurisprudent', and 'grammarian'. This enhanced status
of the practice of history was also expressed in the Islamic canons of disciplines
where history gained from tl1e tenth century onwards a new position. Early phil-
osophical classifications of the sciences, such as mose by aJ-Farabi (lat. Avennasar)
and al-Tawhid i, had not yet referred to history as an independent field of know-
ledge. 56 However, from the eleventh century onwards we see a shift as educational
classifications of sciences started to include history more regularly as a discipline
in irs own right.
This new self-confidence and self-consciousness led ultimately to me first sub-
stantial historiographical reflections on the craft of history from the fourteenth
century onwards. Introductions to historical works or short discourses within the
narrative, such as in Abu ai-Fazl Bayhaqi's Ta'rikh-e Bayhaqi [The History by
Bayhaqi], had already previously included statements on how to write history
and tO what end. However, it was only the publication of two historiographical
works within some four years in the fourteenm century that firmly placed the
field of history among those disciplines that require theoretical discussion. The
first of these was the famous Muqaddimah [Introduction] by)bn Khaldun who
developed in me work's introduction the outlines of a theory of political history.
More importantly, he synthesized the works of preceding generations on issues
such as why history should be studied and what mistakes were to be avoided.57 At
the same time that Ibn Khaldun was putting his historiographical thoughtS to
paper in North Africa, further to the east an obscure scholar set out on the same
task. In 1381-2 al-lji published his Al-Tuhfoh [The Gem], a work that was, in
\SIbn Khallikan. Wafoyat al-a'yan wa-ab114' al-zaman, i. 19-20.
56Osman Bakar, C/msificatioll of Knowldge in Islam: A Study in islamic Pbiwsopbies ofScimce
(Cambridge, 1998); and Marc Berge, ·~pitre sue les sciences d'Abu Hayy:m al-Tawhidi', in Brtlletin
d'ltudes orientales, 18 (1963-4), 241-98.
" Cf. Az.iz al-Azmeh, Ibn Khaldtm: An Essay in Reit~terprt!tation (London, 1990).
Islamic Historical Writing, IOOQ-IfOO 283
contrast to Ibn Khaldun, less concerned with the practicalities of writing history,
but rather with the author's philosophy of history. These two historiographical
reflections were not an isolated phenomenon and the fifteenth century brought
forth a number of successors to Ibn Khaldun and al-lji, such as aJ-Kafiyaji with
his AlrMukhtasar ji < iim al-ta 'rik.~ [Brief Compendium on ffistoriography] in
463-the first historiographical monograph in the proper sense-and ai-Sakhawi
with his Al-J<Ian bi-al-tawbikh li-man dhamma al-ta'rikh [Open Denounciation
of the Critics of History].58
This self-confidence found its expression in a gradual change of sryle in his-
torical writings. Most importantly, the Arabic chronicles started to abandon the
organization of texts on the basis of discrete khabar-ismid units in favour of more
coherent narratives. The strict chronological system that prevailed in these works
certainly curtailed the possibilities of crafting continuous narratives. Nevertheless,
the authorial voice in historic.'ll works became more distinct and less timid not
only in the introductions, but also in the main texts. This rise of the authorial
voice included the authorial decision of how to organize the events and of how to
endow the eventS with new meanings. The increased textual room for manoeuvre
allowed the authors to craft textS more individually and a comparison of works
that report the same events in the Middle Period is suffice to show how these
authors used this room. 59 Beyond me organization of historical works, the dis-
tinctive authorial presence became also evident in the increased use of 'I' and the
intrusion of autobiographical elements into the texts. While Ibn al-Jawzi chroni-
cled in his universal history his rise to fame in Baghdad, Abu Shama described in
his local chronicle-cum-biographical dictionary in detail his personal life in
Damascus, and Abu al-Fida' detailed his efforts to regain rule in his northern
Syrian hometown of Hama. 60 This development culminated in the late fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries in histories that are diary-like accounts with the
author at centre-stage, such as Ibn Tawq's and Ibn Tulun's chronicles.61
The latter work ends the Middle Period and leads to the Ottoman tradition of
historical writing. As much as this chapter started with the linguistic transforma-
tion in the early Middle Period, the shift to the Ottoman, Safavid, and other
traditions was characterized by similar changes. In the east new languages entered
ss On these historiographical works ct: Franz Rosenthal, A Histo1y of Muslim Historiography
(Leiden, 1968).
39
. 0? thi~ issue for. the Middle Pcr~od cf. Hirschler, Medieval Arabic Historiography. The main
StUdies Ill thJS regard for the Early Penod arc: fred M. Donner, Narratives ofislamic Origins: The
Beginnings of islamic Historical Writing (Princelon, 1998); T.'lyeb ei-Hibri, Medieval Arabic
Historiography (Cambridge, 1999); and Boaz Shoshan, Tbe Poetics of Islamic Historiography:
Deconstructing Tabaris History (Lciden, 2005).
60
Ibn al-Jawzi, Al-MullttiZIIm fi tawarikh a/-muluk wa-al-umam, ed. Suhayl Zakkar, 13 vols.
(Beirut, 1995-6); Abu Shama, AI-Dhayl 'ala al-rawdatay11; and Abu al-Fida', The Memoirs ofa Syrian
Prince: Abu 'l-Fida, SuLtan ofHamah, trans. Peter M. Holt (Wiesbaden, 1983).
61
Ibn Tawq, Ta'li.q; and Ibn Tulun, Mufokabar al-kbillan fi hawadith al-zaman, ccl. Muhammad
Mostafa, 2. vols. (Cairo, 1962-4).
284 The Oxford History ofHistorical Writing
Islamic Historical Writing, Iooo-r500 285
the historical canon, for instance with the spread of Chaghatay as a literary lan-
guage under the T unurids in the fifteenth century, and the Sejarah Melayu. [Malay Al-'Ayni, Al-Sayf al-muhannadfi sirat al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad, ed. Fahim Shalrut
(Cairo, 1967).
Annals], one of the early examples of Southeast Asian Muslim historical writing,
that was composed around 1500. In the western lands Ottoman Turkish contin- Al-Dhahabi, Ta'rikh al-Islam wa-wafoyat al-mashahir wa-al-a'lam, ed. 'Umar 'A
Tadmuri, 52 vols. (Beirut, 1987-2000).
ued irs ascendance with the Ottoman conquest of the Arabic-writing lands and
had already produced in the fifteenth century the first chronicles. The emerging Ebn Fondoq, Tarikh-e Bayhaq, ed. Ahmad Bahrnanyar (Tehran, n.d.).
Ferd~wsi, Shah-~ama, ed. E. Bertels, 9 vols. (Moscow, 1960-71).
historical traditions in these new languages but also in Persian and Arabic
remained deeply influenced by the practice and theory of historical writing as it Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Al-Rawd al-zahir fi sirat ai-Malik al-Zahir, ed. 'Abd al-'Aziz
al-Khuwaytir (al-Riyad, 1976).
had emerged by the end of the Middle Period, but they were soon to take new
Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, 'Uyun al-anba'fi tabaqat al-atibba', 3 vols. (Beirm, 1998).
directions.
Ibn al-Athir, The Chronicle ofIbn ai-Athir for the Crusading Periodfrom aL-Kamil
ft 'L-ta'rikh, trans. Donald S. Richards, 3 vols. (Aldershot, 2006-8).
TIMELINE/KEY DATES Ibn al-Jawzi, AI-Muntazamfi tawarikh aL-muluk wa-al-umam, ed. Suhayl Zakkar,
13 vols. (Beirut, 1995-6).
970s Ghaznavids replace Samanids in Khurasan and Afghanistan Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, trans. Franz
1050s Seljuks replace Buyids in Iraq and western Iran Rosenthal, 3 vols. (Princeton, 1967).
1071 Seljuks defeat the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert Ibn Khallikan, Wafoyat al-ayan wa-abna' al-zaman, ed. Ihsan 'Abbas, 8 vols.
1090s Regionalization of the Seljuk Empire (from Syria to Khurasan) (Beirut, 1968-72); partial trans. de Slane/Syed Moinul Haq (Karachi, 1961).
1090s Almoravid conquest of al-Andalus Ibn Shaddad, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin by Baha' al-Din Ibn
1099 First Crusade conquers Jerusalem Shaddad, trans. DonaldS. Richards (Aldershot, 2001).
II70S Ayyubids under Saladin replace Fatimids and Seljuks 111 Egypt and Ibn Taghribirdi, Al-Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa-al-Qahira, ed. Fabim
Syria Shalrut et al., 16 vols. (Cairo, 1929-72).
1212 Defeat of Almohads at Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa Ibn Taw~, At- Ta'liq: yawmiyat Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Tawq, 834-9ISII43o-I509,
1220s Formation of the Mongol Chaghatay Empire in Central Asia ed. Ja far al-Muhajir, 2 vols. (Damascus, 2000-2).
1250s Mamluks replace Ayyubids in Egypt and Syria '!mad ~-Di~ al-ls~ahani, AL-Barq ai-Shami, ed. Falih Husayn (Amman, 1987).
1258 Mongols conquer Baghdad, formation ofllkhanate Empire in Persia and Jovayru, Tarzkh-e;ahan-goshay, ed. Mirza Qazvini, 3 vols. (Leiden, 19II-37); trans.
Iraq John A Boyle as Genghis Khan: The History ofthe World Conqueror, 2nd edn
1291 Fall of Frankish Acre (Manchester, 1997).
1350s Regionalization of the Ilkhanate Empire Al-Maqrizi, Kitab al-suluk li-ma'rifot duwal a/-mu/uk, ed. Muhammad M. al-
1370s Formation of the Tunurid Empire in Iran and Central Asia Ziyada eta/., 4 vols. (Cairo, 1934-73).
1405 Death ofTimur, partial regionalization Al-Mostawfi, Tarikh-e gozida, ed. 'A. Nava'i (Tehran, 1960).
1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople Al-Safadi, AI-Waft bi-al-wafoyat, ed. Hellmut Ritter et al., 30 vols. (Istanbul and
1492 Capitulation of Granada Beirut, 1931-97).
1501 Rise of the Safavid dynasty in Iran --Nakt ~b-himyan fi nukat al-'umyan, ed. Tariq Tantawi (Cairo, 1997).
1517 Ottoman conquest of Arab Middle East Al-Sakhawt, Al-Daw' al-lami' li-ahl aL-qarn al-tasi', 12 vols. (Cairo, 1934-6).
Wassaf, Tarikh-e Wassaf, lith. edn (Bombay, 1853}; redacted version ed. 'Abd al-
Muharnmad Ayati, Tahrir-e Tarikh-e Wassaf(Tehran, r967).
KEY HISTORICAL SOURCES

Abu ai-Fida', The Memoirs ofa Syrian Prince: Abu '1-Fida, Sultan ofHamah, trans. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Peter M. Holt (Wiesbaden, 1983).
Abu Shama, Kitab al-rawdatayn fi akhbar al-dawlatayn al-Nt4riya wa-al-Salahiya, AJ-Azmeb, Aziz, Ibn Khaldun: An Essay in &interpmation (London, 1990).
ed. Ibrahim al-Zaybaq, 5 vols. (Beirut, 1997). Cobb, Paul M., Usama ibn Munqidh: Warrior-Poet of the Age of Cmsades (Oxford,
2005).