Islam: Histories

Contains excerpts from al-Waqidi's Kitab al-maghazi and the Tabaqat of Ibn Sa'd.

Contains geographical material from al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 1071)'s history of Baghdad (Ta'rikh Baghdad).

Book must be requested from the Annex.

Ibn Khallikan documented lives of outstanding achievement not already covered in other histories.

The MU Libraries currently holds 22 volumes of this 39-volume work. This is an excellent critical edition of al Tabari's highly influential History of the Prophets and the Kings, covering from Biblical times up through 915 CE.

The author of this history was himself a Persian administrator of the Saljuq Empire; he was assassinated before he could complete the work, as was the young Sultan for whom he wrote it. Many of its chapters are considered fictional though there may be some actual history in the later chapters.

The author studied in Mecca and Bagdhad, fought against the Crusaders, and then took up a life of study. His "immense" universal history is known for its consistency, coherence, astuteness and literary style and offers a valuable perspective especially on the Saljuq era, the period covered in this selective translation.

Often cited as Sirat Salah al-Din, the work gives detailed descriptions of warfare, administration and diplomacy of both Muslim and Crusader forces using contemporary documents.

This book contains "sizeable portions" of the Sirat Salah al-Din.

This translation of the travel narratives chronicling Ibn Battuta's pilgrimage to Mecca was published in several volumes of the publications of the Hakluyt Society.

Often viewed by Western scholars as a sortof proto-sociologist or philosopher of social organization, Ibn Khaldun wrote this work as a sort of philosophical introduction to his universal history, the Kitab al-'ibar.

A very readable first-person account by Hanafi scholaral-Jabarti of the first seven months of Napoleon's occupation of Egypt. Also in the volume are another eyewitness account, from Napoleon's secretary, and and exceprt from Edward Said's book, Orientalism.

Written by an important Shi'ite cleric, this history addresses the history of hte succession to the Prophet, the caliphate and the early generations of Islam.