This stuQy deals with the characteristics of Arabie historiog

216 Pages·2009·8.92 MB·English

Al3STRACT
This stuQy deals with the characteristics of Arabie historiog
raphy in Iraq down to the time of Abli Ja'fer Tabarl (d. :510/92:5).
The historical annals of ~aberi provide both the specifie focus of
the s'tudy and 0. methodological approach. Since ~abari' s york JIUQ'
be rega:r:ded as an anthologr of the nit ings of the ear11' historians,
our first question concerns the cha.r acteristics of Iraqi historiog-
.
raphy as they are refiected in the annals. Then we are concer.ned
wit h the ~s in which Tabari' s 1I'Ork diff'ered from his predecessors.
Part One of the study comprises a historical survey of the main
historians of the period including Tabari. Part 'ho deals with certain
specifie characteristics of histor" writing, suoh as the khabar
element, based upon illustrative material provided by a tr8Zls1ated
portion of the annals, which i tself appears as an Appendix to the
s~. Age.in drawing upon the translated material, 1I'e deal with oer
tain problems, such as the nature of' the sources, with 1I'hich Tabari
1I'&S confronted in compiling his own 1I'Ork.
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ABU JA 'FAR ~ABARî AND .H IS S~URCES
An Introduc:t;iolL to Ear17 'Iraq! ...
Historiograpby- .
David Waines
A ther:sis submitted to·the Faculty
of Graduate Studies
andRese~ch
in partial fu1filment of the
requirements for the degree
of .Master. of Arts
Institute of Is1amic Studies
McGil1 Universit7
Montreal
April, 1968
1
, @ David Waines 1969
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Several pers ons who have contributed to the
preparation of this study it is MY pleasure to thank.
Dr. John A. Williams, formerly of the Institute of
Islamic Studies, first suggested the field of enquiry.
l also gathered valuable insights into early Islamic
historiography from his seminar on the historians of
the Umayyad periode My present advisor, Dr. Donald
Little, has always provided pertinent and penetrating
criticisms of the study throughout the various stages
of its preparation. Dr. Hermann Landolt also read the
completed essay and offered timely and helpful
suggestions. To each of these scholars my indebtedness
cannot be adequately expressed.
ii
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
INTRODUCTION 1
PART ONE 9-34
I. Arabism and Is1amism 9
II. Medinan Historiography 14
III. Pre-~abari Historians 19
IV. Abü Ja'far ~abari 30
PART TWO 35-89
I. The Elements of Historieal Writing 35
II.~abarI·s Princip1e of Organization 47
(a) Chrono1ogy 48
(b) Signifieant Events 53
III.The Nature of the Sources 58
IV. The Place of God in History 72
NOTES 90-108
BI BLIOGRAPHY 109-113
APPENDIX 1-87
NOTES TO APPENDIX 88-97
iii
INTRODUCTION
Broadly speaking, the tocus of this es say is
the characteristics of Arabie historical writing in
'Iraq trom its origins at the beginning of the eighth
to the beginning of the tenth century. The discussion
of the nature, purpose and method of history in this
period of Islam is, however, impeded by certain
obstacles. First is the condition of the sources with
which the student has to deal. Our knowledge of the
overwhelming majority of historical works does not
extend beyond their titles; the books themselves are
not extant. Often of course, the title will reveal
the content of the book: Kitab Maqtal BusayAb. 'Ali
(The Death of ijusayn b. 'AlI) would deal with the
back ground and circumstances of the death of 'Ali's
son ijusayn at Karbala. While this and numerous other
works have not survived, what has come to us are frag
ments of some of these early writings preserved in
large compilations which appeared towards the end of
our period, that is, at the end of the ninth and early
tenth centuries. One such compilation is the Ansab al
Ashraf of Baladhuri (d. 279/892); another is the great
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annalistic history of Abu Ja'far ~abarr (d. 310/923).
A second obstacle to our investigation is that
not until the end of our period does the historian
begin to formulate explicitly any reflection upon his
discipline. appears to have been the first to
~abar!
compose an introduction to his work, albeit brief and
unsystematic, in which he expresses some reflection
upon the subJect matter and method of history. Hitherto,
such notions had been implicit in the products of
hsitorical scholarship.
Bearing these two points in mind a problem ot
methodology is posed of how to proceed with a discussion
of the characteristics of early 'Iraq! historiography.
While the scope and depth of our study may be limited
by these two factors, they also indicate a possible
methodological approach.
The compilations of Baladhur! and tabar! may
be analysed from two perspectives, 1) each, as a
fundamental source book for early historians such as
'Awana b. al-ijakam (d. 147/764) and Abu Mikhnaf
(d. 157/774), may be treated as a kind of anthology of
these early historianJ writings and -2) each ean be
hand1ed as an independent contribution to the Islamic
historiographieal tradition. It shou1d be possible,
therefore, from the first perspective, to describe
certain characterietics of early 'Iraqi historiography
in terms of either one or the other (or both) of these
major compilations. From the second perspective, Tabar!
has been aelected as the work upon which this study
shall be based, in arder to narrow thefocus of the
essaye Two primary reasons may be noted for th1s choice.
First, the central position which occupies in
~abari
early Arabic historiography led Professor Gibb to say
that his was "the work in which the classical tradition
reaches its,culmination ••• by its authority and
comprehensiveness, (it) marked the close of an epoch.
No later compiler ever set himself to collect and
investigate afresh the materials for the early history
of Islam, but either abstracted them from al-Tabarr
[sometimes supplemented from or else
al-Baladh~ri]
began wl:èœ .al..;rabari left off. ,,1 Secondly, ~abari' s
introduction, alluded to above, has an important
bearing upon certain questions ofmethod and nature of
history while Baladhuri is inconvenient in this respect
since he provides no introduction at all.
A third reason forusing Tabar! concerns the
presentation of illustrative historical material which
will be discussed presently. Again, BaladhurI's Ansab
al-Ashraf which is primarily a biographical and
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genealogical compendium is less convenient than
history which is cbronologically arranged
~abarI's
and therefore provides a more methodical framework than
BaladhurI's for the narrative of events.
It is now appropriate to pose these questions
to define the specifie focus of the study: First, what
can be said of the characteristics of early 'IraqI
historiography insofar as they are reflected in
~abarI's
history! Second, since ~abarI's work itself marks a
stage in the development of Arabie historiography, in
what respects does his history differ from previous
works! Clearly the answers to these questions will
involve treating from the two perspectives
~abarI
already mentioned. In the same way that the entire work
of could be treated in the fashion outlined
~abarI
here, it follows that a portion of the same work would
lend i tself to .similar analysis. Therefore a portion of
history has been translated for the purpose of
~abarI's
providing illustrative material for analysis.
A word needs be said, however, of certain
prior conditions which the translated portion should
fulfil. should be of manage able length to
Firs~,it
provide sufficient material while at the same time
e· becoming neither unwieldy nor tedious. Secondly, the
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passage should be as far as possible a coherent unit,
that is, the material should provide a central 'theme'
wi th à beginning and end. Thirdly, the
re(c:.o~gnizable
passage should comprise as many of the major sources as
possible from among the early 'Iraq! historians. This
last provision would, for example, rule out the selec
tion of a passage from the period dealing with the
prophet Muoammad; Medinese sources are the most
important for this period and these are not our
concern here. Moreover two of the important early
'IraqI historians (Abü Mikhnaf and 'Awina) did not deal
wi th the Prophet a.t all. Furthermore a passage dealing
with the period after 840 A.D. would exclude the
writings of the outstanding figure of al-Mada'in! who
died in that year. Beyond these general pre-conditions,
selection becomes largely arbitrary.
The passage which we have selected (which
incidentally, has not before appeared in translation)
deals with a portion of the reign of the Caliph 'Abd
al-Malik (685 A.D. - 705 A.D.). The selection covers
the five years from 69/688 to 73/692 and meets our
first condition. The passage depicts the efforts of
that Caliph to re-establish the power of the Umayyad
dynasty in 'Iraq and the ijijaz which were then in the