The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 29

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 29
Author: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1990-07-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780791401439

This volume opens when the caliph al-Manṣūr has just defeated the rebellion of Muḥammad the Pure Soul in 145/762-3 and is now securely established in power. The main concerns of the remaining thirteen years of his reign are the building of his new capital at Baghdad, on which al-al-Ṭabarī's text contains details not previously published in English, and his efforts to have his nephew ʿIsā ibn Mūsā replaced as heir apparent by his own son Muḥammad al-Mahdī, a maneuver that required all his political skills The circumstances of al-Manṣūr's death in 158/775 are described in vivid detail, and this section is followed by a series of anecdotes, some serious, some humorous, most vivid and lively, that illustrate his character and habits. The last section of the volume describes the reign of al-Mahdī, more pious than his father but also more liberal and open-handed. Along with routine administration, space is devoted to the bizarre intrigues that accompanied the rise and fall of the vizier Ya'qub ibn Dawud and the mysterious circumstances of the caliph's own death in 169/785, followed by a short collection of character stories. In addition, the volume also contains important information about warfare on the Byzantine frontier and in Khurasan. A discounted price is available when purchasing the entire 39-volume History of al-Ṭabarī set. Contact SUNY Press for more information.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 29

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 29
Author:
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2015-06-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1438408730

This volume opens when the caliph al-Manṣūr has just defeated the rebellion of Muḥammad the Pure Soul in 145/762-3 and is now securely established in power. The main concerns of the remaining thirteen years of his reign are the building of his new capital at Baghdad, on which al-al-Ṭabarī's text contains details not previously published in English, and his efforts to have his nephew ʿIsā ibn Mūsā replaced as heir apparent by his own son Muḥammad al-Mahdī, a maneuver that required all his political skills. The circumstances of al-Manṣūr's death in 158/775 are described in vivid detail, and this section is followed by a series of anecdotes, some serious, some humorous, most vivid and lively, that illustrate his character and habits. The last section of the volume describes the reign of al-Mahdī, more pious than his father but also more liberal and open-handed. Along with routine administration, space is devoted to the bizarre intrigues that accompanied the rise and fall of the vizier Ya'qub ibn Dawud and the mysterious circumstances of the caliph's own death in 169/785, followed by a short collection of character stories. In addition, the volume also contains important information about warfare on the Byzantine frontier and in Khurasan. A discounted price is available when purchasing the entire 39-volume History of al-Ṭabarī set. Contact SUNY Press for more information.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 8

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 8
Author:
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2015-06-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1438402902

This volume covers the history of the Muslim community and the biography of Muḥammad in the middle Medinan years. It begins with the unsuccessful last Meccan attack on Medina, known as the battle of the Trench. Events following this battle show the gradual collapse of Meccan resistance to Islam. The next year, when Muḥammad set out on pilgrimage to Mecca, the Meccans at first blocked the road, but eventually a ten-year truce was negotiated at al-Ḥudaybiyah, with Muḥammad agreeing to postpone his pilgrimage until the following year. The Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyah was followed by a series of Muslim expeditions, climaxing in the important conquest of Khaybar. In the following year Muḥammad made the so-called Pilgrimage of Fulfillment unopposed. Al-Ṭabarī's account emphasizes Islam's expanding geographical horizon during this period. Soon after the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah, Muḥammad is said to have sent letters to six foreign rulers inviting them to become Muslims. Another example of this expanding horizon was the unsuccessful expedition to Mu'tah in Jordan. Shortly afterward the Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyah broke down, and Muḥammad marched on Mecca. The Meccans capitulated, and Muḥammad entered the city on his own terms. He treated the city leniently, and most of the Meccan oligarchy swore allegiance to him as Muslims. Two events in the personal life of Muḥammad during this period caused controversy in the community. Muḥammad fell in love with and married Zaynab bint. Jaḥsh, the divorced wife of his adopted son Zayd. Because of Muḥammad's scruples, the marriage took place only after a Qur'anic revelation permitting believers to marry the divorced wives of their adopted sons. In the Affair of the Lie, accusations against Muḥammad's young wife ʿĀʾishah were exploited by various factions in the community and in Muḥammad's household. In the end, a Qur'anic revelation proclaimed ʿĀʾishah's innocence and the culpability of the rumormongers. This volume of al-Ṭabarī's History records the collapse of Meccan resistance to Islam, the triumphant return of Muḥammad to his native city, the conversion to Islam of the Meccan oligarchy, and the community's successful weathering of a number of potentially embarrassing events in Muḥammad's private life.

The Eastern Frontier

The Eastern Frontier
Author: Robert Haug
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 178831722X

Transoxania, Khurasan, and ?ukharistan – which comprise large parts of today's Central Asia – have long been an important frontier zone. In the late antique and early medieval periods, the region was both an eastern political boundary for Persian and Islamic empires and a cultural border separating communities of sedentary farmers from pastoral-nomads. Given its peripheral location, the history of the 'eastern frontier' in this period has often been shown through the lens of expanding empires. However, in this book, Robert Haug argues for a pre-modern Central Asia with a discrete identity, a region that is not just a transitory space or the far-flung corner of empires, but its own historical entity. From this locally specific perspective, the book takes the reader on a 900-year tour of the area, from Sasanian control, through the Umayyads and Abbasids, to the quasi-independent dynasties of the Tahirids and the Samanids. Drawing on an impressive array of literary, numismatic and archaeological sources, Haug reveals the unique and varied challenges the eastern frontier presented to imperial powers that strove to integrate the area into their greater systems. This is essential reading for all scholars working on early Islamic, Iranian and Central Asian history, as well as those with an interest in the dynamics of frontier regions.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 16

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 16
Author:
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2015-06-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791497623

This volume of al-Ṭabarī's history deals with the traumatic breakup of the Muslim community following the assassination of the Caliph 'Uthman. It begins with the first seriously contested succession to the caliphate, that of ʿAlī, and proceeds inexorably through the rebellion of 'A'ishah, T'alhah, and al-Zubayr, to the Battle of the Camel, the first time Muslim army faced Muslim army. It thus deals with the very first violent response to the two central problems of Muslim history: who is the rightful leader, and which is the true community? It is a section with the weightiest implications for the Muslim interpretation of history, wide open to special pleading. There are the Shi'a who depict ʿAlī as a spiritual leader fighting against false accusations and the worldly ambitious. Conversely, there are those who would depict him or his followers in a negative light. There are also the 'Abbasid historians, who, though anti-Umayyad, must balance a reverence for the Prophet's household (ahl al-bayt) with a denunciation of 'Alid antiestablishmentarianism. All these points of view, and more, are represented in al-Ṭabarī's compilation, illustrating the difficulty the Muslim community as a whole has faced in coming to terms with these disastrous events.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 1

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 1
Author:
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2015-06-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1438417837

Volume I of the thirty-eight volume translation of Ṭabarī's great History begins with the creation of the world and ends with the time of Noah and the Flood. It not only brings a vast amount of speculation about the early history of mankind into sharp Muslim focus, but it also synchronizes ancient Iranian ideas about the prehistory of mankind with those inspired by the Qur'an and the Bible. The volume is thus an excellent guide to the cosmological views of many of Ṭabarī's contemporaries. The translator, Franz Rosenthal, one of the world's foremost scholars of Arabic, has also written an extensive introduction to the volume that presents all the facts known about Ṭabarī's personal and professional life. Professor Rosenthal's meticulous and original scholarship has yielded a valuable bibliography and chronology of Ṭabarī's writings, both those preserved in manuscript and those alluded to by other authors. The introduction and first volume of the translation of the History form a ground-breaking contribution to Islamic historiography in English and will prove to be an invaluable source of information for those who are interested in Middle Eastern history but are unable to read the basic works in Arabic.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 28

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 28
Author: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780791418956

The initial years (126-145) of al-Manṣūr's reign presented several significant challenges to nascent ʿAbbāsid hegemony, and the resulting confrontations constitute the central focus of this section of Ṭabarī's Tarikh. After Abu Jafar succeeded his brother Abū Al-ʿabbās as caliph, the second of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty, he moved against his recalcitrant uncle, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, and against the potential threat that he perceived in the person of the commander in Khurasan, Abu Muslim. Eliminating the latter and containing the former freed the caliph to address a series of other onslaughts and insurrections. Starting with the year 144, however, Ṭabarī turned to this volume's principal preoccupation, to which half of the book is devoted. Judging by the attention given to it, he clearly perceived the Hasanid rebellions of Muhammad b. Abdallah (the Pure Soul) and of his brother Ibrahim to be the most substantial attack on Abbasid authority to arise in the first years of that dynasty. Ṭabarī's description of the prolonged search for Muhammad and Ibrahim and of the caliphal vengeance visited upon their father and family provides an extended prelude to the vivid battle and death scenes in Medina and Bakhamra. Yet, elaboration of these events does not eclipse mention of all other Abbasid activity. To bridge the account of Muhammad's defeat and that of Ibrahim's uprising, Ṭabarī inserted a narrative interlude depicting the site selection and preliminary construction of al-Manṣūr's most celebrated achievement, the City of Peace, Baghdad.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 7

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 7
Author: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1987-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780887063442

The contents of this volume are extremely significant: The specific events in this earliest period set precedents for what later became established Islamic practice. The book deals with the history of the Islamic community at Medina during the first four years of the Islamic period--a time of critical importance for Islam, both as a religion and as a political community. The main events recounted by Ṭabarī are the battles between Muḥammad's supporters in Medina and their adversaries in Mecca. Ṭabarī also describes the rivalries and infighting among Muḥammad's early supporters, including their early relations with the Jewish community in Medina.

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 39

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 39
Author:
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2015-07-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1438409982

The present volume is a collection of excerpts from al-Ṭabarī's biographical work entitled The Supplement to the Supplemented (Dhayl al-mudhayyal). In the introduction to his History, al-Ṭabarī declared his intention to append to it a biographical work for the reader's convenience. Only a collection of excerpts has survived, however. It was first published as part of the Leiden edition of the History and is now presented as a volume in the Ṭabarī Translation Project. It brings together biographies of Companions, successors, and scholars of subsequent generations; many chapters are devoted to women related to the Prophet who played a role in the transmission of knowledge. The biographies vary in length and style, ranging from a mere identification of a person to long accounts and anecdotes. This volume represents a long tradition characteristic of Muslim culture. Muslim scholars developed biographical literature into a rich and complex genre. It was intended to be an auxiliary branch of religious study, aimed at determining the reliability of chains of transmission through which traditions were handed down. More often than not, however, works in this genre contain valuable historical information of the kind often ignored by the authors of mainstream history books. Even though not a complete work, this volume is thus not merely a supplement to al-Ṭabarī's History but also a source in its own right, often supplying new and rare insights into events and social conditions.