THE TAʾRĪKH al-rusul wa-l-mulūk, written by Muhammed ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabari (224[5]–310/839–923),1 plays a key role in research into me- dieval Islamic history and culture. In this context, its importance for the history of scholarship is particularly remarkable. Written at the turn of the ninth to the tenth century-in a period when medieval Arabic writing, with its, in part, voluminous compilations developing in various fields of knowledge, entered into a new phase of development both quantitatively and qualitatively speaking-al-Ṭabarī's Taʾrīkh has been preserved as a monumental historical text, consisting primarily of quotations of ancient historiographical collections or of compilations thereof. This working technique, once developed in the field of ḥadīth and later applied to other branches of medieval Arabic literature, finds with al-Ṭabarī its culmination in Arabic historiography. Here al-Ṭabarī is regarded as the last great representative of this “old style”.? He also marks the decisive turning point towards a new style, i.e. the histori- ographical description, creatively elaborated by the historian. Viewed from this perspective, the texts “quoted” by al-Ṭabarī are interesting for more than their content in terms of the history of events and ideas. Their value, regarding literary history, is defined by the fact that al-Ṭabarī—like his older contemporary al-Balādhurī (d. 279/892), but independently of him-records the “accounts” (akhbār) and “traditions” (āthār) as he may have found them in the older sources, most of which have been lost.

Therefore, his Taʾrīkh differs from other famous historical compendia, such as the Kitāb al-akhbār al-ṭiwāl by Abū Ḥanīfa al-Dinawarī (d. 281/894), the Taʾrīkh by al-Yaʿqūbī (d. 283/897), the Kitāb al-maʿāriƒ by Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889), or the Muruj al-dhahab by the later author al-Masoūdī (d. 345/956). Being subject to the compulsions of a flowing style of reporting, in these works the historical information included is partly summarized by their authors or supplemented with interpretations or even harmonized. The latter fact, above all, applies to Ibn al-Athir (d. 630/1233), who made extensive use of al-Ṭabarī's Taʾrīkh in compiling his own annalistic history.

Al-Ṭabarī's work as an author primarily comprises the selection and appropriate arrangement of literary material.