The Image of an Earlier 4th/10th-Century Islamic Historiographer in Transition

The exploration of the rich historiographic tradition written in Arabic between the early 9th and mid-10th centuries went hand in hand with the emergence of modern historical scholarship in 19th-century Western Europe. The growing interest of European scholars in the past affairs of the Muslim world was hardly independent of the rise of the Western powers’ political influence in the Middle East. To be sure, some Islamic historical works, including the one this book will focus on, had already been introduced to the European audience at that time, but these early enterprises did not immediately result in the birth of the field of Islamic studies. The formation process of the discipline is intimately connected to the first editions of the Arabic texts of early and classical Arabic historiographers, which was enabled by the emergence of large manuscript collections all across Western Europe. The same process took place on the other side of the continent as well, where Russian scholars, mainly based in St. Petersburg, were likewise engaged in the exploration of Arabic and Persian historical and geographical manuscripts in order to extend their knowledge about the Central Asian territories, a region of fundamental interest to the Tsar's empire.

From the middle of the 19th century onwards, a substantial number of 3rd/9thand 4th/10th-century Muslim historical works were edited and appeared in print in surprisingly quick succession. Both universal and thematic chronicles alongside other books of a historical nature (List 1), including biographical and geographical dictionaries (List 2), came to the forefront of interest as the following two brief lists of the main authors aptly indicate:

List 1

• • Ibn al-Athīr's (d. 630/1233) al-Kāmil fī al-taʾrīkh, edited and published by Tornberg in Leiden between 1851–1876, fourteen volumes;

• • al-Azdī's (d. between c. 170–210/786–825) Futūḥ al-Shām, published by Lees in Calcutta in 1854, one volume;

• • the Futūḥ al-Shām ascribed to al-Wāqidī (d. 207/823), published by Lees in Calcutta between 1854–1862, three volumes;

• • al-Wāqidī's (d. 207/822) Kitāb al-maghāzī, partly edited and published by Kremer in Calcutta in 1856, one volume;

• • al-Balādhurī's (d. 279/892) Futūḥ al-buldān, published by de Goeje in Leiden in 1866, two volumes;

• • Miskawayh's (d. 421/1030) Tajārib al-umam, partly edited and published by de Goeje in Leiden in 1871, partial edition, one volume;