Now available in Open Access thanks to support of the University of Helsinki. Al-Maqrīzī's (d. 845/1442) last work, al-Ḫabar ʿan al-bašar, was completed a year before his death. This volume, edited by Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, covers the history of pre-Islamic Iran from the Creation to the Parthians. Al-Maqrīzī's work shows how Arab historians integrated Iran into world history and how they harmonized various currents of historiography (Middle Persian historiography, Islamic sacred history, Greek and Latin historiography).
Among al-HÌ®abar's sources is KitÄb Hurūšiyūš, the Arabic translation of Paulus Orosius' Historiarum adversum paganos libri vii. This source has only been preserved in one defective copy, and al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«'s text helps to fill in some of its lacunae.
Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, PhD 1994, is the Iraq Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His publications include Maqama (2002), The Last Pagans of Iraq (2006) and several articles on pre-Islamic Iran in Arabic sources.
"With his masterful edition and translation, Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila has set very high standards for future publications in the Bibliotheca Maqriziana series and beyond. On a broader scale, the volume constitutes a powerful demonstration of what philological research can and should look like in the twenty-first century. By showing what is possible, it underlines the urgent need for critical editions in a field that far too often settles for non-scholarly and faulty, albeit easily available "editions" of its primary sources." - Christian Mauder, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 82/1 (2019)
List of Plates Abbreviations Foreword Preface
Introduction
â1âal-MaqrÄ«zÄ« and the Ḫabar
â2âThe Pre-Islamic History of Iran in Arabic and Persian Sources
â3âal-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Sources
â4âal-MaqrÄ«zÄ« and Orosius
â5âal-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs Use of Sources
â6âDescription of the Manuscripts
â7âNotes on the Translation
â8âNames
Plates
Abbreviations and Symbols
Critical Edition and Translation of al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«âs al-Ḫabar Ê¿an al-baÅ¡ar, vol. V, section 4: Persia and Its Kings, Part I
Persia and the Four Classes of Its Kings
âThe First Class, the PīšdÄdians
âMention of the Second Class of Persians, the Kayanids
âThe Third Class of Persian (kings), the AšġÄnians
Bibliography List of Quoted Manuscripts Index of QurʾÄnic Verses Index of Prophetic Traditions Index of Verses Index of Names (People and Places) Index of Quoted Titles in al-Ḫabar Ê¿an al-baÅ¡ar Index of Sources in al-Ḫabar Ê¿an al-baÅ¡ar Index of Glosses Index of Technical Terms
Facsimile of MS Fatih 4340 (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi), fols. 76bâ127b, 47*aâb, 128aâ131a
All interested in Mamluk historiography or pre-Islamic history of Iran.