The History of Al-Tabari, Volume 2: Prophets and Patriarchs

History of Al-Tabari #2

by William M. Brinner (Translator)

This 1989 second volume of Professor Williams' translation of al-Tabarī's account of the early 'Abbāsī empire focuses on the reigns of the son - al-Mahdī - and grandsons - al-Hadi and Hārūn al-Rashīd - of Caliph al-Mansūr, the subject of the first volume. This was the 'Golden Prime' of the empire, before the civil war between the sons of al-Rashīd and the movement of the capital away from Baghdad. Also considered is the story of the Persian aristocratic family, the Barmakis, who became the real rulers under the indolent al-Rashīd, until he destroyed them in a rage which astonished his contemporaries. The events are narrated through the reminiscences of eyewitnesses, woven together by the great historiographer al-Tabarī (d. 923). The translator of the volume is an Islamicist who has lived many years in the Arab world and has a rare knowledge of its culture and literature.

Genres: History, Islam

220 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[wajiha · Rating 5 out of 5]

rly love how tabari (rahimullah) narrates differing accounts of the same event, this way we’re not not missing out on any details plus the repetition helps the reader remember

[Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply amazing. This part was much better than volume 1 which focussed a lot on the lifespan and lineages while this one provided a lot of information about the lives and time of the prophets after Noah. The first part was a little hard to read as it delved into the Persian history. From thereon, the accounts of the sons of Noah, Abraham and Joseph were all very interesting to read.

[Muhammad Younis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The translator could have done a better job by keeping the names in Arabic. It's very confusing. Had to check Arabic names repeatedly.

[Jonathan Brown]

In this portion of al-Tabari's History of Prophets, Kings, and Caliphs, he includes some interesting Persian legends about a tyrant called al-Azdahaq and his conquest by al-Dahhak. He also covers attempts to explain phenotypical differences among humans by the different children of Noah - apparently it was derived from Jewish tradition, but it includes the assertion that "Canaan b. Ham b. Noah married Arsal, another daughter of Batawil b. Tiras b. Japheth b. Noah, and she bore him the Blacks, Nubians, Fezzan, Zanj, Zaghawah, and all the peoples of the Sudan" (11) - an unwarranted racialization (though not one unique to Islam) of biblical tradition that contributed heavily to the justifications for slavery in the antebellum South.

The volume covers traditions concerning several other patriarchal-era figures postulated in the Qur'an and probably drawn from local pre-Islamic Arab tradition - such as Hud and the people of 'Ad, and Salih and the people of Thamud - before spending the bulk of the volume on traditions about Abraham, with some overlap with biblical material but also plenty of later legends mediated via the Qur'an (especially his conflicts with Nimrod).

(Also, despite the way most introductory works blithely say that Islam envisions Ishmael as the son nearly sacrificed by Abraham instead of Isaac, this book spends pages narrating Islamic traditions on both sides of that debate.)

The book covers Job and the Qur'anic figure Shu'ayb (often identified with Moses' father-in-law Jethro or a relative of his, and al-Tabari presents both perspectives) before dealing with Abraham's great-grandson Joseph, who receives a great deal of coverage in the Qur'an and thus here as well.

Overall, this book beautifully showcases the ways in which a range of traditions could be employed to 'smuggle back in' to the Muslim historical imagination a copious amount of biblical information which the Qur'an had omitted or glossed over. And, of course, in good legendary fashion, each hero or villain becomes larger-than-life (often literally). But that's half the fun, isn't it?