al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar
- Author died
- 732 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭbaʿah al-Ḥusayniyyah al-Miṣriyyah
al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar (The Concise History of Humankind), also known as Tarikh Abi al-Fida, is a universal history composed by the Ayyubid ruler and scholar Abu al-Fida (d. 732 AH / 1331 CE), surveying world history from the creation through Islamic history up to the early eighth century AH.
Scope and Structure
Abu al-Fida designed the work to provide a comprehensive summary of ancient and Islamic history so that readers would not need to consult extensive multivolume histories. The book covers historical events from Adam and early antiquity up to 729 AH (1328 CE), though another report notes its original ending at 709 AH or 721 AH.
The material is structured into two main parts:
- Ancient and Pre-Islamic History: Opened with an introduction covering three issues—divergences among historians, versions of the Torah, and a proposed comparative chronological table—followed by five chapters:
- The prophets and the judges and rulers of the Children of Israel.
- The kings of Persia.
- The Pharaohs and rulers of ancient Egypt and neighboring lands.
- The kings of the pre-Islamic Arabs.
- Other ancient nations of the world.
- Islamic History: Arranged strictly in an annalistic, year-by-year format from the prophetic era onward.
Method and Sources
Abu al-Fida abridged his material from about twenty volumes of historical works, relying primarily on Ibn al-Athir's al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Complete History). The author made extensive use of chronological charts and astronomical tables (zaijat and jadawil) throughout the work, and structured subject entries with headings beginning with the formula Dhikr ("Account of").
Continuations and Abridgments
The work received notable continuations and abridgments by later scholars:
- Ibn al-Wardi (d. 749 AH / 1348 CE, or 750 AH) abridged al-Mukhtasar to approximately two-thirds of its size and composed a continuation carrying the chronicle from where Abu al-Fida stopped down to 749 AH, titled Tatimmat al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar (commonly known as Tarikh Ibn al-Wardi).
- The judge Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Shihnah al-Halabi (d. 815 AH) also abridged Abu al-Fida's text and wrote a continuation extending to his own lifetime.
Reception and Editions
The book became the cornerstone of Abu al-Fida's historical reputation. It attracted early attention among European orientalists, who translated and published sections and entire portions into Latin, French, and English. Jean Gagnier edited and translated the prophetic biography section into Latin in Oxford (1722) and published the entire text with a French translation (1723). J. J. Reiske and J. G. C. Adler also published portions in Latin translation in Copenhagen (1789–1794).
In the Islamic world, the work was published in Istanbul in 1286 AH in four volumes alongside Ibn al-Wardi's Tatimmah, and later printed in Cairo by al-Matba'ah al-Husayniyya in four volumes in 1325 AH.
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