Kitab Baghdad
- Author died
- 280 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Khānjī
Kitab Baghdad (The Book of Baghdad), also cited as Tarikh Baghdad (History of Baghdad), is an early Abbasid historical chronicle by the Baghdadi historian and man of letters Ibn Tayfur (204–280 AH / 819–893 CE) devoted to the accounts of the caliphs, rulers, and their eras .
Scope and Surviving Text
The work was originally composed as an extensive chronicle titled Kitab Tarikh Baghdad fi Akhbar al-Khulafa' wa-al-Umara' wa-Ayyamihim (The History of Baghdad on the Reports of the Caliphs, Rulers, and Their Days) . Most of the original multivolume text has been lost, and only its sixth volume has survived .
The extant sixth volume focuses on the biography and reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, covering historical events from his entry into Baghdad from Khurasan in 204 AH (819 CE) down to his death in 218 AH (833 CE) . Its contents document administrative affairs, court poetry, letters, military campaigns, and political episodes during al-Ma'mun's caliphate, including reports on the trial regarding the creation of the Quran (the Mihna) .
Continuations and Influence
Ibn Tayfur's son, Ubayd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 313 AH / 925 CE), wrote a continuation (Dhayl) to his father's history . The book served as a major primary source for subsequent classical historians; substantial portions of its historical narratives and official correspondence were transmitted by al-Tabari in his universal history .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscripts of the surviving sixth volume are preserved in the British Museum (MS 23318, 132 folios) and Leiden University Library (MS 5570, 132 folios) . The text was edited and published by the Swiss orientalist Hans Keller in Leipzig in 1908, and was later printed in Cairo, Baghdad, and Beirut .
Answer updated