Tarikh al-Tabari = Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, wa Silat Tarikh al-Tabari
- Author died
- 310 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Ma'arif
Tarikh al-Tabari (Arabic: تاريخ الطبري), formally titled Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (The History of the Messengers and Kings) and also known as Tarikh al-Umam wa al-Muluk, is a universal history written by the polymath Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (224–310 AH / 838–923 CE). It chronicles world history from the creation of the cosmos and the stories of the pre-Islamic prophets and nations down through the history of early Islam and the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates to the early fourth century AH.
Composition and Scope
Al-Tabari composed his history after finishing his renowned commentary on the Quran (Tafsir), occasionally referring back to discussions he had summarized in the earlier work. When he initially proposed writing the history of the world from Adam to his own era, he estimated that it would require 30,000 folios; when his students reacted that lives would expire before finishing such a work, he abridged it to roughly one-tenth of that length, or about 3,000 folios (other reports mention 1,000 or 5,000 folios). He dictated and worked on the book across several years, concluding it on Wednesday, 27 Rabi' al-Akhir 303 AH, with historical entries extending up to the year 302 AH (915 CE), though some biographical notices note entries ending in 309 AH.
The text begins with a theological and philosophical discussion on the nature of time, its creation, and its span, followed by accounts of the first created things, including the Pen, the heavens, the earth, and the creation of Adam. It covers biblical and ancient prophets, the ancient kings of Persia, the Byzantine and Roman empires, and pre-Islamic Arabian history. From the Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ mission and the Hijra onward, the work shifts to a strict annalistic structure (hawliyyat), documenting political, administrative, military, and biographical events year by year through the Rashidun, Umayyad, and Abbasid eras.
Method and Sources
Al-Tabari structured his historical writing around the transmitter-based methodology of hadith scholars (muhaddithin). Rather than synthesizing a single narrative through personal deduction or rational harmonization, he transmitted accounts verbatim with their chains of transmission (asānīd), presenting multiple competing reports for controversial incidents. He explicitly articulated this principle in his introduction, writing that if readers encounter objectionable or unverified reports in his book, they should recognize that the responsibility rests with the original transmitters and sources who conveyed them rather than with the compiler himself.
His transmission terminology indicated how he received each report: oral transmission was marked by phrases like haddathanī or akhbaranā, written correspondence by kataba ilayya, and written monographs by direct citation of authors. For early prophetic and ancient history, he drew upon works such as those of Wahb ibn Munabbih and Ibn Ishaq, as well as Arabic translations of Persian and Christian historical records. For the early Islamic caliphate, civil conflicts, and military conquests (futūḥ), he drew extensively from early historical compilations by authors such as Sayf ibn Umar, Abu Mikhnaf, Ali ibn Muhammad al-Mada'ini, Umar ibn Shabba, and al-Waqidi. As the narrative approached the author's own contemporary period in the late third century AH, explicit isnads gradually diminished.
Reception and Critiques
Classical scholars praised the work as the foundational pillar and foremost reference work of Islamic historiography. Al-Mas'udi lauded it as surpassing other compositions in depth, learning, and breadth of transmitted reports. Ibn al-Athir described it in the preface of al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh as the universally relied-upon authority to which scholars return in disagreements, using it as the core framework for his own historical chronicle.
Criticism of the work focused on its uncritical inclusion of weak, biased, or fabricated narrations, alongside pre-Islamic legendary material (isrāʾīliyyāt), without consistent editorial verdicts on their authenticity. Scholars noted that al-Tabari deliberately gathered disparate viewpoints—including narrations from figures deemed unreliable by hadith critics—leaving the evaluation and critical screening of texts and transmitters to subsequent readers on the traditional principle that providing the isnad absolves the compiler of liability (man asnada faqad bariʾa).
Continuations, Translations, and Editions
Because of the book's standing, multiple scholars wrote continuations (ṣilāt and adhāl) to extend its chronological coverage:
- Silat Tarikh al-Tabari by the Andalusian physician and historian Arib ibn Sa'd al-Qurtubi (d. 369 AH / 979 CE; another report gives d. after 331 AH), which abridged parts of al-Tabari's work, added substantial coverage of North Africa and al-Andalus, and continued events from 291 to 320 AH (with some copies extending to 365 AH).
- Al-Sila (or al-Mudhayyal) by al-Tabari's student Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Farghani (d. 362 AH / 973 CE).
- Takmilat Tarikh al-Tabari by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik al-Hamadhani (d. 521 AH / 1127 CE), continuing events into the late fifth century AH.
- Continuations by Thabit ibn Sinan al-Sabi' (d. 363 AH / 974 CE) and Hilal ibn al-Muhassin al-Sabi' (d. 448 AH / 1056 CE).
In 352 AH (963 CE), the Samanid vizier Abu Ali Muhammad al-Bal'ami translated and abridged the chronicle into Persian by order of Mansur ibn Nuh al-Samanid, a version that was subsequently rendered into Turkish and Arabic.
Tarikh al-Tabari was first published in a European critical edition in Leiden (1879–1901) under the editorship of M. J. de Goeje and an international team of orientalists in thirteen parts, alongside an edition of Arib al-Qurtubi's Sila in 1897. In Egypt, it was printed at al-Matba'a al-Husayniyya (1336 AH / 1918 CE) with the supplements, and later re-edited by Muhammad Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim and published by Dar al-Ma'arif across eleven volumes.
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