Al-Maqrizi’s al-?abar ?an al-bašar, Vol. V, Section 4: Persia and Its Kings, Part I

Now available in Open Access thanks to support of the University of Helsinki. Al-Maqrizi's (d. 845/1442) last work, al-H?abar ?an 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-Maqrizi'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-H?abar's sources is Kitab Hurušiyuš, the Arabic translation of Paulus Orosius' Historiarum adversum paganos libri vii. This source has only been preserved in one defective copy, and al-Maqrizi's text helps to fill in some of its lacunae.