Muhammad
Muhammad Ben Ishaq was the earliest recorder of Mohammud’s
movement. He wrote a history of the Umayad dynasty of Damachus. Waqidi’s Kitab-al-Maghazi
was about the history of military and missionary expression of Islam.
Al-Baladhuri was renowned historian whose work would fill five printed pages.
His main focus was on the westward expansion of Islam. His History of the
conquest covers the subjugation of Syria, Egypt, Cyprus, Spain and
so on. Tabari was one of the greates Mulsim historians. He was the
greatest searcher for information. His history of the Prophets and Kings
was the first universal history in the Arabic language.
After the conquest of Khwarazm in Persia, Mahmmud of Ghezmi had carried
Al-Biruni as a hostage. Al-Biruni was a school of encyclopedia. He followed the
conqueror to India where he spent thirteen years studying Sanskrit.
He translated several books from Sanskrit into Arabic. His famous book
Kitab-ul-Hind was a deep sociological study with modern scientific attitude and
sympathetic insight. He studies Indian culture in various aspects- philosophy,
mathematics, astronomy. Al-Biruni gave more information about Hindus of that
time. Edward Sachau writes: The work of Al- Biruni is unique in Muslim
literature….
Islamic Egypt did not give much proof of historic past until the
Fatimite period in the ninth century. Then a separate school of historical
studies arose. Al-Qurashi related the conquest of Egypt in his Futuh
Misr. Under the Mametukes in the fifteenth century there were many
distinguished historians. The greatest of them all was Ibn Taghri Birdi. His
Annals contained a number of subjects. He made various mentions of the
price if commodities in the market. Another school of historians arose in
conquered Spain. The most important series of biographical works starting
in the tenth and continuing into thje thirteenth century had been preserved
that compensated for the loss of historical works to Muslim Spain.
The crusades helped the historical writing in the Muslim world. Al-Qalanisi
very nicely mentioned the First and the Second Crusades in his Damascus
Chronicle and it supplemented the latin and Bjyzantine narratives. The most
valuable of the four biographies of Saladin was written by Baha-ad-Din of Mosul.
Manu writers related the history of the earth-shaking invasions of the Mongols
under Jingiz Khan in the thirteenth century. Ibn-al-Athir gave the detailed
description of the Mongols’ appalling cruelty and havoc they created. By AD
1400, Timur’s empire stretched from the confines of China and
northwestern India to Hungary played significant role for
Medieval Muslim Historiography.
