How did Muslims of the classical Islamic period understand their past? What value did they attach to history? How did they write history? How did historiography fare relative to other kinds of Arabic literature? These and other questions are answered in Chase F. Robinson's Islamic Historiography, an introduction to the principal genres, issues, and problems of Islamic historical writing in Arabic, that stresses the social and political functions of historical writing in the Islamic world. Beginning with the origins of the tradition in the eighth and ninth centuries and covering its development until the beginning of the sixteenth century, this is an authoritative and yet accessible guide through a complex and forbidding field, which is intended for readers with little or no background in Islamic history or Arabic.

An accessible guide into the complex field of Islamic historiography.

About the Author
Chase F. Robinson is University Lecturer in Islamic History at the University of Oxford. His publications include Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation of Northern Mesopotamia (2000).

Reviews
'He is to be commended for the outstanding effort he has invested and the solid scholarship he exhibits in this work, which earns his Islamic Historiography a place beside distinguished recent studies on the subject ... Robinson's notes are exceptionally informative, and offer a rich guide to further specialized readings on a wide range of topics not at all restricted to Islam. It makes an outstanding textbook for students of Islamic studies, at both undergraduate and graduate levels.' Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations



Book Information
ISBN 9780521629362
Author Chase F. Robinson
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 380g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 166mm * 16mm