Before the caliphate of the 'Uthman b. 'Affan, the Muslim community had grown from strength to strength in spite of a series of major crises--the Hirah, the death of the Prophet, the Riddah wars, the assassination of 'Umar by a Persian slave. But 'Uthman's reign ended in catastrophe. His inability to manage the social and political conflicts that were now emerging among various factions within the community led to his death at the hands of Muslim rebels. The consequences of this tragic event were bitter: not only a century of civil war, but also political and religious schisms of such depth...

This section of al-Tabari's History covers the eight-year reign of al-Mu'tasim (833-42), immediately following the reign of his elder brother al-Ma'mun, when the Islamic caliphate was once more united after the civil strife and violence of the second decade of the ninth century A.D. Al-Mu'tasim's reign is notable for the transfer of the administrative capital of the caliphate from Baghdad north to the military settlement of Samarra on the Tigris, where it was to remain for some 60 years. This move meant a significant increase in the caliphs' dependence on their Turkish slave guards....

This section of the History of al-Tabari covers the caliphate of Muhammad al-Amin, who succeeded his father, Harun al-Rashid on March 24, 809, and was killed on September 25, 813.

The focus of this section is a single event, the civil war between al-Amin and his half-brother al-Ma'mun. Before his death, al-Rashid had arranged for the succession in a series of documents signed at Mecca and deposited for safekeeping in the Ka'bah. Al-Amin was to become caliph; al-Ma'mun was to govern Khurasan with virtual autonomy from Baghdad. Al-Amin could neither remove his brother from office nor...

The 20 years' caliphate of al-Ma'mum began as a stormy period in Middle Eastern history; after the comparatively peaceful reign of his father Harun al-Rashid, the caliphate was plunged into violent civil warfare in both Iraq and Arabia, involving the sons of al-Rashid, rivals for the supreme authority, and various other sectarian rebels and aspirants for power. Yet once peace was secured and the caliphate lands united once more, al-Ma'mum's reign settled down into one of the most exciting and innovative of the mediaeval caliphate. The Caliph himself was a highly cultivated man who possessed a...

This volume presents for the first time in English Tabari's complete account of the twenty-year long reign of the fifth caliph, Mu'awiyah (661-680). The importance of this account lies partly in Tabari's quotation of major portions of the work of earlier authors, such as Abu Mikhnaf and other eighth-century compilers. It is also significant because Tabari's selection of themes has had a decisive influence on modern interpretations of this period, particularly on the identification of what the important issues were in the works of Henri Lammens and Julius Wellhausen. Here one can read the...

This volume covers the years 700-715 A.D., a period that witnessed the last five years of the caliphate of the Umayyad 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan and the whole of the caliphate of his son al-Walid. In retrospect, this period can be seen to have marked the apogee of Marwanid Umayyad power. It began with the dangerous revolt of the Iraqi tribal leader Ibn al-Ash'ath, which seriously imperilled Marwanid control of Iraq and was countered with considerable difficulty; but this proved to be the last of the obstacles faced by 'Abd al-Malik in the wake of the Second Civil War of 685-693. Thereafter he...

The years 738-745/121-127, which this volume covers, saw the outbreak in Syria of savage internecine struggles between prominent members of the Umayyad family, which had ruled the Islamic world since 661/41. After the death of the caliph Hisham in 743-/125, the process of decay at the center of the Umayyad power--the ruling family itself--was swift and devastating. Three Umayyad caliphs (al-Walid II, Yazid III, and Ibrahim) followed Hisham within little more than a year, and the subsequent intervention of their distant cousin Marwan b. Muhammad (the future Marwan II) could not arrest the...

This volume covers the vital early years of the second Muslim civil war, when the Umayyad caliphate seemed on the point of extinction. That it survived had much to do with the vigor of the Umayyad Marwan b. al-Hakam whose initial restoration of Umayyad authority is described here in some detail by al-Tabari's sources. In the chaos and confusion of the civil war, however, developments took place that were to prove significant for the future of the Umayyad calphate, indeed for the early history of Islam in general. Among them, the first manifestations of large-scale tribal divisions among the...

The events described in this volume took place during al-Tabari's own time. Al-Tabari was thus writing "contemporary history," and his narrative, often based on first-hand reports, is drawn in vivid and arresting detail. The volume portrays the summit of "the Samarra period," following al-Mu'tasim's transfer of the 'Abbasid capital upstream from Baghdad to Samarra.

Three caliphs are portrayed in this volume: al-Mu'tasim's son and successor, al-Wathiq; al-Wathiq's brother al-Mutawakkil; and al-Mutawakkil's son al-Muntasir. At this time the 'Abbasid caliphs came under the dominant influence...

The present volume of the History of al-Tabari deals with the years 14 and 15 of the Islamic era, which correspond to A.D. 635-637. The nascent Islamic state had just emerged victorious from the crisis that followed the Prophet's death in 632 and had suppressed what was known as the riddah ("apostasy") rebellion in the Arabian peninsula. Under the leadership of 'Umar b.'al-Khattab, the second caliph, or successor to the Prophet Muhammad, the Muslims embarked on the conquests that would soon transform the whole of the Middle East and North Africa into an Arab empire. Most of the present volume...