This volume covers the history of the Muslim community and the biography of Muhammad in the middle Medinan years. It begins with the unsuccessful last Meccan attack on Medina, known as the battle of the Trench.

Events following this battle show the gradual collapse of Meccan resistance to Islam. The next year, when Muhammad set out on pilgrimage to Mecca, the Meccans at first blocked the road, but eventually a ten-year truce was negotiated at al-Hudaybiyah, with Muhammad agreeing to postpone his pilgrimage until the following year. The Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah was followed by a series of...

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...