History of Baghdad (book)

**Tarikh Baghdad**
Editor	Mustafa Abdul Qadir 'Ata
Author	Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi
Country	Lebanon
Language	Arabic
Subject	History, Biography, Hadith
Publisher	Dar al-Kotob al-Ilmiyah (DKI)
Pages	9872
ISBN	9782745104663

History of Baghdad (Arabic: تاريخ بغداد, romanized: Tarikh Baghdad) is a major classical Islamic biographical dictionary written by the medieval Muslim historian, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi.[1][2]

Description

This immense encyclopedic work contains more than 7,831 biographies of the lives of scholars, thinkers, aristocrats, famous men and women connected to Baghdad from the earliest period of the city. It was compiled according to the method of hadith scholars, and included many benefits in it. In this book, the author includes previous lost manuscripts that explain the history of Baghdad. Thus al-Baghdadi's work is considered extremely valuable for preserving the titles of these books and the names of their authors, especially since there is no other reference than Tarikh Baghdad (History of Baghdad).[3] Nonetheless, it served as a reference for verifying the reliability of Hadith transmitters and also a valuable source for saints.[4] The author explains the city in details during the Islamic Golden Age when it was the world's greatest city of its time sharing us the imperial spender of the city's physical image and the intellectual climate created by its thousands of scholars and pious individuals. It is considered one of the most rich genres of Arabic and Persian historiography during the middle ages.[5] It is an encyclopaedic book consisting of 23 volumes.[6]

Abridgement

Several supplements (continuation) were made for Tarikh Baghdad and among them were:[7][8]

Ibn al-Sam'ani entitled 'A Continuation of the History of Baghdad' in 15 volumes.
Ibn al-Dubaythi entitled 'Continuation of History on the City of Peace' in 5 volumes.
Ibn al-Najjar entitled 'A [Useful] Extract from the continuation of the Ta'rikh Baghdad' in 30 volumes.

Influence

This book would inspire later historians to write their own version of encyclopaedia of their major cities such as Ibn Asakir who authored History of Damascus.[1]

Reception

The Lebanese Hadith scholar, Gibril Haddad stated:[9]

"Tarikh Baghdad ("History of Baghdad"), his most important work. Ostensibly a history of Baghdad, it is more specifically a reference work in narrator-authentication (‘ilm al-rijâl) and a valuable compendium of 4,385 hadiths narrated with their full chains, over half of them (2,253) not found in the two books of Sahih and the four Sunan. In this respect al-Khatib’s rank as an independent narrator is comparable to that of Al-Bayhaqi (d. 458), Ibn 'Abd al-Barr (d. 463), and Ibn Asakir (d. 571)."

References

Mourad, Suleiman A. (5 August 2021). Ibn 'Asakir of Damascus Champion of Sunni Islam in the Time of the Crusades. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9780861540464.
علي بن انجب،, بن الساعي، (5 September 2017). Consorts of the Caliphs: Women and the Court of Baghdad. NYU Press. p. 119. ISBN 9781479866793.
"(PDF) Al-Khateeb al-Baghdadi and His Work Tarikh Baghdad". academia.edu.
Neale, Harry S. (21 April 2022). Sufi Warrior Saints Stories of Sufi Jihad from Muslim Hagiography. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 123. ISBN 9780755643370.
Meri, Josef W. (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 437. ISBN 9781135455965.
Ta’rīkh Madīnat al-Salām (Ta’rīkh Baghdād) wa Dhaīlih wa-l Mustafād (in Arabic).
Azmi, Muhammad M. (2002). Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature. Islamic Book Trust. p. 161. ISBN 9789839154276.
Knysh, Alexander D. (1999). Ibn ʻArabi in the Later Islamic Tradition The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam. State University of New York Press. p. 287. ISBN 9780791439685.
Ayub, Zulfiqar (2 May 2015). THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ELITE LIVES OF THE SCHOLARS, IMAMS & HADITH MASTERS Biographies of The Imams & Scholars. Zulfiqar Ayub Publications. pp. 178–9.

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[Champion-1] Mourad, Suleiman A. (5 August 2021). Ibn 'Asakir of Damascus Champion of Sunni Islam in the Time of the Crusades. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9780861540464.

[2] علي بن انجب،, بن الساعي، (5 September 2017). Consorts of the Caliphs: Women and the Court of Baghdad. NYU Press. p. 119. ISBN 9781479866793.

[3] "(PDF) Al-Khateeb al-Baghdadi and His Work Tarikh Baghdad". academia.edu.

[4] Neale, Harry S. (21 April 2022). Sufi Warrior Saints Stories of Sufi Jihad from Muslim Hagiography. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 123. ISBN 9780755643370.

[5] Meri, Josef W. (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 437. ISBN 9781135455965.

[6] Ta’rīkh Madīnat al-Salām (Ta’rīkh Baghdād) wa Dhaīlih wa-l Mustafād (in Arabic).

[7] Azmi, Muhammad M. (2002). Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature. Islamic Book Trust. p. 161. ISBN 9789839154276.

[8] Knysh, Alexander D. (1999). Ibn ʻArabi in the Later Islamic Tradition The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam. State University of New York Press. p. 287. ISBN 9780791439685.

[9] Ayub, Zulfiqar (2 May 2015). THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ELITE LIVES OF THE SCHOLARS, IMAMS & HADITH MASTERS Biographies of The Imams & Scholars. Zulfiqar Ayub Publications. pp. 178–9.