History of al-Tabari Vol. 1 The: General Introduction and From the Creation to the Flood (SUNY series in Near Eastern Studies)

Volume I of the thirty-eight volume translation of Tabaris great History begins with the creation of the world and ends with the time of Noah and the Flood. It not only brings a vast amount of speculation about the early history of mankind into sharp Muslim focus but it also synchronizes ancient Iranian ideas about the prehistory of mankind with those inspired by the Quran and the Bible. The volume is thus an excellent guide to the cosmological views of many of Tabaris contemporaries. The translator Franz Rosenthal one of the worlds foremost scholars of Arabic has also written an extensive introduction to the volume that presents all the facts known about Tabaris personal and professional life. Professor Rosenthals meticulous and original scholarship has yielded a valuable bibliography and chronology of Tabaris writings both those preserved in manuscript and those alluded to by other authors. The introduction and first volume of the translation of the History form a ground-breaking contribution to Islamic historiography in English and will prove to be an invaluable source of information for those who are interested in Middle Eastern history but are unable to read the basic works in Arabic.