I said, “Let us turn to the opinion of [Abū Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarīr] al-Ṭabarī [d. 923], for he is the greatest historian and traditionist of the Islamic world and no other opinion can outweigh his.” He said, “We do not rely upon al-Ṭabarī. We will bring the great works of histories of the Arabs and the Persians and debate with you.” I said, “And I, for my part, shall debate according to the view of al-Ṭabarī.” This ended the discussion, and he was silent.

1. We first read an excerpt from Ibn Khaldun, a great historian of the Muslim world. His family came from Muslim Spain, but he was born in North Africa. He spent many years working in the administrations of local rulers, until he eventually moved to Egypt, where he died in 1406. We will encouter him quite often in this course and will discuss his life in week 6. This week, we turn to his famous book The Muqaddimah (or, Introduction), in which he lays out his vision of history, its patterns and purpose. In the excerpt that we read this week he is trying to make sense of a question that should bother us too: how were the Arabs (meaning, pre-Islamic Arabs, not Arabs in the modern sense), a fragmented society, able to conquer the known world and establish their rule over it? What do you think of his answer, is it any good? 2. The other source we read this week is by another famous Muslim historian, al-Tabari. al-Tabari was originally from Iran, but lived most of his life in Baghdad, where he died in 923. He wrote a massive historical work, History of Messengers (or Prophets) and Kings, in which he collected all he knew about the world from its creation to his days. Translated into English in its entirety this work takes up 40 volumes. When we say that al-Tabari wrote this book, we need to understand that his role was often that of an editor, not an author: he selected, arranged and edited accounts that he found in the works of others. Usually, he names his sources. In the excerpt we read today, al-Tabari is telling what happened before a major battle between the Persians (representing the Sasanian Empire) and the Arabs, the battle of Qadisiyya that took place in the mid-630s (perhaps, in 636). On the eve of the battle, the Persians want to talk and the Arabs (Muslims) send an envoy. Here you have a vivid account of how this messenger arrives to the assembled Persians. Historically this encounter is not important: the battle took place regardless and the Arabs won. But the narrative is significant for how it shows the values of the two sides involved in the fight. So what are these values? For the Arab side, to what extent are their ethnic (that's the way Arabs are) and to what extent religious (that's the way Muslims are)?