Matthew S. Gordon

The Works of Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (3 vols): An English Translation Matthew S. Gordon

The Works of Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi contains a fully annotated translation of the extant writings of Abu al-`Abbas al-Ya`qubi, a Muslim imperial official and polymath of the third/ninth century, along with an introduction to these works and a biographical sketch of their author. The most important of the works are the History (Ta'rikh) and his Geography (Kitab al-buldan). The works also contains a new translation of al-Ya`qubi's political essay (Mushakalat al-nas) and a set of fragmentary texts drawn from other Arabic medieval works. Al-Ya`qubi's writings are among the earliest surviving Arabic-language works of the Islamic period, and thus offer an invaluable body of evidence on patterns of early Islamic history, social and economic organization, and cultural production.

Contributors: Laila Asser, Paul Cobb, Lawrence I. Conrad, Elton Daniel, Fred Donner, Michael Fishbein, Matthew S. Gordon, Sidney H. Griffith, Wadad Kadi (al-Qadi), Lutz Richter-Bernberg, Chase F. Robinson, Everett K. Rowson