The History of Al-Tabari: The Revolt of the Zanj, A.D. 869-879/A.H. 255-265 (Tabari//History of Al-Tabari/Ta'rikh Al-Rusul Wa'l-Muluk) [Hardcover]

David Waines (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Tabari//History of Al-Tabari/Ta'rikh Al-Rusul Wa'l-Muluk | Publication Date: October 1991

The present volume of al-Tabari's monumental history covers the years 255-265/869-878, the first half of the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tamid in Samarra. Although the decade was one of relative calm in the capital, compared with the anarchy of the years immediately preceding, danger signals were flashing in territories adjacent to the imperial heartlands. Chief among them was the revolt of the Zanj, the narrative of which occupies the bulk of the present volume.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Arabic

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791407632
• ISBN-13: 978-0791407639
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,885,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed view of unsettled times many centuries ago, March 17, 2001

By 

Larry Koenigsberg (Eugene, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The History of Al-Tabari: The Revolt of the Zanj, A.D. 869-879/A.H. 255-265 (Tabari//History of Al-Tabari/Ta'rikh Al-Rusul Wa'l-Muluk) (Hardcover)

Al-Tabari, a Baghdad historian of the ninth century CE, writes a vast number of anecdotes about the early part of a slave revolt against the Muslim empire in its heartland of southern Iraq. The empire generally was fracturing at this time, although a caliph who restored some stability assumes his post during the period covered by this book.

The cast of characters is huge, and the welter of names can be confusing. Who is working for whom? At one point Muhammad b. Ali (fighting for the state) goes off to war on Ali b. Muhammad (the revolt's leader, and no relation), highlighting the plethora of similarities in names.

The 40-odd volumes of al-Tabari in translation are in the form of annals, and the Zanj revolt is only one theme, incomplete at that, in Volume 36. It is unusual in that it gives a view, however fragmentary, of African slaves in Iraq. The work is almost entirely political and military in orientation, with little in the way of authorial voice or judgment aside from al-Tabari's insistence on referring to Ali b. Muhammad as "the abominable one."

The translation is adequate. The scholarly apparatus would have been much improved for the general reader by many more maps and other aids to understanding the context.

For me, the most striking thing about the work is its combination of factual density and remoteness. Al-Tabari witnessed some of the events he describes, and his work here seems generally akin to contemporary reporting.