The 'History of the kings of the Persians' in three Arabic chronicles : the transmission of the Iranian past from Late Antiquity to early Islam / translated with introduction and notes by Robert G. Hoyland.

Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2018.
  • ©2018
Description
1 online resource (xii, 185 pages) : maps, genealogical tables.

Details

Subject(s)
Editor
Translator
Series
Contains
Summary note
This book translates the sections on pre-Islamic Persia in three Muslim Arabic chronicles, those of Ahmad al-Ya'qubi (d. ca. 910), 'Ali al-Mas'udi (d. ca. 960) and Hamza al-Isfahani (d. ca. 960s). Their accounts, like those of many other Muslim historians on this topic, draw on texts that were composed in the period 750-850 bearing the title 'The History of the Kings of the Persians'. These works served a growing audience of well-to-do Muslim bureaucrats and scholars of Persian ancestry, who were interested in their heritage and wished to make it part of the historical outlook of the new civilization that was emerging in the Middle East, namely Islamic civilization. This book explores the question of how knowledge about ancient Iran was transmitted to Muslim historians, in what forms it circulated and how it was shaped and refashioned for the new Perso-Muslim elite that served the early Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, a city that was built only a short distance away from the old Persian capital of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. -- from publisher's description.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-180) and index.
Source of description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (Liverpool University Press, viewed January 20, 2021).
Language note
Translated from the Arabic.
Contents
  • Translations
  • 1. Hamza al-Isfahani
  • 2. `Ali al-Mas'udi
  • 3. Ahmad al-Ya'qubi
  • Appendices
  • 1. Ibn al-Muqaffa' and the `History of the Kings of the Persians'
  • 2. Chronicle of Siirt and the `Book of Lords'
  • 3. Abu Ma'shar and the Lost Books of Jay
  • Gazetteer
  • Maps
  • Tables
  • 1. Reign lengths of Pishdadid, Kayanid and Arsacid kings
  • 2. Reign lengths of Sasanid kings
  • 3. Genealogy of the Sasanid Emperors
  • 4. Transmission of key sources cited in this book.
Other title(s)
Transmission of the Iranian past from Late Antiquity to early Islam
ISBN
  • 9781800857889 ((electronic book))
  • 1800857888 ((electronic book))
OCLC
1231982483
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