Ibn Al Athir : An Arab Historian: A Critical Analysis of His Tarikh-al-Kamil and Tarikh-al-Atabeca

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Arab Historiography in the Middle Ages. 2. The Life and Time of Ibn Al-Athir. 3. The Sources of Ibn Al-Athir's Historical Information. 4. The Periods of Prophet Muhommad, The Four Caliphs and the Umayyads. 5. The Abbasid Period-I. 6. The Abbasid Period-II. 7. Arrangement and Presentation of the Material. 8. Evaluation of Ibn Al-Athir as a Historian. Bibliography. Index.

The historian Ibn al-Athir lived during the last quarter of the twelfth and the first half of thirteenth century a turbulent period of Asia. The historian receiving elementry education first at home and later in the neighbouring schools turned a wondering scholar of the then known disciplines at various centres of learning in Mosul Baghdad, Damascus Allepo and Basra.