In Spain, Abû'l-Khaṭṭâb 'Umar Ibn Diḥya al-Kalbî, born at Valencia in 1149, was surnamed Dhu'l-nasabain (With two Genealogies), because he was descended, on his father's side, from Diḥya al-Kalbî—that curious individual of Mahomet's time, who was said by the Prophet to be like the Archangel Gabriel, and whom he sent as his ambassador to Heraclius-and, on his mother's, from Husain, the son of 'Alî. He travelled all over Spain in pursuit of his studies, was twice appointed qâdî of Denia, and dismissed on account of his scandalous behaviour. He took up his traveller's staff again, wandered to Morocco, and to Bijâya, where he taught the knowledge of the traditions (1198). He sojourned some time in Egypt before starting on pilgrimage to Mecca, and, on his return from the Holy City, made a long detour, lasting over several years, by Syria, Chaldea, and Persia. On his return, Al-Malik al-Azîz chose him to be tutor to his son Al-Malik al-Kâmil, and when that prince succeeded to power he built his old master the Madrasa Kâmiliyya, where he taught the traditions. He eventually fell into disgrace, was dismissed, and died on 30th October 1235.

About the same period we find Diyâ al-dîn Muḥammad al-Khazrajî, who died in 1228. He was the author of a didactic poem on versification, called al-Râmiza alShafiya, which was edited at Rome, by Guadagnoli, in 1642, and has been the subject of many commentaries.

WE have already seen how history began with the Maghazi-works devoted to the story of Mahomet's wars. The constantly increasing development of the study of the tradition (hadith), one of the fundamental bases of Moslem law, made it necessary to collect every possible information as to the life of the lawgiver. Further, students of ancient Arab poetry were led to inquire into the old historic deeds, and the "days" or battles to which the poets referred, and chroniclers registered the events which took place after the establishment of Islam, adding legendary information, obtained at second-hand, as to what they believed to be the ancient history of Persia and of the Jewish nation. The translations into Arabic of the Sâsânian Books of the Kings, produced at an early date by Persians who wrote and spoke Arabic, certainly gave an impetus to historical study. We may be sure that the 'Abbâsid Caliphs, whose capital was close to the ruins of Seleucia and of Ctesiphon (not to mention the more ancient Babylonian towns, the memory of which was totally lost), were resolved, when they left the world the story of the events that took place under their rule, not to allow themselves

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to be eclipsed by the monarchs whom the Arabs had overthrown.

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Even at the close of the Omeyyad dynasty we find a writer of maghâzî, Mûsâ ibn 'Uqba ibn Abî'l-Ayyâsh, whose works earned him the singularly honourable title of imam al-maghâzî, chief, or director, of historical studies as to the wars of the Prophet." His work was put together in 1387 by Ibn Qâdî Shuhba. The author himself, a freedman belonging to the Zubair family, at Medina, died in 758. But the great authority of those days, constantly quoted in later works, is Abû ‘Abdallah Muḥammad IBN ISHAQ, the original of whose work is now lost; but a great part of it has been preserved to us in a compilation by Ibn Hishâm ('Abdalmalik al-Himyarî al-Başrî, died at Old Cairo in 834), known under the name of Sîrat al-Rasûl (Biography of the Prophet), published by Wüstenfeld, and translated into German by G. Weil. The ill-will Ibn Ishâq brought on himself at Medina obliged him to leave that town for Alexandria, and thence he went to Kûfa and Rai. At Hîra he met the Caliph Al-Manşûr, who invited him to settle at Bagdâd, a city he had then just founded, and there to make all the traditions of the Prophet he had collected into one volume. He died at Bagdad in 768.

Another and most famous historian was AL-WAQIDÎ, but he chiefly owes his renown to impostors, who—very probably at the time of the Crusades, and to stir the warlike spirit of the Moslems by reminding them of the brilliant period of their conquests-sent forth historical romances on the wars in Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Africa, under his venerated name. Nevertheless, his great historical work (Kitab al-Maghazi) has come down to us, and has been published at Calcutta by Alfred von

Kremer. Abû 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn 'Umar alWâqidî, who was born at Medina in 747, began life as a corn merchant. Having ruined himself by extravagance, he was obliged to leave the city. At Bagdad, the vizier, Yahyâ ibn Khâlid the Barmakide, furnished him with the wherewithal to arrange his affairs, and appointed him qâdî over the western side of the city; Caliph Ma'mûn later sent him in the same capacity to Ruşâfa, and there he died on 28th April 823.

A story reported by Mas'ûdî in the Golden Meadows, translated by Barbier de Meynard, casts a vivid light on the amicable relations between the historian and his friends. The incident is related by Wâqidî himself. "I had two friends, one of whom belonged to the Hâshim family, and we were, so to speak, but one soul. The festival at the end of the great Fast drew near, and I was in a state of great poverty, when my wife said to me: 'If it only affected ourselves, we could very well bear poverty and privation. But the poor children! I pity them, and it makes my heart bleed! They will see the neighbours' children dressed and adorned for the festival, and they will still have to wear their wretched rags. Couldst thou not, by some means or other, find enough money to get them clothes?' I wrote to my friend the Hâshimite, and begged him to help me in this circumstance. He at once sent me a sealed purse, telling me it contained a thousand dirhems. I had hardly time to get my breath before I received a letter from my other friend telling me of the same trouble as that I had just revealed to my Hâshimite comrade. I sent him the purse just as it had come to me, and went to the Mosque, where I spent the night, for I did not dare to go back to my wife. Nevertheless,

when I did go home, she approved what I had done, and did not utter one word of reproach to me. Thus the matter stood when my Hâshimite friend came to me carrying the purse, still just as he had sent it to me, and he said: 'Tell me honestly what you did with that which I sent you?' I told him everything, just as it had happened, and he continued as follows: 'At the moment when your message reached me, I had nothing in the world except the sum I sent you; I therefore wrote to our mutual friend to beg him to come to my aid, and he sent me my own purse, still sealed with my own seal.' We then divided the money into three parts, and each took one, having previously set apart a hundred dirhems for my wife."

His secretary, IBN SAD (Abû 'Abdallah Muḥammad, died 845), collected his works, of which he possessed one of the four copies existing when their author died, and himself produced a collection of biographies (tabaqât) of the Prophet, his companions, and his successors. His life of Mahomet is occasionally reckoned as a separate volume.

While these authors were writing history in general, Al-Azraqi was compiling a history of Mecca, founded on the fabulous traditions of the pre-Islamic period, and on the notes collected by his own grandfather, Abû'lWalid al-Azraq, a descendant of the Ghassânid dynasty, who died in 834. Al-Azraqî himself died soon after 858. A successor of his, Al-Fâkihî (Abû ‘Abdallah), also wrote a history of Mecca, in 885; the two have been published by Wüstenfeld. Ibn Zabâla's history of Medina, 'Umar ibn Shabba's histories of Bassora and Kûfa, Aslam ibn Sahl's history of Wâsit; that of Mosul, by Abû Zakarîyâ al-Azdî, qâḍî of that town;