The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen / translated and annotataed by C.E. Bosworth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ṭabarī, 838?-923.

Contributor:

Bosworth, Clifford Edmund.

Series:

Ṭabarī, 838?-923. English ; Tārīkh al-rusul wa-al-mulūk. v. 5.

SUNY series in Near Eastern studies

The history of al-Ṭabarī = Taʾrīkh al-rusul waʾl-mulūk ; v. 5

Bibliotheca Persica

Bibliotheca Persica (Albany, N.Y.)

Standardized Title:

Tārīkh al-rusul wa-al-mulūk. Selections. English

Language:

Arabic

English

Subjects (All):

Iran--History--To 640.

Iran.

History.

Iran--History--640-1256.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 458 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [1999]

Summary:

This volume of al-Tabari's History has a particularly wide sweep and interest. It provides the most complete and detailed historical source for the Persian empire of the Sasanids, whose four centuries of rule were one of the most glorious periods in Persia's long history. It also gives information on the history of pre-Islamic Arabs of the Mesopotamian desert fringes and eastern Arabia (in al-Hira and the Ghassanid kingdom), and on the quite separate civilization of South Arabia, the Yemen, otherwise known mainly by inscriptions. It furnishes details of the centuries'-long warfare of the two great empires of Western Asia, the Sasanids and the Byzantine Greeks, a titanic struggle which paved the way for the subsequent rise of the new faith of Islam. The volume is thus of great value for scholars, from Byzantinists to Semitists and Iranists. It provides the first English translation of this key section of al-Tabari's work, one for which non-Arabists have hitherto relied on a partial German translation, meritorious for its time but now 120 years old. This new translation is enriched by a detailed commentary which takes into account up-to-date scholarship.

Contents:

[The Kings of the Persians] 1

[Ardashir I] 2

[The History of al-Hirah] 20

Mention of the Holders of Power in the Kingdom of Persia after Ardashir b. Babak 23

[Sabur I, called Sabur al-Junud] 23

[Hurmuz I] 40

[Bahram I] 43

[The History of al-Hirah] 44

[Bahram II] 46

[Bahram III] 47

[Narsi] 48

[Hurmuz II] 49

[Sabur II Dhu al-Aktaf] 50

[The History of al-Hirah] 67

[Ardashir II] 67

[Sabur III] 68

[Bahram IV] 69

[Yazdajird I] 70

[The History of al-Hirah] 74

[Bahram V Jur] 82

[Yazdajird II] 106

[Fayruz I] 109

Mention of Events in the Reigns of Yazdajird (II), Son of Bahram (V), and Fayruz, and the Relations of Their Respective Governors with the Arabs and the People of Yemen 121

[Balash] 126

[Qubadh I] 128

Mention of What Has Been Recorded Concerning the Events Taking Place Among the Arabs in Qubadh's Reign in His Kingdom and Involving His Governors 139

[Kisra I Anusharwan] 146

[The History of al-Hirah] 162

[The History of Yemen]

Mention of the Rest of the Story of Tubba' in the Days of Qubadh and the Time of Anusharwan and the Persians' Dispatch of an Army to Yemen in Order to Combat the Abyssinians, and the Reason for This Last 164

[Resumption of the History of Kisra Anusharwan] 252

Mention of the Birth of the Messenger of God 268

[The Remainder of Kisra Anusharwan's Reign and the Last Sasanid Kings] 285

[Hurmuz] 295

[Kisra II Abarwiz] 305

Mention of Those Who Say That (i.e., those who say that the words of Surat al-Rum refer to Abarwiz's defeat of Hiraql) 324

Mention of the Account Concerning the Events That Happened when God Wished to Take Away from the people of Persia Rule over Persia, and the Arabs' Overrunning It by Means of God's Favoring Them with His Prophet Muhammad, Involving the Prophethood, the Caliphate, the Royal Power, and the Dominion, in the Days of Kisra Abarwiz 331

[The Encounter at Dhu Qar] 338

Mention of Those Vassal Rulers Set over the Desert Frontier of the Arabs at al-Hirah as Appointees of the Monarchs of Persia, after 'Amr b. Hind 370

The Story Returns to the Mention of al-Maruzan, Who Governed Yemen on Behalf of Hurmuz and His Son Abarwiz, and His Successors 373

[Qubadh II Shiruyah] 381

[Ardashir III] 400

[Shahrbaraz] 402

Buran 403

[Jushnas Dih] 405

[Azarmidukht] 406

[Kisra III] 407

[Khurrazadh Khusraw] 407

[Fayruz II] 408

[Farrukhazadh Khusraw] 408

[Yazdajird III] 409

Mention of Those Who Say That (i.e., that there elapsed ten centuries from Adam to Noah, a further ten from Noah to Abraham, and a further ten from Abraham to Moses) 413.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [419]-441) and index.

ISBN:

0791443558

0791443566

OCLC:

41834097