Reinterpreting Islamic historiography : Hārūn al-Rashīd and the narrative of the ʻAbbasid caliphate / / Tayeb El-Hibri [[electronic resource]]

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910450039303321
• Autore: El-Hibri Tayeb
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 1999
• ISBN: 1-107-11678-3; 1-280-15382-2; 0-511-11752-3; 0-511-00431-1; 0-511-15021-0; 0-511-31007-2; 0-511-49747-4; 0-511-05204-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (ix, 236 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Collana: Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization
• Disciplina: 909/.09767101
• Soggetti: Islamic Empire History 750-1258 Historiography
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-229) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Preliminaries; Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations and note on the dates; The line of the early 'Abbasid caliphs; CHAPTER I Historical background and introduction; CHAPTER 2 Harun al-Rashid: where it all started or ended; CHAPTER 3 Al-Amin: the challenge of regicide in Islamic memory; CHAPTER 4 Al-Ma'mun: the heretic caliph; CHAPTER 5 The structure of civil war narratives; CHAPTER 6 Al-Mutawakkil: an encore of the family tragedy; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: The history of the early 'Abbasid Caliphate has long been studied as a factual or interpretive synthesis of various accounts preserved in the medieval Islamic chronicles. Tayeb El-Hibri's book breaks with the traditional approach, applying a literary-critical reading to examine the lives of the caliphs. By focusing on the reigns of Harun al-Rashid and his successors, the study demonstrates how the various historical accounts were not in fact intended as faithful portraits of the past, but as allusive devices used to shed light on controversial religious, ; political and social issues of the period. The analysis also reveals how the exercise of decoding Islamic historigraphy, through an investigation of the narrative strategies and thematic motifs used in the chronicles, can uncover new layers of meaning and even identify the early narrators. This is an important book which represents a landmark in the field of early Islamic historiography.