Medieval Arabic Historiography: Authors as Actors.

• Author: Amitai, Reuven
• Position: Book review

By Konrad Hirschler. SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East, vol. 5. London: Routledge, 2006. Pp. x +181. $160 (cloth); [pounds sterling] 22.50, $39.95 (paper)

I approached this book with great interest and some excitement, and was not disappointed. Hirschler's volume, based on his Ph.D. dissertation, sets out to be a close reading and analysis of the works of two important Syrian historians of the mid-thirteenth century: Abu Shama (d. 1268) and Ibn Wasil (d. 1298). Over the years, I have studied large sections of works by both authors for the heady events of the 1250s and 1260s in Syria and the surrounding countries: the end of the Ayyubid rule in Egypt, the establishment of what would become the Mamluk sultanate, the coming of the Mongols to the region and their repulsion by the Mamluks, and the early years of Mamluk rule in Syria. In my readings of these works, al-Dhayl 'ala l-Rawdatayn by Abu Shama and Mufarrij al-kurub fi akhbar bani ayyub by Ibn Wasil, I found that both authors not infrequently refer to themselves in their rendition of historical events. I confess that this encounter with authors as real people in the historical narrative was for me a thrilling experience. The appearance of historians as historical actors has long fascinated me, whether the information is "autobiographical" or from other sources (often mentioned en passant). We now have a full-blown monograph that takes on the subject of these two personalities, generally from the same social and intellectual milieu, but of different character, outlooks, and occupation. We learn much about the authors themselves--their character, activities, and world-outlook--along with the writing of history in Arabic at this time and the social and intellectual history of this key period. I should note, however, that while the author deals with the entire career of these two authors, his historiographical analysis is based mainly on the treatment of the great rulers Nur al-Din (d. 1171) and Saladin (d. 1193) in two works: the hitherto mentioned Mufarrij al-kurub and the Kitab al-Rawdatayn fi akhbar al-dawlatayn al-nuriyya wa-l-salahiyya by Abu Shama. I will return to the choice of subject matter at the end of this review.

The book opens with some theoretical considerations, most importantly the explanation of the term "agency," which here refers to how each author chose to work the material at his disposal, in consideration of the relevant "facts" and the rich historiographical tradition that had developed in Muslim Syria. This sets the scene for the volume as a whole: how two authors of ostensibly similar background, writing about the same subject, produce such different works in form and content. Following this is a chapter giving the historical and historiographical background, and we are first introduced in a serious way to our authors and their works. The next two chapters ("Social Contexts" and "Intellectual Contexts") probe deeper and wider into the lives, personalities, and works of Abu Shama and Ibn Wasil. The latter had a successful career as a teacher and judge in his native Hama, in Egypt, and elsewhere, and dedicated his mainly...