List of Muslim historians

The following is a list of Muslim historians writing in the Islamic historiographical tradition, which developed from hadith literature in the time of the first caliphs. This list is focused on pre-modern historians who wrote before the heavy European influence that occurred from the 19th century onward.

Chronological list

Historians of the formative period

First era: 700–750 (Ibn Zubayr and al-Zuhri's histories no longer exist, but they are referenced in later works).

Second era: 750–800

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (d.741)
Ibn Ishaq (d. 761) Sirah Rasul Allah (The Life of the Apostle of God)
Abi Mikhnaf (d. 774) Maqtal al-Husayn

Third era: 800–860

Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (d. 819)
Al-Waqidi (d. 823) Kitab al-Tarikh wa'l-Maghazi (Book of History and Battles).
Ibn Hisham (d. 835)
Ibn Sa'd (d. 845)
Khalifa ibn Khayyat (d. 854)
Muhammad ibn Habib al-Baghdadi (d. 860)

Fourth era: 860–900

Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 871) Futuh Misr wa'l-Maghrib wa akhbaruha
Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889) Uyun al-akhbar, Al-Imama wa al-Siyasa^[1]
Al-Dinawari (d. 891) Akbar al-tiwal
Baladhuri (d. 892)
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838–923) History of the Prophets and Kings

Fifth era: 900–950

Ya'qubi (d. 900) Tarikh al-Yaqubi
Ibn Fadlan (d. after 922)
Ibn A'tham (d. 314/926-27) al-Futuh
Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī (d. 945)

Historians of the classical period

Iraq and Iran

Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli (d. 946)
Ali al-Masudi (d. 955) The Meadows of Gold
Sinan ibn Thabit (d. 976)
al-Saghani (d. 990) one of the earliest historians of science
Ibn Miskawayh (d. 1030)
al-Utbi (d. 1036)
Hilal ibn al-Muhassin al-Sabi' (d. 1056)
al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 1071) Tarikh Baghdad (a biographical dictionary of major Baghdadi figures)
Abolfazl Beyhaqi (995–1077) Tarikh-e Mas'oudi (also known as Tarikh-e Beyhaqi).^[1]
Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201)
Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229) author of Mu'jam al-Buldan ("The Dictionary of Countries")
Ibn al-Athir (1160–1231) al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh
Muhammad bin Ali Rawandi (c.1204) Rahat al-sudur, (a history of the Great Seljuq Empire and its break-up into minor beys)
Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi (d. 1242)
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1256)
Hamdollah Mostowfi (d. 1281)
Ibn Bibi (d. after 1281)
Ata-Malik Juvayni (1283)
Ibn al-Tiqtaqa (d. after 1302)
Ibn al-Fuwati (d. 1323)
Wassaf (d. 1323)
Rashid-al-Din Hamadani (d. 1398) Jami al-Tawarikh
Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi (d. 1454)
Mirkhond (d. 1498) Rauzât-us-safâ

Egypt, Palestine and Syria

Al-Muqaddasi (d.1000)
Ẓāhir al-Dīn Nīshāpūrī around 1175
al-Musabbihi (d. 1030), Akhbar Misr^[2]
Ibn al-Qalanisi (d. 1160)
Ibn Asakir (d. 1176)
Usamah ibn Munqidh (d. 1188)
Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (d. 1201)
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (d. 1231)
Baha al-Din ibn Shaddad (d. 1235) al-Nawādir al-Sultaniyya wa'l-Maḥāsin al-Yūsufiyya (The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin)
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1256) Mir'at al-zaman (Mirror of the Time)
Ibn al-Adim (d. 1262)
Abu Shama (AH 599–665/AD 1203–68) full name Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maqdisī^[3]
Ibn Khallikan (d. 1282)
Ibn Abd al-Zahir (d. 1293)
Abu'l-Fida (d. 1331)
al-Nuwayri (d. 1332)
al-Mizzi (d. 1341)
al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) Tarikh al-Islam al-kabir
Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) al-Bidaya wa'l-Nihaya (The Beginning and the End)
Ibn al-Furat (d. 1405)
al-Maqrizi (d. 1442) al-Suluk li-ma'firat duwwal al-muluk (Mamluk history of Egypt)
Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani (d. 1449)
al-Ayni (d. 1451)
Ibn Taghribirdi (d. 1470) Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira (History of Egypt)
al-Sakhawi (d. 1497)
al-Suyuti (d. 1505) History of the Caliphs
Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi (d.1522)

al-Andalus and the Maghreb

Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 974)
Ibn al-Qūṭiyya (d. 977) Ta'rikh iftitah al-Andalus
Ibn Faradi (d. 1012)
Ibn Hazm (d. 1063)
Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr (d. 1071)
Ibn Hayyan (d. 1075)
al-Udri (d. 1085)
Abū 'Ubayd 'Abd Allāh al-Bakrī (d. 1094)
Qadi Iyad (d. 1149)
Mohammed al-Baydhaq (d. 1164)
Ibn Rushd (d. 1198)
Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi
al-Qurtubi (d. 1273)
Abdelaziz al-Malzuzi (d. 1298)
Ibn Idhari (d. 1312)
Ibn Battuta (d. 1369))
Ibn al-Khatib (d. 1374)
Ibn Abi Zar (d. ca. 1320) Rawd al-Qirtas
Ismail ibn al-Ahmar (d. 1406)
Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) al-Muqaddimah and al-I'bar

India

al-Bīrūnī (d. 1048) Kitab fi Tahqiq ma li'l-Hind (Researches on India), The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries
Minhaj-i-Siraj (d. after 1260)
Amir Khusro (d. 1325)
Ziauddin Barani (d. 1357)
Akbar Shah Khan Najibabadi (1875–1938)
Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman Medieval Indian medical historian
Sayyid Shamsullah Qadri (24 November 1885 – 22 October 1953)
Muhammad Asadullah Al-Ghalib (15 January 1948)

Early modern historians

Turkish: Ottoman Empire

Aşıkpaşazade (d. 1481)
Tursun Beg (d. after 1488)^[4]
İdris-i Bitlisi (d. 1520)
Ibn Kemal (d. 1534)
Matrakçı Nasuh (d. 1564)
Hoca Sadeddin Efendi (d. 1599)
Mustafa Âlî (d. 1600)
Mustafa Selaniki (d. 1600)
Katip Çelebi (d. 1647)
İbrahim Peçevi (d. 1650)
Evliya Çelebi (d. after 1682)
Mustafa Naima (1655–1716) Ta'rīkh-i Na'īmā
Silahdar Findiklili Mehmed Aga (d. 1723)
Ahmed Resmî Efendi (d. 1783)
Ahmet Cevdet Pasha (d. 1895)

Arabic: Ottoman Empire and Morocco

Ibn Iyas (d. after November 1522)
Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari (d. 1632)
Mohammed al-Ifrani (d. 1747)
Mohammed al-Qadiri (d. 1773)
Khalil al-Muradi (d. 1791)
Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (d. 1825) Aja'ib al-athar fi'l-tarajim wa'l-akhbar
Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri (d. 1897)

Persian: Safavid Empire and Mughal India

Muhammad Khwandamir (d. 1534)
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (d. 1602) Akbarnama
Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni (d. 1615)
Firishta (d. 1620)
Iskandar Beg Munshi (d. 1632)
Nizamuddin Ahmad (d. 1621)
Inayat Allah Kamboh (d. 1671)
Muhammad Saleh Kamboh (d. c. 1675)
Abul Fazl Mamuri (c. 1700)
Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi (d. c. 1760)

Historians of the modern period

Mohammad Iqbal (b. 1877)
Joel Hayward (b. 1964)

Notes

^ ^a ^b (Robinson hasn't mentioned his name.)
^ Bianquis, "Al-Musabbihi", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden: Brill, 1960-2004.
^ Antrim, Zayde G. "Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maqdisī". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_22839. ISSN 1873-9830. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
^ "Tursun Beg." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1960-2004.

References

Robinson, Chase F. (2003), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-62936-5. XIV and XV ("Chase F. Robinson" in "Islamic Historiography" has mentioned the chronological list of Islamic historians.)
Babinger, Franz. Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen. Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz, 1927.
Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1960-2004.

[Robinson-1] (Robinson hasn't mentioned his name.)

[2] Bianquis, "Al-Musabbihi", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden: Brill, 1960-2004.

[3] Antrim, Zayde G. "Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maqdisī". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_22839. ISSN 1873-9830. Retrieved 23 April 2018.

[4] "Tursun Beg." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1960-2004.

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