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Updated: May 15, 2025
Hamza treats his materials in a spirit of much more freedom and independence than Tabari, but to us the compiling process of Tabari is far more convenient. Masudi in his "Meadows of Gold" affords us many a supplement to Tabari's narratives derived from reliable Persian sources.
We know of a few of the numerous writings, large and small, of Ibn Kelbi which are enumerated for us in the Fihrist and which probably are at the root of Tabari's chapters. It is quite possible that Tabari borrows many of the secondary sources of Ibn Kelbi.
For the history of the Arab princes of Hira, which is so intimately related to that of the Persian empire, Tabari's chief authority was Hisham bin Muhammad called Ibn Kelbi a man who, like his father Muhammad bin Saib Kelbi before him, has rendered, however often modern criticism may take exception to the unscientific system of both the writers, the greatest service in connection with the collection of the scattered information on the history of ancient Arabs.
The principal value of Tabari's compilation consists in the extremely exhaustive presentation of the history of Islam from the first appearance of the Prophet; no other Arabic work in this respect can compare with his. The pre-Islamic history comprises, may be, a twentieth portion of the whole work and gives a very groat deal of what we would rather be without.
In this section of Tabari's great work mediately or immediately a large amount of diverse information has been brought together. It is certainly desirable and to be hoped that the criticism of the sources in this domain would make substantial progress.
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