IBN ASAKIR'S REPRESENTATIONS OF SYRIA AND DAMASCUS IN THE INTRODUCTION TO THE TARIKH MADINAT DIMASHQ

Abstract

In his landmark study of historiography in the Islamic world, Franz Rosenthal identified the biographical dictionary associated with a particular locality and prefaced by a topographical introduction as a characteristic form of “theological local historiography.” What Rosenthal described as the “theological” nature of these dictionaries relates to their origins in hadith scholarship, a field of religious studies devoted to preserving an accurate record of the sayings and actions of the Prophet and his Companions passed down orally through an unbroken and authentic chain of trustworthy transmitters. Thus, the original motivation for composing such works, the earliest extant example of which dates to the 9th century, was to catalogue hadith scholars who had lived in a city to facilitate the assessment of their plausibility as transmitters of particular traditions. Furthermore, as expressions of local pride, these dictionaries allowed Muslims to celebrate the contribution made in their town to the sustenance of the most authoritative body of knowledge, after the Quran, in Islam. Although by the 10th century these works began to include notables who embodied a city's political, literary, and economic claims to fame, the defining feature of the majority of the biographical entries remained the individual's engagement with the religious sciences, particularly hadith studies.