The History by Shanbal as the Earliest Specimen of the Historiography of Hadramawt

Abstract

The historiographical tradition of Hadramawt, the autonomous historical and cultural region of South Arabia, began its formation in the IX/XV century. The works of Hadramawt historiography appeared in great numbers following “The History of Hadramawt” by Ahmad bin ‘Abdullah Shanbal. “The History of Hadramawt» belongs to the biographical genre of narrative characterized by a concise form of reporting. It was under the inϐluence of Muslim law and, to a lesser extent, theology, that the history of various branches of knowledge was compiled as a collection of biographies of authoritative ϐigures. Thus, the genre of biography in Arab-Muslim historiography became the most enduring of all forms of historical expression. Shanbal through the prism of biographies of ulems, fakikhs, qadis, rulers and commanders gave us the basis for constructing the history of medieval Hadramawt. This article identiϐies features of the Hadramawt historiographic tradition based on an analysis of the text of Ahmad bin ‘Abdullah Shanbal’s work. In compiling his chronicle, Shanbal apparently relied on Ba Hasan, Ba Shurahbil, ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Khatib, Ba Makhrama, genealogies and family hagiologies of sayyids and mashayyih.