RESOURCEShistory by eighth-century Arabic-writing authors such as the Kufan
Abii Mikhnaf Liit ibn YaJ..tya al-Azdl (d. 157/774) and Abii I-Basan
'All ibn MuJ..tammad al-Mada'inl (135/752-235/850), who was born
in Basra, lived in Mada'in, and died in Baghdad. Such authors are
also cited by Dinawarl and Ya'qiibi, but not nearly so extensively,
The Persian summary, prepared by Abii MuJ..tammad ibn 'Abdullah
Bal'ami in about 352/963 and translated into French by H. Zotenberg
as Chronique de Abou-Djafar-Mo 'hammed-ben-Djarfr-ben-Yezid Ta-
bari, traduite sur la version persane d' Abou-'Ali Mo 'hammed Bel'ami
(Paris, 1938) in four volumes, is full of tenth-century anachronisms
and is no substitute for Tabari's Arabic text.
The Kitiib al-Futu~ (Ms. Topkapisaray, Ahmet Ill, no. 2956), com-
posed in 819 by AJ..tmad ibn 'Uthman ibn A'tham al-Kiifi (d. 314/
926), is not as authoritative as Baladhuri but should be consulted.
There is a Persian translation by M. al-Mustawfl al-Harawi (Bombay,
130011882), but so far the only published Arabic edition consists of
an inferior text with gaps filled in by the Persian translation (Hay-
darabad, 1975).
Arabic universal histories continued to cover the Sasanians along
with Islamic history in the tenth century. The Ta'rtkh sint muluk a/-
art/. wa-I-anbiyii' (Beirut, 1961) of Bamza ibn al-Basan al-I~fahani (f1.
904-61) contains some unique details about the end of the Sasanian
period, as well as descriptions of the physical appearance of Sasanian
monarchs that appear to come from portraits. This text was also edited
by J. Gottwaldt in two volumes as Tawiirtkh sin, muluk aI-art/. wa-l-
anbiyii' (Leipzig, 1844, 1848). The Kitiib al-'Unwiin, written before
945 by the Christian Agapius of Manbij, took the Syriac tradition of
universal history into Arabic. This text was published by S. J. Cheiko
as Agapius Episcopus Mabbugensis, Historia Universalis, CSCO, Scr.
Arabici 10 (Louvain, 1954), and with a French translation by A. A.
Vasiliev in PO, V:4; VII:4; VIII:3 (Paris, 1909-12).
Among the major Arabic-writing historians, Abii I-Basan 'All ibn
al-Busayn al-Mas'udi, a native of Baghdad who died in Egypt in 345/
956, is second only to Tabari in importance. His Kitiib muruj adh-
dhahab wa-ma'iidin al-jawhar, written in about 943, is a major uni-
versal chronicle. His section on the Sasanians has been used widely
along with Tabari in modern interpretations of Sasanian history. An
English translation was published in three volumes by A. Sprenger as
EI-Mas'udi's Historical Encyclopaedia, Entitled "Meadows of Gold
and Mines of Gems" (Muruj al-Dhahab) (London, 1841). An edition