RESOURCESF. Baethgen as Fragmente syrischer und arabischer Historiker (Leipzig,
1884).
The anonymous chronicle of Si'irt is a tenth-or eleventh-century
Arabic translation of a lost, earlier Syriac chronicle. There is no agree-
ment among scholars on which one it is, but the second part covers
the years from 484 until 650 and parallels the so-called Khuzistan
chronicle very closely. The second part was published as "Histoire
nestorienne" with a French translation by A. Scher in PO, VII:2 (1950)
and XIII:4 (1919).
The main value of the chronicle of Michael the Syrian (1166-99)
is that his account of the sixth through eighth centuries is based on
otherwise lost earlier sources. This text was edited in four volumes
with a French translation by J. B. Chabot as the Chronique de Michel
le Syrien (Paris, 1899-1910; repr. Brussels, 1963).
The summary of political theory and Islamic history through the
fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in 1258 by MUQammad ibn 'All ibn
Taba~aba (or Ibn a~-Tiq~aqa, b. ca. 1262), called al-Kitiib al-fakhr'i{i-
l-iidab as-sultiiniyya wa-d-duwal al-isliimiyya (Paris, 1895; Beirut, 1386/
1966), is worth consulting only because it appears to contain some
unique details about early Islamic history. There is an annotated French
translation by E. Amar called Histoire des dynasties musulmanes de-
puis la mort de Mahomet jusqu' Cl la chute du Khalifat 'abbiiside de
Baghdad (Paris, 1910), and an English translation by C.E.J. Whitting
called al-Fakhri: On the Systems of Government and the Moslem
Dynasties (London, 1947).
Without question, the most important thirteenth-century Arabic
universal history is the fourteen-volume al-Kiimil {i-t-ta'r'ikh (Leiden,
1866-71; Beirut, 1385/1965) by 'Izz ad-DIn ibn al-AthIr (1160-1233).
The most important universal history in Syriac is the chronicle of Bar
Hebraeus (d. 1286). The first part of it, called the Chronicon syriacum,
covers secular history but relies heavily on the chronicle of Michael
the Syrian. The best edition of this part is P. Bedjan's Gregorii Bar-
hebraei Chronicon Syriacum (Paris, 1890). There is an English trans-
lation by E.A.W. Budge called the Chronography of Gregory Abu 'I
Faraj ... Known as Bar Hebraeus (Oxford, 1932). The second part
is an ecclesiastical history of both the Jacobite and Nestorian churches
and is based on earlier sources. It was edited in two volumes with a
Latin translation by J. B. Abbeloos and T. J. Lamy as Gregorii Bar-
hebraei Chronicon Ecclesiasticum (Louvain, 1872, 1877). Both Ibn
al-Athlr and Bar Hebraeus include information from earlier sources