Fourth:
Resources and Sources

The historian Ibn Kathīr made a point of consulting every early source available to him in the eighth century AH. In his chronicle he wove together the various branches of the Islamic disciplines, drawing first and foremost on the Noble Qur’an, the classical works of Qur’anic exegesis, the hadith collections, the biographical dictionaries, and the books of maghāzī, sīrah, and general history. This breadth testifies to his profound learning, wide reading, sound method, and the worthiness of the topics he addressed. Ibn Kathīr—may Allah have mercy on him—excelled in his task, attained his goal, and introduced us to foundational works, some of which have not reached us to this day.

Yet it should be noted that the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr used to trace the primary, contemporary sources, abridge them, and often rely exclusively upon them. Thus he was especially attentive to transmitting from al-Ṭabarī’s History and Ibn al-Jawzī’s al-Muntaẓam for the period he himself witnessed. After that he relied on the History of the Iraqi historian Tāj al-Dīn Ibn al-Sāʿī (d. 674 AH) and on the chronicle of his own teacher al-Barzalī, to which he almost confined himself for the years 665–738 AH, and the like.

It was common among many Muslim historians, when quoting a particular source, to reproduce that source’s own references as well, making it difficult at times to identify the works the author had personally examined.

In spite of this, in this concise, distilled introduction we shall place before the reader the names of these resources (1) and sources, together with their authors. We have grouped them into coherent categories and arranged them according to their importance and the frequency with which Ibn Kathīr consulted them.

[A – Works of Tafsīr]

1 – Tafsīr of Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH).
2 – Tafsīr of Ibn Abī Ḥātim (d. 327 AH).
3 – The Great Tafsīr of al-Suddi (d. 127 AH).
4 – Tafsīr of ʿAbd al-Razzāq (d. 211 AH).
5 – Tafsīr of Ibn Mardawayh (d. 410 AH).
6 – Tafsīr of Shujāʿ ibn Mukhallad (d. 355 AH).
7 – Tafsīr of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Naqqāsh (d. 315 AH).
8 – al-Taʿrīf wa-l-Iʿlām by al-Suhaylī (d. 581 AH).
9 – Tafsīr of the judge Ibn Saʿīd al-Bulūṭī (d. 355 AH).
10 – Tafsīr of Ibn ʿAṭiyya (d. 383 AH).
11 – Tafsīr of Abū ʿĪsā al-Rūyānī (d. 384 AH).
12 – Tafsīr of the judge al-Māwardī (d. 450 AH).
13 – Tafsīr of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH).
14 – Tafsīr of al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH).