مروج الذهب ومعادن الجوهر

"Muruj al-Dhahab" (The Meadows of Gold) by al-Mas'udi, a comprehensive work on history, literature and geography. It begins with the reports of the peoples, the non-Arabs and the earth and what is in it, then the reports of Islam and the caliphs down to his own time. It is his best-known work. ¹

Al-Mas'udi ends the book with the second comprehensive history, from the Hijra to Jumada al-Ula 336 AH, which was the time he finished it. He says that for dates he relies on the astronomical tables, among them the table of Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani. He gives for each caliph the length of his reign, from Abu Bakr to al-Muti li-Llah. ²

He includes a record of who led the pilgrimage for the people year by year, from the beginning of Islam to his time. At the end of the list of the pilgrimage leaders of the Umayyads, for the year 131 AH, he says: "This is the last pilgrimage that the Umayyads made." ³

He says he has left out no kind of knowledge or branch of reports, but has set it out in detail or in summary or pointed to it. He apologises for any error of omission or misreading, given how much he travelled between East and West. ⁴