Tarikh al-Ya'qubi (The History of al-Ya'qubi)

Al-Ya'qubi divides his work in two: a first part in which he "abridged" the beginning of the world and the reports of the early nations and kingdoms, and a second on Islam. In the preface to the second he says he did not aim at a book of his own invention, but gathered what earlier scholars, transmitters, biographers and chroniclers had reported, because they differed in their accounts, in dates and in the offices held, some adding and others leaving out. ¹

The second part opens with the Prophet ﷺ's birth, the mission, the hijra, the campaigns and expeditions and the delegations of the Arabs, then moves through the caliphs one reign at a time. Each reign closes with the length of the caliphate, the caliph's age, who led the funeral prayer, where he was buried, his sons, and who led the pilgrimage in each year; the opening of each reign is paired with the positions of the planets on the day of the oath. ^{3 4 5} In the printed copy the text ends with the events of 258 AH under al-Mu'tamid, followed by the copyist's note: "here ends what survives of the history of Ibn Wadih al-Katib al-Abbasi". ²