The History of Al-Tabari

Al-Tabari's account of these years is drawn from such earlier historians as Abu Mikhnaf, al-Mada'ini, and al-Waqidi and includes eyewitness accounts, quotations from poems, and texts of sermons. Notable episodes include al-Mukhtar's slaying of those who had been involved in the death of al-Husayn at Karbala, the death of al-Mukhtar at the hands of Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr, the revolt of Amr b. Sa'id in Damascus, the death of Mus'ab at the Battle of Dayr al-Jathaliq, and al-Hajjaj's siege and conquest of Mecca on behalf of Abd-al-Malik. There are excursuses on the chair that al-Mukhtar venerated as a relic of Ali, the biography of the colorful brigand Ubaydallah b. al-Hurr, and the development of the secretarial office in Islam.

The translation has been fully annotated. Parallels in the works of Ibn Sa'd, al-Baladhuri, and the Kitabal-Aghani have been indicated in the notes where these accounts supplement or diverge from that of al-Tabari.