Schönléber (Mónika), Ibn Aʿtham al-Kūfī and his Kitāb al-futūḥ. Author, Textual Tradition, and Ridda Narrative. With a New Edition of the Text on the Ridda, 2 Vol., Berlin, Gerlach Press, 2024, 750 p. ISBN 9783959941808

Author

Mónika Schönléber is a post-doctoral researcher at the Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, Budapest.

Presentation

This two-volume set delves deeply into the life of the Muslim scholar Ibn Aʿtham al-Kūfī and his monumental historical work, the Kitāb al-futūḥ (Book of Conquests). Previous research has treated this work with considerable suspicion, and its historical value was called into question almost from the very moment of its discovery. This study firmly situates Ibn Aʿtham within the historical context of the early fourth/tenth century, shedding new light on his notable contributions to Islamic historiography.

Volume 1 examines Ibn Aʿtham’s biography, proposes a refined timeframe for his life and work, and investigates the reception of his work across the Muslim world and in modern scholarship, identifying significant periods of popularity in different regions. Detailed codicological descriptions of the Kitāb al-futūḥ’s surviving Arabic manuscripts underscore the complexity of the textual tradition, while analyses of the sources of the narrative on the ridda (’apostasy’) wars and its poetic elements enrich our understanding of Ibn Aʿtham’s sources and his authorial methods. The book also provides critical editions of the Kitāb al-futūḥ’s collective isnāds, prepared on the basis of all available Arabic manuscripts, alongside their translations and detailed analyses.

Volume 2 presents a new critical edition of the Kitāb al-futūḥ’s first sections, covering the saqīfa and ridda narratives based on the chronicle’s two manuscripts kept in the Forschungsbibliothek Gotha and the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna.