Le traducteur

Philip Khuri Hitti (1886 - 1978), né à Chemlane au Liban, était un historien spécialiste de l’islam, du monde arabe et des langues sémitiques, introducteur de l’étude de la culture arabe aux États-Unis. Entre 1926 et 1954, il occupa la chaire de "Professor of Semitic Literature and Chairman of the Department of Oriental Languages" à l’Université Princeton.

(Source http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/research/vitrage/all/ha/ihrc894.html)

Préface

INTEREST in the Nearer East has increased our desire to
know as accurately as is possible the beginnings of the faith
and of the various states that have played so important a
part in its history. The Arabs themselves have had, from
the earliest times, a keen sense for historical tradition and
an equally keen desire to preserve that tradition in writing.
There is, perhaps, no people of earlier times that has left us
so large an amount of documentary evidence as to its be-
ginnings as they have. The evidence, of course, needs sift-
ing and sorting according to the canons of criticism we
have learned to employ in all such cases. But, this work
cannot be done by Oriental scholars alone, whose time is
often taken up largely with the philological and literary
examination of the texts that have come down to us. It is,
therefore, eminently a part of their duty to render these
texts accessible to students of history who are not masters
of the Arabic language.

Dr. Hitti has undertaken this task in connection with the
record of one of the earliest Arab historians whose work
has been preserved. Since its publication in 1866 by Pro-
fessor de Goeje, al-BaJadhuri’s " Futuh al-Buldan" has
been recognized as one of our chief authorities for the
period during which the Arab state was in process of for-
mation. This task of translating has not been a simple one :
proof is that the attempt has not been made before this.
The style of al-Baladhuri is often cryptic and unintelligible.
This is perhaps due to the fact that the work, as it has
reached us, is a shortened edition of a much larger one which, though existent up to the seventeenth century, has
not been found in any of the collections of manuscripts to
which we have access. In its present form, the work men-
tions often men and matters that probably were treated of
in the longer recension, but of which now we know nothing.
Dr. Hitti’s translation is, therefore, in a certain sense also,
a commentary and an exposition. As such, I trust that it
will be found useful to Orientalists as well as to students of
history. His fine sense for the niceties of Arabic expres-
sion has often enabled him to get through a thicket that is
impenetrable to us Westerners.

RICHARD GOTTHEIL.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, JANUARY, 1916.

Table des matières

PAGE FOREWORD INTRODUCTION

Arabic Historiography with Special Reference to al-Baladhuri. i

PART I ARABIA

CHAPTER I Al-Madinah 15

CHAPTER II The Possessions of the banu-an-Nadir 34

CHAPTER III The Possessions of the banu-Kuraizah 40

CHAPTER IV Khaibar 42

CHAPTER V Fadak 50

CHAPTER VI Wadi-1-Kura and Taima’ 57

CHAPTER VII Makkah 60

CHAPTER VIII The Wells of Makkah 77

CHAPTER IX The Floods in Makkah 82

CHAPTER X At-Ta’if 85

CHAPTER XI Tabalah and Jurash 91

CHAPTER XII Tabuk, Ailah, Adhruh, Makna and al-Jarba’ 92

CHAPTER XIII Dumat al-Jandal 95

CHAPTER XIV The Capitulation of Najrin 98

CHAPTER XV Al-Yaman 106

CBAPTER XVI TJmin 116

CHAPTER XVII Al-Babrain 120

CHAPTER XVIII Al-Yamamah 132

CHAPTER XIX The Apostasy of the Arabs in the Caliphate of abu-Bakr as-Siddik .’. 143

CHAPTER XX The Apostasy of the banu-Wali’ah and al-Ash’ath ibn-Kais ibn- Ma’dikarib ibn-Mu’awiyah-1-Kindi 153

CHAPTER XXI Al-Aswad al-’Ansi and those in al-Yaman who Apostatized
with him 159

PART II-SYRIA
CHAPTER I

The Conquest of Syria 165

CHAPTER II

The Advance of Khalid ibn-al-Walid on Syria and the Places

he Reduced on his Way 169

CHAPTER III

The Conquest of Busra 173

CHAPTER IV

The Battle of Ajnadin (or Ajnadain) 174

CHAPTER V

The Battle of Fihl in the Province of the Jordan 176

CHAPTER VI

The Province of the Jordan 178

CHAPTER VII

The Battle of Marj as-Suffar 182

CHAPTER VIII

The Conquest of Damascus and its Province 186

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

The Battle of al-Yarmuk 207

CHAPTER XI

Palestine 213

CHAPTER XII

The Province of Kinnasrin and the Cities called al-’Awasim. . . 223
CHAPTER XIII

Cyprus 235

CHAPTER XIV

The Samaritans 244

CHAPTER XV

Al-Jarajimah 246

CHAPTER XVI

The Frontier Fortresses of Syria 253

PART III MESOPOTAMIA
CHAPTER I

The Conquest of Mesopotamia [al-Jazirah] 269

CHAPTER II

The Christians of the banu-Taghlib ibn-Wa’il 284

CHAPTER III

The Fortifications of the Mesopotamian Frontier 287

CHAPTER IV

Arabic made the Language of the State Registers 301

PART IV ARMENIA
CHAPTER I

The Conquest of Armenia 305

PART V NORTHERN AFRICA
CHAPTER I

The Conquest of Egypt and al-Maghrib [Mauritania] 335

CHAPTER II

The Conquest of Alexandria 346

CHAPTER III

The Conquest of Barkah and Zawilah 352

CHAPTER IV

The Conquest of Tripoli 355

CHAPTER V

The Conquest of Ifrikiyah .................................. 35

CHAPTER VI

The Conquest of Tanjah [Tangiers] ......................... 3&*

PART VI ANDALUSIA

CHAPTER I

The Conquest of Andalusia ................................ 3$5

PART VII-ISLANDS IN THE SEA

CHAPTER I

The Conquest of Certain Islands in the Sea .................. 375

PART VIII-NUBIA

CHAPTER I

Terms made with Nubia .................................... 379

CHAPTER II

The Karatfs ................................................ 33

PART IX AL-’IRAK AND PERSIA

CHAPTER I

The Conquest of as-Sawad .................................. 387

The Caliphate of abu-Bakr as-Siddik.
CHAPTER II

The Caliphate of ’Umar ibn-al-Khattab ...................... 401

CHAPTER III

The Battle of Kuss an-Natif, or the Battle of al-Jisr ......... 403

CHAPTER IV

The Battle of Mihran or an-Nukhailah ...................... 405

CHAPTER V

The Battle of al-Kadisiyah ................ 409

CHAPTER VI

The Conquest of al-Mada’in ............ 417

CHAPTER VII

The Battle of Jalula’ ...................... 420

CHAPTER VIII

The Founding of al-Kufah ...................... 434

CHAPTER IX

Wasit al-’Irak 449

CHAPTER X

Al-Bata’ih 453

CHAPTER XI

Madinat as-Salam 457

CHAPTER XII

Arabic made the Language of the Register 465

PART X MEDIA [AL-JIBAL]
CHAPTER I

IJulwan 469

CHAPTER II

The Conquest of Nihawand 471

CHAPTER III

Ad-Dinawar, Masabadhan and Mihrijankadhaf 478

CHAPTER IV

The Conquest of Hamadhan 481

CHAPTER V

Kumm, Kashan and Isbahan 485

CHAPTER VI

The Death of Yazdajird ibn-Shahriyar ibn-Kisra ibn-Abarwiz
ibn-Hurmuz ibn- Anushirwan 490

INDEX 495

ERRATA 5*7