# Kitab al-Tawarikh

Source: https://coptic-lore-forge.lovable.app/wiki/kitab-al-tawarikh — Coptic Orthodox Wiki (updated 2026-10-02)

Kitab al-Tawarikh, rendered as “Book of Chronicles” or “Book of Histories,” names several historical and chronological works discussed in the Coptic Encyclopedia.[^1][^2][^5]

## Title and identification

*Kitab al-Tawarikh* is a title applied to several works: an anonymous chronological summary, a chronicle by Sa‘id ibn al-Bitriq, and a work attributed to Abu Shakir ibn al-Rahib. The title is translated as “Book of Chronicles” or “Book of Histories.”[^1][^2][^5][^6]

## Anonymous Book of Chronicles

An anonymous *Kitab al-Tawarikh* is preserved in a manuscript identified as British Museum, Arabic Supplement 34, dated 1789 and following a copy of 1594/5. Its compiler used the *Chronicon orientale*, including the portion attributed to Abu al-Fakhr al-Masihi, together with historical writings by Sa‘id ibn al-Bitriq, Agapius, Epiphanius, and others.[^1]

This chronological summary contains chronological and dynastic tables extending to 1257. It also brings popular time reckoning into agreement with the Coptic calendar of the martyrs.[^1]

## Chronicle of Sa‘id ibn al-Bitriq

Another *Kitab al-Tawarikh* is a work in classical Arabic by Sa‘id ibn al-Bitriq (877–940), the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria known as Eutychius.[^2] Addressed to his brother ‘Isa, it was intended to cover world history from Adam to the author’s own day and apparently extended through the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Radi (934–940).[^3]

The biographical entry on Ibn al-Bitriq calls his universal history *Nazm al-Jawhar* and records its later publication under the title *Kitab al-Tarikh al-Majmu‘ ala al-Tahqiq wa-al-Tasdiq*. It also notes that Edward Pococke edited the chronicle with a Latin translation in 1654.[^4]

Both accounts describe a continuation by Yahya ibn Sa‘id al-Antaki, but they disagree about its chronological extent. The literary survey places its endpoint under the Abbasid al-Zahir (1225–1226), whereas Ibn al-Bitriq’s biographical entry places it under the Fatimid al-Zahir (1020–1035).[^3][^4]

## Work of Abu Shakir ibn al-Rahib

Abu Shakir’s *Kitab al-Tawarikh* is a universal history in fifty-one chapters. It begins with astronomy and chronology, followed by world events and the history of the patriarchs of Alexandria. He used astronomical and mathematical data in establishing patriarchal dates.[^5]

The survey of Copto-Arabic literature gives a different description: it lists *Kitab al-Tawarikh* as a fifty-one-chapter work on the Coptic epact and major church feasts, while separately listing *Kitab al-Tarikh* as a concise universal history from creation to the author’s day. The supplied accounts therefore differ in how they distinguish the titles and contents of Abu Shakir’s chronological and historical writings.[^5][^6]

## Sources
[^1]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 56)
[^2]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 275)
[^3]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 276)
[^4]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 661)
[^5]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 92)
[^6]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 282)