Kitab al-Tawarikh
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]
Also known as: Book of Chronicles · Book of Histories
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.”1256
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).34
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.56
References
Sources
- 1.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 56)
There also is a chronological summary work, the Book of Chronicles (Kitab al-Tawarikh) in the British Museum (Arabic Supplement 34; 1789, following a 1594/5 copy) by an unknown author who used the Chronicon orientale, including the part due to Abu al-Fakhr, and the historical work of Sa‘id IBN AL-BITRIQ, Agapius, Epiphanius, and others. In it there are time and dynasty tables up to the year 1257, and the popular time reckoning is brought into agreement with the Coptic (martyr) CALENDAR.
- 2.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 275)
Two major works written in classical Arabic appeared in that period. The first was a book of chronicles, Kitab al-Tawarikh, by Sa‘id ibn al-Bitriq (877-940), known as Eutychius, Melchite patriarch of Alexandria.
- 3.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 276)
But his historical work, Kitab al-Tawarikh, which he addressed to his brother ‘Isa, remains his major contribution. He intended thereby to cover the whole span of world history from Adam to his own day. Apparently, he covered the period of Islamic history to the Abbasid caliphate of al-Radi (934-940). From this point his work was continued by Yahya ibn Sa‘id al-Antaki on a more massive scale covering most of the rest of the Abbasid period from the caliphate of al-Muttaqi (940-944) to the caliphate of al-Zahir (1225-1226).
- 4.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 661)
After his election to the patriarchate, however, he distinguished himself as a historian, and, according to Ibn Abi Usaybiah, his eleventh-century biographer, wrote a voluminous work entitled Nazm al-Jawhar, a universal history from Adam to his own day in the reign of Abbasid Caliph al-Radi (934-940). Apart from the detailed annals of the caliphate, he incorporated into his text the story of the Melchite patriarchs and details of their feasts and fasts. His reign was rather turbulent; he also wrote a treatise of disputation between him and his adversaries in an attempt to establish the Melchit
- 5.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 92)
As a historian, Abu Shakir composed a universal history under the title Kitab al-Tawarikh (The Book of histories) consisting of fifty-one chapters beginning with a section on astronomy and chronology followed by a chronicle of world events and the history of the patriarchs of Alexandria. His compilation of the dates of the Coptic popes is a significant contribution to Coptic chronology and historiography, in which he displayed his unusual skill in the use of astronomical and mathematical data.
- 6.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 282)
(3) Kitab al-Tawarikh, on the definition of the Coptic epact and the major feasts of the Coptic church in fifty-one chapters; (4) Kitab al-Tarikh, a succinct universal history from the creation to his day; (5) Kitab al-Majami‘, a survey of the ecumenical councils; and (6) Usul Muqaddmat Sullam al-Lughah al-Qibtiyyah, a scala and introduction in Arabic to the Coptic language and Coptic grammar. His compilation of the patriarchal biographies and the computations of the dates of the patriarchs is considered the most invaluable source in this connection on account of his meticulous astronomical an
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