History of Nations 2

This is the translation of the first part in a sequence of books written by Imam Abd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Abu ’l-Faras̲h̲ b. al-Jawzi, known as Ibn al-Jawzī. He was an Arab Muslim jurisconsult, preacher, orator, heresiographer, traditionist, historian, judge, hagiographer, and philologist who lived in Baghdad during the twelfth century.In this book, he collected what was known in his time about the nation’s history. As the reader will note, this book focused first on parts more toward the Middle East region and on the prophets known to Jews and Christians. The reason behind this is that Baghdad was the heart of the Islamic world, and most of the other nations’ knowledge had been concentrated in Baghdad in the Golden Age of the Islamic Empire.It is essential to understand that the first and second part of this book, until 600 AD, was based on what the Imam read and gathered from Israelites known to him in his time. So, similarities might be found between the historical events mentioned in those two parts and Biblical stories.Starting from the end of the second book onward, the authentication differs hugely, as those are more related to Islamic history and the states surrounding the Islamic empire. The spread of knowledge and literacy within the Islamic world resulted in better record-keeping, and references to an event were recorded in different documents. 3