Genealogies of the Nobles

What it is

This is a large history and genealogy of Arab peoples written by the historian Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Baladhuri, who died in 892. It covers pre-Islamic kings, poets and warriors as well as the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, including a section on al-Mansur and his family.

Why it matters

Written more than a century after al-Mansur's reign, this work shows how later Abbasid-era scholars recorded and shaped the memory of the dynasty's founders. Its complicated publication history, with surviving manuscripts scattered and only partly edited, shows how fragile and reconstructed much of early Islamic history is.

Look closer

• Why might a historian writing generations later be interested in recording a caliph's genealogy?
• What does the survival of only parts of this huge work tell us about how history gets passed down?
• How might an account written under later Abbasid rulers differ from one written during al-Mansur's own lifetime?