The Origins of the Islamic State

Translated by Dr. Philip Kh ri Hitti in 1916, The Origins of the Islamic State, or the Kit b Fut ḥ al-Buld n in Arabic, was an unparalleled source of Islamic history and culture in the early 20th century, and is still renowned today as one of the greatest accounts of Arabic history. This book is coveted for its historical tracing of events to the source, despite the work being incomplete as much of the original manuscripts were lost after the sixteenth century. This made the work especially difficult to translate, but even so, it remains one of the most well-documented accounts of Muslim history. The work covers the conquest of nations such as Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Africa, and Persia. The Fut ḥ al-Buld n is widely-recognized as author al-Biladuri's chief surviving work, and was oft used by later historians to write their own Arabic histories. AHMAD BIN YAHYA BIN JABIR AL BILADURI (d. 892) was a Persian historian from the Ninth Century, considered today as a reliable source of early Arabic and Islamic history, particularly of the Muslim expansion. He lived at the court of the caliphs Al-Mutawakkil and Al-Musta'in in Baghdad, and served as tutor to al-Mutazz's son. He died in 892 from an overdose of the drug baladhur (from which Al Biladuri's name is derived).