MESA Book Awards
Tayeb El-Hibri
University of Massachusetts
2000 Albert Hourani Book Award Honorable Mention
Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography, provides an innovative and sophisticated reading of Abbasid chronicles, particularly al-Tabari. El-Hibri is able to use a source base that is limited in comparison with that of other periods to achieve a convincing reconstruction of the dynamics and motivations of the early Abbasids. More tellingly, he manages to reconstruct how Abbasid-era chroniclers exploited various tropes and themes, and used various antecedents, to project a certain image of Harun al-Rashid and his sons for posterity.