A weak characteristic of Arabic historians is their utter disregard of the social side of national life. Political history to them is history par excellence. It should, however, be said, to the credit of al-Balâdhuri, that while from a modern standpoint he is defective in that respect, still he stands superior to other historians.
As one reads Futûḥ al-Buldân and is struck by the fact that a long chapter is devoted to the "digging of the wells of Makkah",[1] whereas the conquest of Tripoli, Africa, is dismissed with a few words,[2] he cannot help feeling his sense of proportion suffer. Most of the two chapters entitled "The Founding of al-Kûfah"[3] and "of al-Baṣrah"[4] are devoted to the explanation of the names given to baths, canals and castles and only a small part relates to actual colonization.
One might also add that Arabic historians were not very sensitive on the question of indecency of language. In general the language of Futûḥ is clean, with the exception of the case of al-Mughîrah, the governor of al-Baṣrah under ‘Umar.[5]
According to Hâji Khalfa,[6] the fist writers on biography and campaigns were, among others, ‘Urwah ibn-az-Zubair (d. 93) and Wahb ibn-Munabbih (d. 114); and we read[7] that Muḥammad ibn-Muslim az-Zuhri wrote a book of campaigns. These works are all lost and the first biography we have is that of ibn-Hishâm (d. 213) based on ibn-Isḥâḳ (d. 151). Az-Zubair and az-Zuhri, as well as ibn-Isḥâḳ, are among the sources of al-Balâdhuri.
That in most cases the same tradition that underlies the
