The Meadows of Gold
LC Class | DS38.6 .M3813 1989 | |
Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems (
The Meadows of Gold is considered unique in medieval Islamic history. Due to its reliance on and references to Islam, the style of the book makes up an example of what constitutes Islamic historiography.
Editions and translations
A first version of the book was allegedly completed in the year 947 AD and the author spent most of his life adding and editing the work.[1]
The first European version of The Meadows of Gold was published in both French and Arabic between 1861 and 1877 by the
Versions of the source text by Mas'udi have been published in Arabic for hundreds of years, mainly from presses operating in Egypt and Lebanon.
One English version is the abridged The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids, published in 1989, and was translated and edited by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. According to this edition's introduction, their English translation is heavily edited and contains only a fragment of the original manuscript due to the editors' own personal research interests and focuses almost exclusively on the Abbasid history of Mas'udi. Their introduction also outlines how the editors relied mainly on the Pellat revision in French and are therefore mainly working from the French translation with the Arabic source text as a background guide.[3]
Another English version was published in 1841 by Aloys Sprenger, which includes a full translation of the first volume and extensive footnotes.
Historian Hugh N. Kennedy calls the book "Probably the best introduction to the Arabic historical tradition for the non-specialist."[4]
Place in Islamic historiography
Written in the "new style" of historical writing of
Masudi also contributed an important role in this historicity by adding the importance of eye-witnessing a place or event in order to strengthen its veracity. Khalidi states that "Mas'udi's own observations form a valuable part of his work."[5] And that "In contrast to Tabari, who provides little or no information on the lands and peoples of his own day, Mas'udi often corroborated or rejected geographical and other data acquired second-hand."[5]
In addition the book is unique in medieval Islamic history for its interest in other cultures and religions as scientific and cultural curiosities. According to Lunde & Stone's introduction, this outlook is a major "characteristic that distinguishes Mas'udi from other Muslim historians."[6]
Contents
Lunde & Stone
The contents of the Lunde & Stone version are broken into small vignettes which take up less than a full page of text in most cases. In addition are several pages of poetry.
The Lunde & Stone edition focuses primarily on the
Some notable sections include several stories involving the various Caliphs and their interactions with commoners like "Mahdi and the Bedouin" (37) in which the Caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) is served a humble meal by a passing Bedouin who in turn is rewarded with a large monetary reward.
A large portion of the English text is dedicated to stories involving the Caliph
Another significant portion of the text involves the civil war between Caliph al-Amin (r. 809–813) at Baghdad and his half-brother al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833), who defeated Amin and became Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate. The text spends a considerable number of pages relaying several lengthy poems about the horrors of the siege of Baghdad (812–813).
English version reception
While the French version has been a key historical text for over a century, the newer English version has received mixed reviews.
The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies' review suggests that although the English version leaves out several passages of Pellat's edited version the book still retains important historical text and the passages omitted "are digressions from the main story and interrupt its flow."[7]
The Journal of the American Oriental Society, however, takes issue with the fact that the English version relied heavily on the French edited version (and not the entire French or Arabic version) and that the editing of the text cut out passages of "no less historical import than the ones included."[8]
This review also is critical of the English version's use of vignette-style segments versus the style of Mas'udi, whose original work is not cut into small pieces but rather is written in full pages without apparent breaks or chapters.
See also
References
- ^ a b Stone, Caroline (March–April 2005). "The Model of the Historians". Saudi Aramco World. Vol. 56, no. 2.
- ^ Masudi (1989). The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids. London: Kegan Paul International. p. 17. Translated and edited by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone.
- ^ Masudi (1989). The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids. London: Kegan Paul International. Translated and edited by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone.
- ^ Kennedy, Hugh. When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty. Cambridge: Da Capo P, 2006. P. xxii.
- ^ a b Khalidi, Tarif (1975). Islamic Historiography: The Histories of Mas'udi. Albany: State U of New York. p. 4.
- ^ Masudi (1989). The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids. London: Kegan Paul International. p. 13. Translated and edited by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone.
- ^ Bosworth, C. Edmund. Rev. of The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids by Masudi. Translated and edited by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1. (1991), pp. 139-140.
- ^ Bonner, Michael. Rev. of The Meadows of Gold: The Abbasids by Masudi. Translated and edited by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 111, No. 4. (Oct. - Dec., 1991), pp. 786-787.
External links
- Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, an English translation of the Muruj al-dhahab by Aloys Sprenger, London 1841
- Prairies d'or, Arabic edition and French translation of Muruj al-dhahab by Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille, Paris 1861-77
- L'Abrégé des Merveilles, an 1898 abridgment of the Muruj al-dhahab by Bernard Carra de Vaux
