''Būstān al-jāmiʿ li-jamīʿ tawārīkh al-zamān'' ( ar, بستان الجامع لجميع تواريخ الزمان, , General Garden of All the Histories of the Ages). is an anonymous

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

chronicle from

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Claude Cahen Claude Cahen (26 February 1909 – 18 November 1991) was a 20th-century French Marxist orientalist and historian. He specialized in the studies of the Islamic Middle Ages, Muslim sources about the Crusades, and social history of the medieval Isla ...

, "Une chronique syrienne du VI^e/VII^e siècle: Le ''Bustān al-Jāmiʿ''", ''Bulletin d'études orientales'' 7/8 (1937/1938), 113–158. The ''Būstān'' was written, probably in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, in the years 1196–1197 (592–59З AH). It may have been completed in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. It survives in two manuscripts: one of the 14th-century, now Istanbul, Saray 2959, and the other Oxford, Huntington 172. In the Istanbul manuscript, the text is corrupted but the handwriting is neat. The scribe attributes it to a ''

qāḍī A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

'' named ʿImād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, but if this is not a mistake it must be a different person from

ʿImād al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī Muhammad ibn Hamed Isfahani (1125 – 20 June 1201) ( fa, محمد ابن حامد اصفهانی), more popularly known as Imad ad-din al-Isfahani ( fa, عماد الدین اصفهانی) ( ar, عماد الدين الأصفهاني), was ...

, author of ''al-Barq al-Shāmī'', whose information on the reign of

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

is less extensive than that found in the ''Būstān'' and sometimes contradicts it. The scribe added a continuation to the ''Būstān'', which, drawing on the works of

Ibn al-Athīr Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...

and

Ibn Wāṣil Ibn Wāṣil (Anno Domini, AD 1208–1298 ) was a Syria (region), Syrian judge, scholar and writer. He was a courtier and diplomat of the Ayyubids and their successors, the Mamluk Sultanate, Mamlūks. Although trained as a religious scholar, in hi ...

, brings the account down to the time of

Baybars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari ( ar, الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري, ''al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Bunduqdārī'') (1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), of Turkic Kipchak ...

. The ''Būstān'' is a "bare and summary history of Islam". It focuses on Aleppo and Egypt, but contains information not found in any earlier source. It is frequently an original source, especially as regards Egypt. It does share a lost source with Ibn Abī Ṭayyiʾ and cites al-ʿAẓīmī. The later works of

Ibn Abī al-Dam Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn Abī al-Dam al-Ḥamawī (29 July 1187 – 18 November 1244), known as Ibn Abī al-Dam, was an Arab historian and Shāfiʿī jurist. Life Ibn Abī al-Dam was born in ...

and Ibn Wāṣil rely either on the ''Būstān'' or on one of its lost sources. One of these may have been a

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

source.

Ibn Khallikān Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān) ( ar, أحمد بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر ابن خلكان; 1211 – 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a 13th century Shafi'i Islamic scholar w ...

, Ibn Muyassar and al-Jazarī all make use of the ''Būstān'' as a source. It is a valuable source for the early

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

References

{{reflist 1190s 12th-century Arabic books Medieval historical texts Middle Eastern chronicles Syria under the Ayyubid Sultanate