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 ...
word meaning "date, chronology, era", whence by extension "annals, history, historiography". It is also used in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
and the
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...
. It is found in the title of many historical works. Prior to the 19th century, the word referred strictly to writing of or knowledge about history, but in modern Arabic it is, like the English word "
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
", equivocal and may refer either to past events themselves or their representations.
The word ''taʾrīkh'' is not of Arabic origin and this was recognized by Arabic philologists already in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. The derivation they proposed—that the participle ''muʾarrakh'', "dated", comes from the Persian ''māh-rōz'', "month-day"—is incorrect. Modern lexicographers have proposed an unattested
Old South Arabian
Old South Arabian (or Ṣayhadic or Yemenite) is a group of four closely related extinct languages spoken in the far southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script.
There were a number of othe ...
etymon for the plural ''tawārīkh'', "datings", from the Semitic root for "moon, month". The Ge'ez term ''tārīk'', "era, history, chronicle", has occasionally been proposed as the root of the Arabic term, but in fact is derived from it.
The word first appears in the titles of certain 8th-century works and by the 9th century it was the standard word of the genre of these works. The word ''akhbār'', "reports, narratives", is a synonym and was also used in the titles of works. It may even be an older word than ''taʾrīkh''. The word ''taʾrīkh'' was never universal in the titles of works of history, which were just as often identified by subject matter (i.e., biography, conquests, etc.) as by genre. As its etymology implies, ''taʾrīkh'' originally described only a strictly chronological account, but it soon came to refer to any kind of history (e.g. historical dictionaries).
List of works
The following are the names of prominent books with ''taʾrīkh'' in the title, in Arabic, Persian or Turkish. (The list is alphabetized, ignoring particles "-i", "al-", etc.)
*''
Tarikh Abul Fida
Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Shāhanshāh b. Ayyūb b. Shādī b. Marwān ( ar, إسماعيل بن علي بن محمود بن محمد بن عمر بن شاهنشاه بن أيوب بن شادي بن مروان ...
''
*''
Tarikh Ahlul Hadith ''Taʾrīkh'' is an Arabic word meaning "date, chronology, era", whence by extension "annals, history, historiography". It is also used in Persian, Urdu, Bengali and the Turkic languages. It is found in the title of many historical works. Prior to t ...
''
*''Tārīkh-i amniyya'', a history of the Dungan Revolt, the magnum opus of
Musa Sayrami Mullā Mūsa Sayrāmī ( ug, ; uz, Mulla Muso Sayramiy, Molla Musa Seyrami; 1836–1917) was a historian from Xinjiang, known for his account of the events in that region in the 19th century, in particular the Dungan Rebellion of 1864–1877. ...
*''
Tarikh ibn al-Athir
''The Complete History'' (, ''al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh)'', is a classic Islamic history book written by Ali ibn al-Athir. Composed in ca. 1231AD/628AH, it is one of the most important Islamic historical works. Ibn al-Athir was a contemporary and memb ...
Tarikh al-fattash
The ''Tarikh al-fattash'' is a West African chronicle written in Arabic in the second half of the 17th century. It provides an account of the Songhay Empire from the reign of Sonni Ali (ruled 1464-1492) up to 1599 with a few references to event ...
Tarikh al-Islam al-kabir
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Historiography of ...
Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk
The ''History of the Prophets and Kings'' ( ar, تاريخ الرسل والملوك ''Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk''), more commonly known as ''Tarikh al-Tabari'' () or ''Tarikh-i Tabari'' or ''The History of al-Tabari '' ( fa, تاریخ طب ...
Tarikh-i Sistan
The ''Tarikh-i Sistan'' (''History of Sistan'') is an anonymous Persian-language history of the region of Sistan, in modern north-eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, ام ...
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Tarikh al-Sudan
The ''Tarikh al-Sudan'' ( ''Tārīkh as-Sūdān''; also ''Tarikh es-Sudan'', "History of the Sudan") is a West African chronicle written in Arabic in around 1655 by the chronicler of Timbuktu, al-Sa'di. It provides the single most important primary ...
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Tarikh al-Tabari
The ''History of the Prophets and Kings'' ( ar, تاريخ الرسل والملوك ''Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk''), more commonly known as ''Tarikh al-Tabari'' () or ''Tarikh-i Tabari'' or ''The History of al-Tabari '' ( fa, تاریخ طب ...
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*''
Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh
''The Complete History'' (, ''al-Kāmil fit-Tārīkh)'', is a classic Islamic history book written by Ali ibn al-Athir. Composed in ca. 1231AD/628AH, it is one of the most important Islamic historical works. Ibn al-Athir was a contemporary and memb ...
List of Muslim historians
:''This is a subarticle of Islamic scholars, List of Muslim scholars and List of historians.''
The following is a list of Muslim historians writing in the Islamic historiographical tradition, which developed from hadith literature in the time of ...