Al-Baladhuri

Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Jabir al-Baladhuri was a historian of the Abbasid court at Baghdad and one of the most important early chroniclers of the Muslim expansion. His birth date is unknown; modern scholars place it roughly in the first decades of the 9th century. The bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim reports that he was of Persian descent, though some scholars have suggested Arab origin; the matter is not settled. He is traditionally said to have studied with noted transmitters of historical reports, among them al-Mada'ini, Ibn Sa'd, and Mus'ab al-Zubayri.

Al-Baladhuri worked as a secretary (katib) in the Abbasid administration and frequented the court of the caliph al-Mutawakkil and, later, al-Mustaʿin and al-Muʿtazz; he is reported to have tutored a son of al-Muʿtazz. To gather material he is said to have travelled in Syria and Iraq, though the sources do not name specific stops.

His nisba "al-Baladhuri" is traditionally linked to baladhur (the "marking nut," Semecarpus anacardium), a substance taken as a memory aid; one report (in Yaqut) holds that it was actually his grandfather who consumed it. He is best known for two surviving works: Futuh al-buldan ("Conquests of the Lands"), a document-rich account of the early conquests, and the vast genealogical Ansab al-ashraf ("Genealogies of the Nobles"). He is traditionally held to have died at Baghdad around 279 AH / 892 CE.