Translations of primary sources from the first Islamic century: a dozen miscellaneous texts AD 636-847, a long extract from The Chronicle of AD 1234 , The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodisium , and related texts. Well supported by the whole battery of scholarly apparatus. Distributed in the US by the U. of Pennsylvania Press. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles makes accessible to a wide public sources vital for the reconstruction of events in the first Islamic century, covering the period which ends with the unsuccessful Arab siege of Constantinople, an event which both modern historians and Syriac chronographers see as making a decisive caesura in history. The general introduction enables a newcomer to the field to establish his bearings before tackling the texts.