Typology of Historical Works of Ibn Ḥabīb Baḡdādī (245 AH)

Abū ǰaᶜfar muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb Baḡdādī, a prolific writer and historian of the third century AH, has been attributed more than thirty-seven works, of which only eleven are available. Of these works, eight are in the category of historical works and three are in the category of books of literature and vocabulary. It has been attempted in this article to present a new typology of Ibn Habib's historical writings. By analyzing the themes and content of Ibn Ḥabīb 's surviving historical works, they can be classified into two major types of multiplegraphy and Monography (tribegraphy, mothergraphy and nomengraphy). al-muḥabbar is a multiplegraphy that is a combination of different types of historiography under 175 titles has various content in sīra, biographies of ṣahāba, genealogy, women status, history of the Caliphs, manāqib and maṭālib figures and information on Arab customs; but al-munammaq fī aḳbār-i qurayš and ummahāt-u al-nabī is an instance of monography which can also be termed as »tribegraphy« and » Mothergraphy «. Other works of ibn ḥabīb such as asmāᵓu al-muḡtālīn min al-ašrāf fī al-ǰāhilīya wa al-islām, asmāᵓu man qutila min alššuᶜarāᵓ and muk̠talif-u al-qabāᵓil wa muᵓtalifuhā which are among Ibn ḥabīb's innovations and are of the monograph type, can be categorized as nomengraphy.