The Entry of Historical Narratives to Islamic Genealogy by the End of Third Century A.H: the Process and Motives

Nasab was important for Arabs as the identity of their tribes in pre-Islamic era. As Islam emphasised on the equality of all people so nasab significance was temporarily diminished. After the death of the Prophet, because of many factors, such as the centralism and development of sovereignity, it was again a new attention to nsab and so that nasab-writing became one of the important genres of Islamic historiography. While the main subject of those works was the Arab tribes, the historical narratives also interpenetrated because of the arrival of non-Arab in the Islamic world and also the socio-political changes. According to nasab-works that remains from third century and the amount of historical narratives that intrantedto them, the relation between historical narratives and nasab-writing could be explained in three stages: first, before the third century AH that nasab-writings were distinguished from historical works. Second, from the late second century and the early third century A.H that they were combined in the works of historians such as Madaini and Zubayr Ibn Al-Bakkār in a limited extent. Finally, from the last middle of third Century A.H that historical narratives widely entered in the nasab-writing. So, inspite of its title, Ansāb al-Ashrāf could be regarded as a historical not nasab work.