ABSTRACT
This study has approached medieval Arabic historical writing by focusing on the issue of the authors’ room for manoeuvre. At stake were two authors and their texts, situated in seventh-/thirteenth-century Syria and Egypt. Considering the wealth of historical texts during this period of a ‘self-confident historiographic tradition’,1 this discussion is best described as a micro-study with all the inherent problems and merits. While statements on a more general level on Arabic medieval historiography are impossible in this context, the approach and the results of this study alerts the student of this material in general to the complexity of these ‘dry’ chronicles.
