ABSTRACT
Islamic civilization exhibits a long succession of writers who produced histories of cities, countries, and reigns for a thousand years, especially during the Middle Ages. In a huge literature, the great division is between earlier Arabic works through the medieval period and later ones in other languages, like Ottoman. Basic principles governing the composition and transmission of histories remained the same, with a few exceptions, and were dictated by tradition. Islamic historiography is heavily endowed with works of chronology and biography. Chronology was needed to establish a succession of events and rulers since Mohammed. Biographical material was commonly designed to present edifying examples of the ideal Islamic believer. A couple of writers attempted universal history, lbn Khaldun in the fifteenth century and Muhammed al Tabari in the tenth century being two notable examples.
