Introduction

The text of Tārīkh al-Mustabṣir is the early thirteenth-century account of a journey made by a businessman (or someone profoundly interested in business) in the Arabian Peninsula. The author undoubtedly came from the east of the Islamic world. The annotated translation published here is based in the edited text of Oscar Löfgren and the two important manuscripts, that of Istanbul (late sixteenth century), here designated I MS, and that of Leiden (nineteenth century), here designated L MS.