ABSTRACT
Most of the information in Ibn I:Ianbal's biographies is characterizedby two seemingly contradictory qualities: veracity and a high level of manipulation. Chapters I and 2 were based on the assumption that the reports furnished by Ibn I:Ianbal's biographers were reliable. This chapter will expose the image that the authors of his biographies tried to construct. Seen from this perspective, the biographies reveal values and an ethical outlook rather than information that purports to be exact. Though the details it mentions may be true, it is not their truthfulness that matters, but the authors' moral perceptions and ideas about patterns of proper behavior.
