Al- Bidaya Wal Nihaya - Tareekh Ibn Kathir (البداية والنهاية)

Al-Badaya wan nahaya - Tareekh Ibn e Kathir (History of Islam by Ibn e Kathir):

This is an excellent work on preservation of islamic history and is a common point of reference.

Book Review

Urdu

حافظ عماد الدین ابن کثیر کی شہرہ آفاق کتاب ’البدایۃ والنہایۃ‘ کا اردو قالب ’تاریخ ابن کثیر‘ کی صورت میں موجود ہے۔ اگر آپ عربی تاریخوں کامطالعہ کریں تو آپ کو صاف طور پر یہ بات معلوم ہو گی کہ عرب مؤرخوں نے اپنی تاریخوں میں تسلسل زمانی کا برابر خیال رکھا ہے ان کی ہر تاریخ آدم علیہ السلام کی کے ذکر سے شروع ہوتی ہے اور پھر واقعات اور بیانات کا سلسلہ ان واقعات تک پہنچتا ہے جن میں ان کا لکھنے والا سانس لے رہا ہے ۔ ابن کثیر کی یہ تاریخ بھی دوسری تاریخوں کی طرح ابتدائے آفرینش سے شروع ہوتی ہے اور اس کے بعد انبیاء اور مرسلین کے حالات سامنے آتے ہیں، یہ کئی لحاظ سے اہم ہیں۔ اس سے پہلے جو تاریخیں لکھی گئی ہیں یا اس کے بعد جن تاریخوں کو دریافت کیا گیا ہے ان میں یہ تمام واقعات اساطیری ادب سے لیے گئے ہیں یا ان کو اسرائیلی روایتوں پر اکتفاء کرتے ہوئے آگے بڑھایا گیا ہے اس کے برعکس ابن کثیر نے اپنا تمام مواد قرآن ہی سے لیا ہے اور یہ اس کے ایمان اور یقین کے مضبوطی کی علامت ہے ۔ تاریخ ابن کثیر حضرت آدم سے لے کر عراق و بغداد میں تاتاریوں کے حملوں تک وسیع اور عریض زمانے کا احاطہ کرتی ہے اور غالباً سب سے پہلی تاریخ ہے جس میں ہزاروں لاکھوں سال کی روز و شب کی گردشوں، کروٹوں، انقلابوں اور حکومتوں کومحفوظ کیا گیا ہے۔ پھر ابن کثیر نے جن حالات و واقعات کا حاطہ کیا ہے وہ اس قدر صحیح اور مستند ہیں کہ ان کا مقابلہ کوئی دوسری کتاب نہیں کر سکتی۔

English:
This 10 volume work, along with Tafsir Ibn Kathir, are the most famous works of Imam Ismail Ibn Umer Ibn Kathir.

The title translates as: “The Beginning and the End.”

As the name suggests, the Imam covers history starting with the beginning of creation and ends with the righteous entering into Paradise and the evil entering into the Hell fire.

Here are some more details:
First, he talks about the story of creation based on the verses of Quran and sayings of the Prophet and then he moves on to narrate stories that rely on “al-Isra’eelyyaat” (i.e. the stories of the People of the Book - If you want to know further about what it is, click here to read a relevant book). Then he proceeds with the stories of the Prophets.

The next part covers the seerah of Rasulullah. The advantage of his coverage of seerah is that he combines what the scholars of seerah such as ibn Ishaaq, al Waqidi, and Musa bin Uqba wrote along with what the scholars of hadith have included in their books such as Bukhari, Muslim, the four books of Sunan, al Bayhaqi, Ahmad, and al Hakim. This makes his coverage of seerah very comprehensive and useful.

The downside is that the story does not flow as it would with the seerah of Ibn Ishaaq, for example, and there is also a lot of repetition and sometimes there are contradicting narrations. This makes it serve better as a reference than a book to read.

This part is translated into English by Trevor Le Gassick. However there are a few mistakes in this translation. Ibn Kathir’s coverage of the time of the four Khalifs is detailed and avoids many but not all of the weak and fabricated narrations that exist in the history of al Tabari.

Then he covers the period of the Umayah khilafa. After that his history becomes quite Shaam-centric. Imam Ibn Kathir, in some cases almost conclusively, focuses on the histories of al Shaam (the area encompassed by present day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan,) Egypt, and Iraq. There is not a signficant mention about North Africa, Andalusia, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian penensula, and other areas of Islam.

There is some talk about North Africa and its relationship with the establishment of the Fatimi dynasty whom Ibn Kathir refers to as liars, and Impersonators, who wished no good for the Muslims (The Fatimids were outwardly Shia and inwardly Ismailis.)

Andalusia gets mentioned briefly but many important events in its history are missing. Ibn Kathir talks about the land of Sind while mentioning the great conquests that occurred on the hands of Muhammad bin al Qasim but then neglects it completely until Mahmud Sabaktakeen arrives on the scene and achieves great victories on the Indian subcontinent. The Arabian peninsula is covered sparsely and when it is, it is mostly about what was going on, or who was ruling in Makkah and Madina. Yemen and Oman are lost in this narrative. And there was absolutely nothing on some areas such as East Africa, for instance.

Imam Ibn Kathir mentioned an apology at a place for not covering these areas in a lot of detail due to lack of resources. It is something to ponder about. This great Imam who wrote some of the greatest works lacks resources on some important issues such as the history of Andalusia which made him omit almost 600 years of Muslim history in Spain (Ibn Kathir lived during the 8th hijri century) while we today have all the resources at our fingertips. Modern technology has brought with it a proliferation of Islamic knowledge but where are the ones who would take advantage of that?

Therefore, al Bidayah wa al Nihaayah is an excellent reference on the history of the prophets, seerah, the history of early Islam and the history of al Shaam and Iraq up until the year 768H.

Urdu:
Vol1 Vol2 Vol3 Vol4 Vol5 Vol6 Vol7-8

Alternate Links (6 Volume set)
Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4, Vol 5, Vol 6

Malay:
Download

English:
Printed English copy can be purchased from:
http://store.dar-us-salam.com/product/110.html

Following are some selected portions of the book in English:

Early Days (Read)
Review: This abridged English translation of the classic work starts by describing the beginning of creation - from the Throne and the Kursi, the Universe and all that is in it, such as the angels, the Jinn and humans. The book also recounts stories from the lives of the Prophets and their nations, up to the times of the Children of Isra'eel and the Days of Ignorance, which ended with the advent of the final Prophet, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Al-Bidayah wan Nihayah (The Beginning and The End) by the renowned scholar Abu Al-Fida, 'Imad ad-Deen Isma'eel bin 'Umar bin Katheer (Ibn Katheer), is considered one of the most authoritative sources on Islamic history. A unique feature of the book is that it not only deals with past events, but also talks about future events mentioned by Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) until the Day of Judgment.

Other parts are as follows:
Stories of the prophets (Read / Download; Alternate links: Read / Download)
Islamic View Of Jesus - (Download)
Al Sira Al Nabawiyyah - All volumes in 1 file - (Read / Download)
Miracles of the Prophet (Book of Evidences) - (Read / Download; Alternate links: Read / Download)
Battles of the Prophet (Read / Download / Alternate link)
Stories of the Quran - (Read / Download)
Book of the End (Read / Download; Alternate links: Read / Download)
Signs before the day of judgement (Read / Download)
Dajjal - the False Messiah (Read / Download)

Other relevant books:

Imam Ibn Kathir has also written a treatise regarding the birth of the prophet and the events surrounding it. That treatise was found by Dr. Salah Al-Munajjid during his research on historical manuscripts at Princeton University, USA. We have included a copy of its English translation in our bookshelf for our readers to benefit from. (Read / Download)

The following book is written by Abdur Rahman Al-Sheha, however it contains the same title as the book by Imam Ibn Kathir:
Al-Bidaya Wan Nihaya (Download)

Bangla:
Read:
Part 01, Part 02, Part 03, Part 04,Part 05, Part 06, Part 07, Part 08, Part 09, Part 10
Download:
Part 01, Part 02, Part 03,Part 04, Part 05, Part 06, Part 07,Part 08,
Part 09, Part 10

Alternate:
Download: Vol1, Vol2, Vol3, Vol4, Vol5, Vol6, Vol7, Vol9

Arabic:

Al-Badaya wan nahaya - Tareekh Ibn e Kathir (History of Islam by Ibn e Kathir):This is an excellent work on preservation of islamic history and is a common point of reference.

Al-Badaya wan nahaya - Tareekh Ibn e Kathir (History of Islam by Ibn e Kathir):

This is an excellent work on preservation of islamic history and is a common point of reference.