AL-SUYUTI (Jalal al-Din). &
JARRETT (Major H.S.), translator.
History of the Caliphs.
FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF AL-SUYUTI'S HISTORY OF THE FIRST FOUR CALIPHATES
The first English translation of al-Suyuti’s Tarikh al-Khulafa, an exhaustive history of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates. Al-Suyuti (849-911 AH, 1445-1505 CE) was an Egyptian polymath (of Persian descent) and one of the most important and prolific writers of the mid-Islamic Golden Age. The latter section of the history, concerning the Fatimid Caliphate, is especially valuable as al-Suyuti was witness to part of its evolution.
It was translated by the British soldier and linguist Henry Sullivan Jarrett (1839-1919), who prepared several famous Arabic and Persian texts for print during his time in India. Many, such as his edited versions of the Shahnameh and Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, were issued as examination texts for [British Indian] Officers in the military and civil services.
Rare in commerce, with no copies in auction records.