Islamic History from the Umayyads to the Fall of Baghdad

The middle volumes of the Bidayah are organized on the annalistic principle, recording events year by year from the early caliphates through Ibn Kathir's own era, with special attention to the scholars and notable figures who died in each year. This methodological choice, characteristic of the classical Arabic historical tradition exemplified by al-Tabari's Tarikh al-Rusul wal-Muluk, serves both historical documentation and Islamic religious purposes: the transmission of knowledge about the scholars of the ummah is itself a religious act, preserving the memory of those who preserved the din. The Umayyad period (41-132 AH) is treated with nuance. Ibn Kathir acknowledges the military achievements of the Umayyads, which included the conquest of North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, as genuine expansions of the dar al-Islam that brought millions of people into contact with Islam. He also documents the political oppression, religious innovations, and injustices of various Umayyad rulers without being polemical, applying the Sunni principle that political leadership can be legitimate even when the rulers are sinful.

The martyrdom of Husayn ibn 'Ali at Karbala in 61 AH is treated as one of the greatest tragedies of Islamic history, and Ibn Kathir's discussion is notable for its emotional weight alongside its historical care. He documents the events that led to Husayn's departure from Madinah to Kufa, the promises of support from the Kufans that were not fulfilled, the isolation of Husayn and his small company, and the brutal killing of the Prophet's grandson and his companions by the army of Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah. Ibn Kathir condemns the killing as a grave sin and the killers as transgressors, while maintaining the Sunni position that this does not justify the Shia theological and political conclusions about the imamate and the nature of religious authority. He documents that the scholars of the Sunni tradition universally condemned Yazid's action in this matter. The subsequent Abbasid revolution (132 AH) and the transfer of the caliphate from the Umayyads is documented with its political causes and theological significance.

The Abbasid period represents the classical age of Islamic civilization, and Ibn Kathir's chronicle of this era includes the flourishing of Islamic scholarship alongside its political vicissitudes. The caliphates of al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid, al-Ma'mun, and the golden age of Baghdad are treated with appreciation for the cultural and intellectual achievements while noting the theological controversies of the period, particularly the Mu'tazilite inquisition (mihna) under al-Ma'mun that forced scholars to affirm the doctrine that the Quran was created. The refusal of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal to affirm this doctrine, his imprisonment and flogging, and his eventual vindication under al-Mutawakkil are treated by Ibn Kathir as a defining moment of Sunni theological resistance. Ibn Kathir's sympathy for Imam Ahmad's position, rooted in his own Hanbali scholarly formation, gives his treatment of this episode particular depth and detail.

The Mongol invasion of the Islamic world and the destruction of Baghdad in 656 AH (1258 CE) is treated by Ibn Kathir with the seriousness of a historian describing one of the most catastrophic events in Islamic history, living only a century and a half after its occurrence. The sack of Baghdad under Hulagu Khan, the killing of the last Abbasid caliph al-Musta'sim, the destruction of libraries and institutions representing centuries of accumulated Islamic scholarship, and the widespread slaughter of the Muslim population are documented with grief and historical precision. Ibn Kathir contextualizes the Mongol catastrophe within the broader framework of his historical theology: divine punishment for the collective sins and disunity of the Muslim community, but not the end of Islamic civilization. The subsequent conversion of the Mongol rulers to Islam, the survival of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt that defeated the Mongols at 'Ayn Jalut in 658 AH, and the continuation of Islamic scholarship and governance demonstrate for Ibn Kathir that divine protection of the ummah persists through catastrophe, and that the promise of Islam's ultimate survival and triumph remains intact despite the gravest historical setbacks.