Methodology and Structure

Tarikh Madinat Dimashq — History of the City of Damascus — is organized primarily as a biographical dictionary of everyone who was born in Damascus, lived there, passed through it, or was otherwise significantly associated with the city. The work begins with geographical and topographical descriptions of Damascus and its surroundings, then proceeds to account for the city's history from pre-Islamic times through the author's own era, before embarking on the massive biographical section that constitutes the bulk of the work.

The biographical entries are arranged alphabetically by first name, following the standard convention of classical Arabic biographical dictionaries. The entries range from brief notices of a few lines to extended accounts running to many pages for the most important figures. The criteria for inclusion are broad: any individual with a significant connection to Damascus qualifies, regardless of whether they were primarily scholars, political figures, military commanders, Sufi masters, poets, or people of other walks of life.

A distinctive methodological feature is Ibn Asakir's consistent citation of sources with full isnad (chain of transmission). Rather than simply stating biographical information, he typically presents each piece of information as a narration transmitted through a specific chain of authorities — applying to historical information the same standards of documentation that hadith scholars applied to prophetic traditions. This method of documented attestation gives the Tarikh Dimashq an unusual degree of transparency about the sources and reliability of its information.

The scale of the work is extraordinary: the complete text in the standard modern edition fills eighty volumes. This vastness reflects both the breadth of Ibn Asakir's inclusion criteria and his thoroughness in documenting each entry with multiple transmitted accounts. For major figures, he may present dozens of accounts from different transmitters about different aspects of their lives.

The work begins with biographies of prophets — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad — who are connected to the broader Syrian region, followed by the Companions of the Prophet who settled in or passed through Damascus, then the Successors (Tabi'un), and so on through subsequent generations. This chronological flow within the alphabetical framework gives the work historical depth as well as biographical breadth.

Ibn Asakir's own evaluation and commentary appears throughout, though in characteristically restrained form. He notes when accounts are considered reliable or weak, corrects errors he finds in earlier sources, and occasionally offers assessments of specific individuals. But his primary role is as a transmitter and compiler rather than an evaluator — his genius lay in the collection and organization of information rather than in critical synthesis.