The Global beyond the Umma: al-Ya'qubi, an Historian, and the World

Many generations of Muslim historians have put themselves to the task of writing universal histories. This was, indeed, the objective of the Medieval historian and geographer Ahmad b. Ibn Wadih al-Ya’qubi (d.897), who set out in his Kitab al-Buldan, to explore the very origins of the world and from there, retrace its history. The Kitab al-Buldan takes into consideration India, China, and Byzantine Empire, that is regions well beyond the Islamic horizon. As an historian, as well he is forced to contend with ideological questions and define the complex relationship between these non-Muslim states, cultures as they affect Muslim identity itself. Precisely because his temporal horizons stretches beyond merely considerations of Biblical stories and thus exceed the unique framework and historical chronology of the first Islamic centuries, that is post-Hijra, he must investigate pre-Islamic societies using diverse sources. Al-Ya'qubi's historiography helped lay the foundations of an intellectual posture among future Muslim historians with respect to world history, by his appreciation of the diversity of cultures and subjects and examination of traditional myths while even, on occasion, pausing to provide a systematic evaluation of methodology. Based on a reading of al- Ya’qubi’s work, this paper seeks to demonstrate how the thought and writing of his work articulates different spheres of “globality,” including those in competition with the Muslim world itself. It also suggests that this very special sense of the «global» is a posture that may linger, influencing contemporary debates over the relationship between Islam and the world.