Early Sunni Historiography: A Study of the Tarikh of Khalifa b. Khayyat

In Early Sunni Historiography, Tobias Andersson presents the first full-length study of the earliest Islamic chronological history extant: the Tarikh (Chronicle) of the Basran hadith scholar and historian Khalifa b. Khayyat al-‘Usfuri (d. 240/854). The book examines how Khalifa worked as a historian in terms of his social and intellectual context, selection of sources, methods of compilation, arrangement of material and narration of key themes in comparison to the wider historiographical tradition. It shows how Khalifa’s affiliation with the early Sunni hadith scholars of Basra is reflected in his methods and concerns throughout the Tarikh, while also highlighting similarities to other histories compiled by hadith scholars of the third/ninth century.