Authors, subjects and fame in the Kitāb al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadīm : the case of al-Ṭabarī and al-Ṣūlī

This paper suggests an approach to the study of the Kitab al-fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 386/995), which takes into account his criteria of priority and order within the book’s structure, when analysing the information the author provides about a scholar or group of scholars. The case studies for the present paper are Ab∞ Bakr al-Suli (d. 335-947) and Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (d. 310-923), two prominent scholars who lived one generation before Ibn al-Nadim, and whose biographical information he treats in contrasting ways.