The author as protagonist: biographical markers in historical narratives

This paper looks at the interplay of personal and political history in Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī’s Kitāb al-Awrāq, a composite chronicle of the Abbasid Caliphate. The central is whether the parts of the Awrāq covering the years when al-Ṣūlī was alive (and working at the caliphal court) are to be considered a chronicle or rather an autobiography and whether, in this context, there is a recognisable authorial voice evaluating events and persons from a distinct point of view. The material is contrasted internally, with parts of the Awrāq covering periods before al-Ṣūlī’s life, and externally, with the work of historians chronicling the same period, such as ʿArīb and Miskawayh.