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Excerpt from "On the Tatars" (1220–1221)
Originally written by Ibn al-Athir; Reprinted in A Literary History of Persia; Edited by Edward G. Browne; Published in 1902

Numerous Arab chroniclers and historians told the story of the medieval Middle East from the Muslim point of view. From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there were writers such as al-Sulami, Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn Zafir, Abu Shama, Ibn Muyassar, and Ibn Wasil; from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries al-Yunini, al-Nuwayri, al-Maqrizi, and Ibn Taghribirdi present the Muslim perspective on history. These authors provide historical accounts and memoirs, as well as official state biographies. Although their names mean little to Western readers, they form a cornerstone of Muslim and Arab writing from the Middle Ages. One of the best known of these historians is Ibn al-Athir. His book The Perfect History,...