Muhammad shown riding on a camel next to Christ, who is riding a donkey |
Muhammad meeting the envoy of Musailama, a false prophet |
The peasant and the false prophet Bihafrid |
The storming of the fortress of Al-Muqanna |
Eli lying dead at the foot of a throne |
The destruction of Bayt al-Muqaddas |
Jesus baptised in the Jordan by John |
The Annunciation to Mary |
Muhammad exchanges curses with the Christians of Najran |
The investiture of Ali by the prophet Muhammad |
Shelfmark: Or.Ms.161
Holding Institution: University of Edinburgh
Title: Chronology of Ancient Nations
Creator: Al-Biruni
Creator Nationality: Iranian
Creator Role: Author
Date: 1307
Written by the famous astronomer and polymath Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, the Chronology of Ancient Nations is a compendium and chronicle of a vast number of calendars and chronological systems from a variety of different cultural and religious groups from throughout the late antique and medieval periods in the Hellenic world, Central Asia and the Near East. Completed in the year 1000, it even includes details of festivals and liturgical practices, in addition to more specific information. This particular manuscript is thought to have been copied in 1307 and was the archetype for the three later versions which were used by Edward Sachau to translate the document from Arabic into English during the nineteenth century.
Chelkowski, P. J. (1975), 'The scholar and the saint : studies in commemoration of Abuʾl-Rayhan al-Biruni and Jalal al-Din al-Rumi', New York.
Source: University of Edinburgh
Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (born Sept. 4, 973AD, Khwarezm, Khorasan [now in Uzbekistan] — died c. 1052, Ghazna [now Ghazni, Afghanistan], Muslim astronomer, mathematician, ethnographist, anthropologist, historian, and geographer.
Referenced as figure 639 in The military technology of classical Islam by D Nicolle
639A to 639D. Manuscript, A - 'ʿAlī,' B - 'Al Muqannā' besieged by Khalīf al Maḥdī.,' C - 'Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem,' D - 'ʿAlī,' Chronicle of Ancient Peoples, 1307-8 AD, west Iranian, Edinburgh Univ. Lib., Ms. 161, ff. 92r, 93v, 134v, 16r and 162r (Gray R).