History and adab in the Kitāb al-Maʿārif of Ibn Qutayba

This article frames the Kitāb al-Maʿārif of Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889) against the background of the evolution of the Abbasid historiography and the emergence of early forms of Islamic universal histories in particular. It also provides an analysis of the work in terms of its aim, recipients, structure, contents, sources, and style. It draws attention to the three main dimensions of chronology, genealogy and onomastics that so deeply characterize Ibn Qutayba’s general approach in his sketch of the outline of Islamic history. It shows that it is an adab work insofar as it offers a set of useful knowledge needed by the non specialist reader, namely the non-historian, whether he is a kātib, an adīb, or any other figure working in the Abbasid bureaucracy. The final part of the article looks at the inclusion of materials related to the centuries preceding the rise of the Prophet Muḥammad and Islam as they are presented in the chapter on the mulūk.