This This source mentioned under three titles. important history of the ‘Abbásid Caliphs is cited by al-‘Awfí without the name of the author, under three slightly different titles, as the Ta’ríkh-i-Dawlat-i-‘Abbásiyán, the Ta’ríkh-i-Ál-i-‘Abbás and as mentioned above, in 10 anecdotes, which range from the time of the Caliph al-Manṣúr to that of at-Muttaqí. A short summary of them is given below in chronological order, and approximate dates are supplied in order to establish the authorship of this work, and ascertain the exact nature of its contents.

(1). Borrowed anecdotes.	The assassination of Abú Muslim al-Khurásání, the benefactor of the ‘Abbásids, by the order of the Caliph al-Manṣúr in 137 A.H. = 754-5 A.D. (A. f179b. I. xiii. 697).
(2).	The appearance of the Imám Ja‘far aṣ-Ṣádiq before the Caliph al-Manṣúr during the persecution of the ‘Alíds in 144-5 A. H = 761-2 A. D. (D. f169a. II. xx. 1475).
(3).	The foundation of the city of Baghdád by the Caliph al-Manṣúr in 145 A. H. = 762 A. D. (D. f73b. IV. xviii. 1986).
(4).	The rivalry of the Barmecides with ‘Abdu’llah b. Málik al-Khuzá‘í and their downfall at the hands of the Caliph Hárún in 187 A. H. = 803 A. D. (D. f199a. III. ii. 1559).
(5).	The arrest of Bakr b. Mu‘tamir, and the coincident death of the Caliph Hárún in 193 A. H. = 809 A. D. (C. f386a. IV. xii. 1914) = T. F. S. pt. II, ch. viii, pp. 48-9.
(6).	An account of the two public prosecutors of the time of the Caliph al-Ma’mún (D. f240a. III. xiii. 1682). Cf. N. S. N. pp. 122-5.
(7).	Fadhl b. Sahl’s efforts to win over the Caliph al-Ma’mún, in favour of ‘Alí b. Músá ar-Ridhá’s succession to the Caliphate in 201 A. H. = 816-7 A. D. (D. f163a. II. xviii. 1464).
(8).	The death of a favourite slave-girl of the Caliph al-Ma’mún at the shocking news of her master’s death in 218 A. H. = 838 A. D. (D. f36b. IV. x. 1895).
(9).	Mání-i-Muwaswas’s prediction about the attack of Ya‘qúb b. al-Layth on Baghdád in 263 A. H. = 876 A. D. (A. f239a. I. xxii. 1103)
(10).	The hostility of Abú ‘Abdi’llah al-Barídí, the Wazír, and Muḥammad Ibnu’r-Rá’iq the general of al-Muttaqí and the latter’s assassination in 330 A. H. = 941-2 A. D. (D. f173a. II. xxi. 1486).

Partly Other citations rom aṣ-Ṣúlí. from the nature of the anecdotes mentioned above, and partly from incidental correspondence of some other accounts of the ‘Abbásid Caliphs in the Jawámi‘ with references to and stray quotations from aṣ-Ṣúlí’s works like the Kitábu’l-Awráq*, the Kitábu’l-Wuzará’* and the Adabu’l-Kuttáb*, found in various biographical and historical works, viz., the Kitábu’l-Faraj ba‘da’sh-Shidda* and the Nishwáru’l-Muḥádhara* of Abú ‘Alí Muḥassin at-Tanúkhí*, (d. 384 A. H. = 994 A. D.); the fragments of the Kitábu’l-Wuzará’* and of the Chronicle* of Hilál* b. Muḥassin aṣ-Ṣábí (d. 448 A. H. = 1056 A. D.); the latter part of the Tajáribu’l-Umam* of Miskawayh* (d. 421 A. H. = 1030 A. D.) and the parallel references supplied to this work in the footnotes, directly from the Kitábu’l-Awráq of aṣ-Ṣúlí; the Mu‘jamu’l-Buldán* and the Irshádu’l-Arib of Yáqútu’l-Ḥamawí, the Kitábu’l-Fakhrí* of Ibnu’ṭ-Ṭiqṭaqa (composed in 701 A. H. = 1302 A. D.), and other works*, it can be inferred that al-‘Awfí is alluding to the famous but partly preserved Kitábu’l-Awráq fí Akhbári’l-Khulafá’ wa’sh-Shua‘rá’, also known as the Ta’ríkh-i-Khulafá’-i-bani’l-‘Abbás of Abú Bakr Muḥammad b. Yaḥyá b. ‘Abdu’llah b. al-‘Abbás aṣ-Ṣúlí ash-Shatranjí*, the boon companion of the Caliphs al-Muktafí (289-95 A. H. = 902-8 A. D.), al-Muqtadir (295-320 A. H. = 908-32 A. D.), and also the tutor of al-Rádhí, (322-9 A. H. = 934-40 A. D.).

According Ibnu’n-Nadím’s account of aṣ-Ṣúlí. to Ibnu’n-Nadím, the first part of this work contained the history of the Caliphs to the end, (down to his own times), and the other part about their poetry was left unfinished. Probably this might be due to his flight from Baghdád which happened about 300 A. H., in connection with his having related a tradition about the Caliph ‘Alí, which excited the wrath of the people. Ibn Khallikán says that he died in Baṣra in 335 or 336 A. H. = 946-7 A. D.

As Partial agree­ment of facts with the cita­tions from the Kiábu’l-Awráq. regard the citations from this work in the Jawámi‘, the last anecdote (No. 10) about the hostility of al-Barídí and Ibnu’r-Rá’iq brings the history to the times of al-Muttaqí (329-333 A. H. = 940-4 A. D.). Miskawayh* under the events of the year 330 A. H. relates the account of the murder of Ibnu’r-Rá’iq, which corresponds in general with that given in this anecdote, but a little earlier than this event a direct quotation* is found from aṣ-Ṣúlí’s Kitábu’l-Awráq relating to the flight of Ibnu’r-Rá’iq in 325 A. H., which also partially agrees with the anecdote mentioned above. Another anecdote, (D. f19a. IV. vi. 1840), though without acknowledgement of the source, about the arrest of Abú ‘Alí ibn Muqla is related in the footnotes to the Eclipse* which also bears some resemblance.

Since Probable indirect indebt­edness of al-‘Awfí to aṣ-Ṣúlí. we do not possess the actual text of the Kitábu’l-Awráq of aṣ-Ṣúlí we can­not establish the direct indebtedness of al-‘Awfí to him; but one striking instance of indirect borrowing is noticeable, which leads us to think that al-‘Awfí drew from the works originally based on the monumental work of aṣ-Ṣúlí; (e. g. No. 5) the arrest of Bakr b. Mu‘tamir and the coincident death of the Caliph Hárún, in which the Ta’ríkh-i-Khulafá’-i-bani’l-‘Abbás is mentioned as the source, is also found in the Faraj ba‘d a’sh-Ṣhidda of at-Tanúkhí, but for this anecdote we have no access to a parallel text of aṣ-Ṣúlí amongst the fragments enumerated below*.

The Result of Mr. Kratchkovski’s investi­gation. present writer cannot do better than reproduce the remarks of Mr. Ign. Kratchkovski concerning the extant portions of the Kitábu’l-Awráq of aṣ-Ṣúlí with a view to a further intensive study of the work as wished by him. “The whole material to hand, represented by five fragments from the work of aṣ-Ṣúlí does not yet allow us to judge of the whole extent of the Kitábu’l-Awráq, although it gives more exact data than we had before*. The Ms. of al-Azhar [Ta’ríkh No. 443 and 6737], found by us, represents in its fullness one of the parts, a third or a fourth, while the previously known Mss. only give fragments. Thus the whole work, unfinished by the author, as is known from the Fihrist (p. 150) and from a note in the last part* of the Azhar Mosque Ms. [Adab No. 487 and 7083] f180b, contained probably 5-6 tomes, of similarly solid extent to that of the Azhar Ms. [Ta’ríkh No. 443 and 6737]. This work was written, as it appears, during a long period by the author and simul­taneously with other works: in the last part he speaks of the Kitábu’l-Wuzará’ as a book already in existence*, while in one of the preceding ones he merely expresses the intention of writing it*. The general plan of the work agrees with what the author of the Fihrist wrote about it; after the history in the narrower sense in chronological order of the material, as is seen in the three accessible Mss., followed a historico-literary part, consecrated to the crowned and uncrowned poets, an anthology of their works, and biographical notes on them in systematic order. This second part also led astray H. Khalfa* [and aṣ-Ṣafadí]*, who ascribed to aṣ-Ṣúlí a special work, the Akhbáru’s-Shu‘ará’. For the identity of these works speaks the alphabetical order, to which H. Khalfa refers as well as aṣ-Ṣúlí*, and in particular that the work first appeared in H. Khalfa; neither the author of the Fihrist who gives a fairly complete list of the works, [especially a full description of the contents of the Awráq, based on personal observation*], nor Ibn Khallikán mentions it. However that may be, aṣ-Ṣúlí did not succeed in finishing the compilation of this second part before his death, only giving monographs on poets of ruling dynasties and some others not belonging to them. At the present time, therefore, we possess five fragments* of his Kitábu’l-Awráq; three from the historical part: 1. Cairo *(ii) = (?) Constantinople (iii), 2. Paris (iv), 3. Petrograd (i); and two from the historico-literary: 4. Cairo *(vi), 5. Petrograd *(v). Sooner or later this work will attract the intensive study of Arabists; if the author succeeds in any degree in awakening the coming generation of scholars to this, he will consider the aim of the present note attained.”