Suleiman A. Mourad is Professor of Religion at Smith College in Massachusetts, USA, and former Director of the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study in France. He specialises in Islamic history and religious thought, and how the challenges of modernity have led to major changes in Muslims’ perception of and attitude towards their own history and classical thought.

• NotesAcknowledgments 1  The World of Ibn ‘AsakirDamascus in the fifth/eleventh centuryThe BuridsNur al-DinStatus of Religious ScholarshipBack to Ibn ‘Asakir 2  Life & CareerBackgroundEducation & TravelsFirst TripSecond TripReturn to DamascusTeaching & CharacterWritingsDeath 3  Scholarship & ActivismPolitical unity and Revivification of SunnismTrustee of HadithThe College of HadithIn Defense of Ash‘arismTabyin kadhib al-muftariPreaching of JihadAl-Arba‘un hadith fi al-hathth ‘ala al-jihadOthers Books on Jihad?Religious Merits of Towns and PlacesFadl ‘AsqalanIbn ‘Asakir as Theologian and HistorianWas Ibn ‘Asakir a Theologian?Was Ibn ‘Asakir a Historian? 4  Ta’rikh DimashqThe IdeaThe BookRehabilitation of Past Figures and Islamic UnityArrangement and DivisionsTransmissionManuscriptsImpactModern Editions 5  The ‘Asakir Extended FamilyDirect Descendants of Ibn ‘AsakirDescendants of Ibn ‘Asakir’s SisterDescendants of Ibn ‘Asakir’s Brother MuhammadOther Members of the ‘Asakir FamilyThe ‘Asakir Family Tree 6  Medieval LegacyIbn ‘Asakir’s Notable StudentsIbn ‘Asakir’s Legacy through his Ta’rikh 7  Modern Legacy, Syrian Nationalism & Islamic NationalismThe Late-Nineteenth- to Early-Twentieth-Century ContextThe Late-Twentieth-Century Context GlossaryBibliographyIndex

‘Hyperbole notwithstanding, to understand the Levant’s sense of self and perception of history, one should look no further than Ibn ‘Asakir, whose intellectual efforts rehabilitated the past to canonise a blessed Sunni and Crusader-free Bilad al-Sham. Suleiman Mourad garners his intimate knowledge of the scholar, his numerous and voluminous works, and the contemporary intellectual and political context to expose the significance and extent of the phenomenon of Ibn ‘Asakir through to the end of twentieth century in the Syrian Republic.’