Chase F. Robinson is University Lecturer in Islamic History at the University of Oxford. His publications include Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation of Northern Mesopotamia (2000).

• List of plates; List of maps; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Glossary; Chronology I: the historians of the formative period; Chronology II: the historians of the classical period; Preface; Part I. Origins and Categories: 1. Origins; 2. The emergence of genre; 3. Consequences and models; 4. Three categories: biography, prosopography, chronography; Part II. Contexts: 5. Historiography and traditionalism; 6. Historiography and society; 7. God and models of history; 8. Historians and the truth; Part III. How Historians Worked: 9. Vocations and professions; 10. Writing history; Conclusion; Suggestions for further reading; Bibliography; Index.

'He is to be commended for the outstanding effort he has invested and the solid scholarship he exhibits in this work, which earns his Islamic Historiography a place beside distinguished recent studies on the subject … Robinson's notes are exceptionally informative, and offer a rich guide to further specialized readings on a wide range of topics not at all restricted to Islam. It makes an outstanding textbook for students of Islamic studies, at both undergraduate and graduate levels.' Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations