Heather Keaney, Medieval Islamic Historiography: Remembering Rebellion

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Heather Keaney’s Medieval Islamic Historiography: Remembering Rebellion seeks to analyze the development of Islamic historiography from the 9th century to the 14th century by means of a close case study on histories of ‘Uthmān b. ‘Affān’s caliphate. She argues that the memory of his caliphate and life-story act as a kind of microcosm in which the most critical tensions of Islamic historiography and Islamic intellectual history are brought to the fore. These tensions center around four dichotomies: historiography vs. hagiography, Sunni vs. Shi‘i theology, religious vs. political authority, and the pursuit of justice vs. the preservation of unity. She hopes that a detailed study of portrayals of ‘Uthmān’s caliphate in 9th-14th century historiographic texts will provide fresh insight into these tensions