Historical Sciences In The Field Of Authorship Through Ibn Al-Nadim's Book, Al-Fihrist, In The Fourth Century AH

Abstract

The researcher's motivation for writing this research stemmed from a belief that our ancient scholars laid the foundation for the Arab-Islamic heritage, the fruits of which we see in our present age reaching a great level of progress and maturity. There is no doubt that the foundation of any civilization is knowledge, which is based solely on written works and texts stored in books. The researcher reached the following conclusions:

1. Ibn al-Nadim's Fihrist is the first prominent and comprehensive bibliographical work in the Arabic language.
2. Ibn al-Nadim used several methods in his reference to the intellectual output of his subjects, varying from one translation to another depending on the method of that production and the circumstances surrounding its compilation and collection by Ibn al-Nadim.
3. The Fihrist does not help in studying the geography of bookkeeping (publishing) in the Islamic state during the first four centuries AH, as Ibn al-Nadim was not concerned with mentioning the location of copying and the copyist.
4. Ibn al-Nadim's bibliographic vision of Islamic history was sufficiently clear, manifested in several aspects, including his keenness to specifically identify the books he had personally seen and the books he had heard or read about.
5. In composing his book, Ibn al-Nadim followed a thematic approach, outpacing other contemporary researchers, becoming a pioneer in encyclopedic bibliographical writing among Muslim scholars.
6. The general arrangement of the index is based on dividing the sciences into two main sections: the first, devoted to Islamic sciences, comprised of the first six articles, while the second section deals with non-Islamic sciences and topics, including philosophy, ancient sciences, religions, and sects.
7. The study reveals that he tended to arrange them chronologically and according to their stature and status in scholarship.