The First Medina Local Historian Ibn Zabala and His Place In Islamic Local Historiography

Ibn Zabala's Akhbār al-Madīna is the first city written in the Islamic world. This work contains the testimony of the last ten years of the Prophet's life and the activities of reveling the practices of the revelations. The work dates from the second century of the Hijra and its importance is due to the fact that it is considered as the source of several works in different fields especially works on the history of Madīna. Akhbār al-Madīna also had affected the next period local histories in the way of both the content and the historiography. Although the work is not available, we managed to get a lot of it thanks to the many quotes from it. In this presentation, we will discuss both Akhbār al-Madīna and its impacts to local historiograph