The History of Al-Tabari: The Sasanids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen: Volume 5 (Near Eastern Studies)

This is just one of 39 volumes translating the Universal History of al Tabari, and it is a dense text. The book covers Arab involvement in the titanic struggle between Byzantium and Iran, or as the Ancients would have said Rome and Persia. The translation has copius notes, showing links with other Islamic and eastern Christian sources. Helpfully it often uses the Arab term in the text as well as the modern term for an office, Roman name or district. Eastern Christian sources have now been translated often for the first time by Liverpool and other University presses. This allows access to an even more alien historical tradition. This gives the Arab perspective on the Roman empire; other volumes give this perspective on Greek and Jewish history, seemingly preserving alternative traditions and chronologies, from those inherited through greek ands Latin.

A solid reference work that clearly highlights how tenth-century historians perceived the sixth and seventh centuries.