The Manuscript of the History of Damascus by Ibn Asaker (A Historical Study in its Published Summaries and Investigations)

This research (The Manuscript of The History of Damascus) analyzes published studies and summaries of the manuscript by Ali Bin Al Hassan Bin Hebat Allah Bin Abdullah Al Shafi’i known as Ibn Asaker ((498-571 AH / 1105-1176 AD)). The manuscript remained in the Arabic and international stores manuscript and had only been available in the modern day. However, historians in the Islamic era took care of this manuscript because of its importance. The manuscript narrates the history of Damascus, and biographies for a huge number of stars in the history of Islam since pre-Islamic Ignorance era until the modern day. Because the manuscript is gigantic consisting of eighty volumes, and the inability to read and review it, some historians promised to summarize it. One of them is Ibn Manzoor Muhammad bin Ali Abu Al-Fadl. Jamal Al-Din Al-Ansari ((630-711AH / 1232-1311AD)) whose summary (The Summary of The History of Damascus by Ibn Asaker) without affecting the texts of the Manuscript is twenty-nine parts. Following that summary, Abdul QadirBadran ((1280 - 1336 AH / 1864-1927 AD)) refined it (Refining the History of Damascus by Ibn Asaker) which is in thirteen volumes. It was printed out on the expense of Rawdha-Al-sham press. Then, in the 50s of the late centuries some Arab-Muslim scholars used a solid scientific approach to study it with the assistance of some scientific institutions, and international and Arab publishing houses such as the Arab Language Complex in Damascus. Our research reveals these studies, the supporting institutes and publishing houses the names of some scholar.