Aḥmad b. Yaḥyá al-Baládhurí († 892 A.D.), a Persian, wrote an account of the early Muḥammadan conquests (_Kitábu Futúḥi ’l-Buldán_), which has been edited by De Goeje, and an immense chronicle based on genealogical principles, 'The Book of the Lineages of the Nobles' (_Kitábu Ansábi ’l-Ashráf_), of which two volumes are extant.[657] [Sidenote: Dínawarí.] Abú Ḥánífa Aḥmad al-Dínawarí († 895 A.D.) was also of Íránian descent. His 'Book of Long Histories' (_Kitábu ’l-Akhbár al-Ṭiwál_) deals largely with the national legend of Persia, and is written throughout from the Persian point of view. [Sidenote: Ya‘qúbí.] Ibn Wáḍiḥ al-Ya‘qúbí, a contemporary of Dínawarí, produced an excellent compendium of universal history, which is specially valuable because its author, being a follower of the House of ‘Alí, has preserved the ancient and unfalsified Shí‘ite tradition. His work has been edited in two volumes by Professor Houtsma (Leyden, 1883). The Annals of Ṭabarí, edited by De Goeje and other European scholars (Leyden, 1879-1898), and the Golden Meadows[658] (_Murúju ’l-Dhahab_) of Mas‘údí, which Pavet de Courteille and Barbier de Meynard published with a French translation (Paris, 1861-1877), have been frequently cited in the foregoing pages; and since these two authors are not only the greatest historians of the Muḥammadan East but also (excepting, possibly, Ibn Khaldún) the most eminent of all who devoted themselves to this branch of Arabic literature, we must endeavour to make the reader more closely acquainted with them. [Sidenote: Ṭabarí (838-923 A.D.).] Abú Ja‘far Muḥammad b. Jarír was born in 838-839 A.D. at Ámul in Ṭabaristán, the mountainous province lying along the south coast of the Caspian Sea; whence the name, Ṭabarí, by which he is usually known.[659] At this time ‘Iráq was still the principal focus of Muḥammadan culture, so that a poet could say:-- "I see a man in whom the secretarial dignity is manifest, One who displays the brilliant culture of ‘Iráq."[660]