Military historiography in Islamic period: from the beginning to the end of Mamalik era

Reporting of Arab’s battles was an object of consideration in Islamic historiography. About 1400 conflicts between benighted Arab tribes have been recorded in Islamic sources. Accurate reporting of the wars of the Prophet and conquests of the caliphs was also one of the most important topics of interests to Islamic historians in the Islamic era until the gradual emergence of a bunch of military historians who were specialized in military topics including military organization, military armaments and technology, war tactics, military planning and various types of wars. Consequently, a new form of historiography called “military historiography” was created. This research aims to clarify influential factors on this type of historiography by introducing well-known works in the military historiography domain. Historical data reveal that the significance of jihad in Islam, the complexity of wars, the transmission of battlefields from dessert to cities and then to seas, the transformation of weapons technology, the organization and war tactics, the specialization of the war zone and the formation of military ranks has led to a special attention toward military historiography and finally the emergence of war historians and compilation of specialized works in this domain.