Sarah and Hagar in Ibn 'Asākir's History of Damascus

This article examines how Ibn 'Asākir (1105-76)—in keeping with the well-established fadā' il al-Shām (merits of bilād al-Shām) tradition—fashions portraits of Sarah and Hagar in his Ta'rīkh madīnat Dimashq (History of Damascus) to extol their special role in the sacred history of God working through his human agents in Syria's past. As is the case in his biographies of other sacred and pious figures in Syria's past, Ibn 'Asākir's biographies of Sarah and Hagar are also intended to provide a moral example as well as pious inspiration for the faithful

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