This chronicle is the fullest and best historical source for the conquest of Yemen to the end of the 13th century.

In two volumes: Vol. I contains a critical edition of the Arabic text of Kitab al-Simt al-Ghali al-Thaman fi Akhbar al-Muluk min al-Ghuzz bi’l-Yaman, Badr al-Din Muhammad b. Hatim al-Yami al-Hamdani, Vol. II is a study of Ibn Hatim’s Kitab al-Simt.

Muhammad b. Hatim’s chronicle, which has not been published previously, is the fullest and best historical source on Yemen for the period it covers, from the conquest of Yemen by Saladin’s brother Turanshah to the author’s own time, by which the Rasulids, who had come to the country as followers of the Ayyubids, had replaced their old masters as its rulers. Ibn Hatim himself came from an Isma’ili tribe of the region of San’a. From the middle of the 13th century he often gives his own account of events and he soon became one of a group of leading Amirs involved in the management of affairs for the Rasulid Sultan al-Muzaffar and thus well informed of the political situation. His book was begun in 1295.

Vol. I contains the text of the Kitab al-Simt, edited on the basis of the three known manuscripts. Vol. II includes studies of the author and his work, and of aspects of the Yemeni history of the period, as well as a glossary, geographical and tribal indices and maps.

G. Rex Smith was Professor of Arabic in the University of Manchester with numerous publications on the Yemen.