Tarikh (Arabic:تاريخ,romanized: Tārīkh) is anArabic word meaning "date, chronology, era", whence by extension "annals, history, historiography". It is also used inPersian,Urdu,Bengali and theTurkic languages. It is found in the title of many historical works. Prior to the 19th century, the word referred strictly to writing of or knowledge about history, but in modern Arabic it is, like the English word "history", equivocal and may refer either to past events themselves or their representations.[1]
The wordtaʾrīkh is not of Arabic origin and this was recognized by Arabic philologists already in theMiddle Ages. The derivation they proposed—that the participlemuʾarrakh, "dated", comes from the Persianmāh-rōz, "month-day"—is incorrect. Modern lexicographers have proposed an unattestedOld South Arabian etymon for the pluraltawārīkh, "datings", from theSemitic root for "moon, month". TheGe'ez termtārīk, "era, history, chronicle", has occasionally been proposed as the root of the Arabic term, but in fact is derived from it.[1]
The word first appears in the titles of certain 8th-century works and by the 9th century it was the standard word of the genre of these works. The wordakhbār, "reports, narratives", is a synonym and was also used in the titles of works. It may even be an older word thantaʾrīkh. The wordtaʾrīkh was never universal in the titles of works of history, which were just as often identified by subject matter (i.e., biography, conquests, etc.) as by genre. As its etymology implies,taʾrīkh originally described only a strictly chronological account, but it soon came to refer to any kind of history (e.g. historical dictionaries).[1]
The following are the names of prominent books withtaʾrīkh in the title, in Arabic, Persian or Turkish. (The list is alphabetized, ignoring particles "-i", "al-", etc.)
