Al-Maqrīzī's (d. 845/1442) last work, al-Ḫabar ʿan al-basar, was completed a year before his death. This volume, edited by Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, covers the history of pre-Islamic Iran from the Creation to the Parthians.

Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, PhD 1994, is the Iraq Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His publications include Maqama (2002), The Last Pagans of Iraq (2006) and several articles on pre-Islamic Iran in Arabic sources.