[citation needed] Although much quoted by early traditionists and historians, they are rarely mentioned by name because of a family disgrace.
Four manuscripts survive of the author's historical work, all of them considered to derive from a single copy originally perhaps made by one of his students.
[6] A critical edition of the entire Arabic text was published by Charles Torrey, who had earlier translated the North African section into English.
A short portion of the work covering only the Muslim conquest of Spain was translated into English by John Harris Jones (Göttingen, W. Fr.
His work is an almost invaluable source as arguably the earliest Arab account of the Islamic conquests of the countries it deals with.