Umara ibn Wathima
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Works
ʿUmāra wrote at least two works in Arabic.[3] His only surviving work is what was, before the discovery of Abū Ḥudhayfa Isḥāq ibn Bishr Qurashī's Mubtadaʾ al-dunyā wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, thought to be the oldest surviving book of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ genre.[4] Entitled Kitāb badʾ al-khalq wa-qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ('Book of the Beginnings of Creation and the Stories of the Prophets'), it is a collection of didactic stories of those considered prophets in Islam.[1][5] It is the earliest source to cite the enigmatic Abū al-Ḥasan al-Bakrī.[6] It was itself never widely cited.[7] Of its original two volumes, only the second survives, covering prophets from Moses to Jesus, in two manuscripts.[5] There is a modern French translation by R. G. Khoury.[8] It has been argued that the real author of the Badʾ al-khalq is Wathīma, who was much more prominent than his son.[2][5]
According to Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿUmāra also wrote an Annalistic History.[3]