Author: Devin Stewart
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 39, 2007

Despite widespread recognition of the tremendous importance of the Fihrist itself, Ibn al-Nadim has been underestimated in modern scholarship. Many have viewed him as a bumbling bookshop owner who, as a hobby, collected lists of old books in a cluttered office at the back of his shop. He may have been a connoisseur of book lore and trivia, but he was not himself a serious scholar, merely reporting what he had read or what others had told him. This view must change. Ibn al-Nadim should be taken seriously as a substantial thinker in his own right, an intellectual historian who, like his erudite and more touted colleagues, carefully crafted original interpretations of the past, and in some cases may be equally if not more insightful than they are.

Bibliography:
Stewart, Devin; The Structure of the Fihrist: Ibn al-Nadim as Historian of Islamic Legal and Theological Schools, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 39, 2007, 369-387 p.