This volume records the lives and efforts of some of the prophets preceeding the birth of Mohammad. It devotes most of its message to two towering figures--Abraham, the Friend of God, and his great-grandson, Joseph. The story is not, however simply a repetition of Biblical tales in a slightly altered form, for Tabari sees the ancient pre-Islamic Near East as an area in which the histories of three different peoples are acted out, occasionally meeting and intertwining. Thus ancient Iran, Israel, and Arabia serve as the stages on which actors such as Biwarasb, the semi-legendary Iranian king, Noah and his progeny, and the otherwise unknown Arabian prophets Hud and Salih appear and act.

In the pages of this volume we read of the miraculous birth and early life of Abraham, and of his struggle against his father's idolatry. God grants him sons--Ishmael from Hagar and Isaac from Sarah--and the conflicts between the two mothers, the subsequent expulsion of Hagar, and her settling in the vicinity of Mecca, all lead to the story of Abraham's being commanded to build God's sanctuary there. Abraham is tested by God, both by being commanded to sacrifice his son (and here Tabari shows his fairness be presenting the arguments of Muslim scholars as to whether that son was Ishmael or Isaac) and by being given commandments to follow both in personal behavior and in ritual practice. The account of Abraham is interlaced with tales of the cruel tyrant Nimrod, who tried in vain both to burn Abraham in fire and to reach the heavens to fight with God. The story of Abraham's nephew Lot and the wicked people of Sodom also appears here, with the scholars once again arguing--this time over what the exact crimes were for which the Sodomites were destroyed.

Before proceeding to the story of Joseph, which is recounted in great detail, we linger over the accounts of two figures associated with ancient Arabia in Muslim tradition: the Biblical Job, who despite his trials and sufferings does not rail against God, and Shu'ayb, usually associated with the Biblical Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses. Finally we meet Joseph, whose handsome appearance, paternal preference, and subsequent boasting to his brothers lead to his being cast into a pit and ending up as a slave in Egypt. His career is traced in some detail: the attempted seduction by Potiphar's wife, his imprisonment and eventual release after becoming able to interpret dreams, and his rise to power as ruler of Egypt. The volume ends with the moving story of Joseph's reunion with his brothers, the tragi-comic story of how he reveals himself to them, and the final reunion with his aged father who is brought to Egypt to see his son's power and glory.

This is proto-history told in fascinating detail, of us in different contexts, as well as of others completely unknown to Western readers.

这卷书记录了穆罕默德诞生前一些先知的生活和努力。它的大部分信息都是关于两个伟大的人物--上帝的朋友亚伯拉罕和他的曾孙约瑟夫。然而，这个故事并不是简单地以稍微改变的形式重复《圣经》故事，因为塔巴里将古代伊斯兰教之前的近东视为一个地区，在这个地区，三个不同民族的历史被演绎出来，偶尔会相遇并交织在一起。因此，古代伊朗、以色列和阿拉伯都是演员的舞台，如半传奇的伊朗国王Biwarasb、诺亚和他的后代，以及不为人知的阿拉伯先知Hud和Salih的出现和表演。

在这卷书中，我们读到了亚伯拉罕神奇的出生和早期生活，以及他与他父亲的偶像崇拜的斗争。上帝赐给他两个儿子--夏甲的以实玛利和撒拉的以撒--以及两位母亲之间的冲突，随后夏甲被驱逐，她在麦加附近定居，所有这些都导致了亚伯拉罕被命令在那里建立上帝的圣地的故事。亚伯拉罕受到了上帝的考验，他被命令牺牲他的儿子（在此，塔巴里展示了他的公正性，介绍了穆斯林学者关于这个儿子是以实玛利还是以撒的争论），并被赋予了在个人行为和仪式实践中需要遵循的戒律。亚伯拉罕的故事与残酷的暴君宁录的故事交织在一起，宁录试图用火烧死亚伯拉罕，并试图上天与上帝作战，但都没有成功。亚伯拉罕的侄子罗得和所多玛的恶人的故事也出现在这里，学者们再次争论不休--这次是关于所多玛人被毁灭的确切罪行。

在开始讲述约瑟的故事之前，我们对穆斯林传统中与古代阿拉伯有关的两个人物的描述流连忘返：《圣经》中的约伯，尽管他遭受了考验和苦难，但他并没有对上帝提出异议；以及舒艾布，通常与《圣经》中的耶特罗有关，他是米甸的牧师和摩西的岳父。最后，我们见到了约瑟，他英俊的外表、父亲的偏爱以及后来对他的兄弟们的吹嘘，导致他被扔进坑里，最后成为埃及的奴隶。本书对他的职业生涯进行了详细的追踪：波提乏的妻子企图引诱他，他被监禁，在能够解梦后最终获释，以及他作为埃及统治者的权力上升。这卷书以约瑟与他的兄弟们重逢的动人故事结束，讲述了他如何向他们揭示自己的悲剧性故事，以及最后与他年迈的父亲重逢，他被带到埃及，看到他儿子的权力和荣耀。

这是以引人入胜的细节讲述的原初历史，涉及不同背景下的我们，以及西方读者完全未知的其他人。