Morony provides background on the scholarship of Nabbia Abbot and the influence and rediscovery of her work as it addresses the problems raised by the issue of periodization in early Islamic History. Much emphasis is placed upon the personality and policies of rulers as impacting the importance of various historical records as well as how and why they were written. "History is reduced to the personality of the ruler." (247) In addition to how history is written is the secondary issue of how it was interpreted. Morony posits that early Islamic history was based upon a "standard interpretation internally self-generated" and influenced subsequent "traditional" interpretations.(247) Therefore, the moral judgments and influence of rulers served as a basis for interpretation. Various modes of interpretations (political, cultural) helped to develop models, some of which, were acceptable to Muslim writers. Periodization was addressed and a variety of examples provided which demonstrated the problem facing ancient and contemporary historians.

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