The history of the
Tolidah itself is based primarily on information in the manuscript of 1859. It is partially corroborated by the composite nature of the text, which suggests that parts were written at different times. The oldest section of the
Tolidah was originally compiled in 1149 AD (554 AH) by Eleazar ben ׳Amram of
Nablus. This chronicle was continued by Jacob ben Ishmael in 1346 AD (747 AH). Other scribes continued the work down to 1859. The
Tolidah was brought to the attention of western scholarship by
Adolf Neubauer, who purchased the manuscript of Jacob ben Harun, now MS or. 651 in the
Bodleian Library, and published it in 1869. His edition was based on MS or. 651 and on a manuscript copied in 1797 AD (1212 AH) by Shlomo ben Ṭobiah, which he could not buy but was able to view for a few hours in Nablus. In 1870,
Moritz Heidenheim, apparently unaware of Neubauer's publication of the year before, published his own edition of the
Tolidah. In 1954, John Bowman, claiming to have seen a manuscript with "the appearance of antiquity" that he believed to be the original
Tolidah, published a new edition. He did not give a date or name the scribe of the manuscript. In 1977, he published an English translation of the "original" part of the chronicle. The latest
critical edition, based on the more manuscripts than all previous and including an English translation and commentary, is that of Moshe Florentin, published in 1999. ==Contents==