Instruct: Classify an Amazon review into positive or negative sentiment.
Query: Magnificent Opus by an Early Islamic Historian

Tabari's opus is magnificent indeed. His Taarikh (History of Prophets and Kings) is a great peace of early islamic historiography, earliest with the exception of Ibn Ishaq's Sira. SUNY did great job translating this 40-volume into English. The reder will find out how early Islam developed according to its official narrative, and how it conquered neighboring lands. I would suggest to the reader to also check historiographical works on early Islam by Hoyland, Crone, Cook, Ibn Warraq and particularly by B. Lewis and M. Sharon, which provide more context for Tabari's History and discuss historicity - or lack thereof - of its narrative.