Opening an autobiography with one’s pedigree was nearly unique in antiquity

Evidence

One interesting feature of Josephus’s autobiography is that he begins with his pedigree. Apart from Darius, this is almost unique in antiquity. As far as I know, no other Greek or Latin author does so, and there are quite a number of autobiographical writings in Latin and Greek. Josephus begins with his ancestry, explaining that among the Jews, unlike other people, nobility is measured by priesthood, and he goes on to develop this theme at length. This practice of beginning with a pedigree became standard in Islamic times. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1886

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Lewis’s broader interest in how institutions and textual conventions transmit across cultures — pedigree-openings traveled from Hebrew/Josephus tradition into Islamic biographical writing.