al-Yaʿqūbī

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Abū l-ʿAbbās Ahmad ibn Ishāq ibn Wādih al-Yaʿqūbī ( Arabic ابو العباس أحمد بن إسحاق ابن واضح اليعقوبي, DMG Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī born in Baghdad ; died probably around 897 in Egypt ) was an Arab (Shiite) historian and geographer who lived in the 2nd half of the 9th century.

Life

Al-Yaqubi was born in Baghdad, the capital of the caliphate, and trained as a state secretary there. He served under the Tahirids in Khorasan , where he finished his history ( Ta'rīkh ) shortly before the fall of the 873 dynasty. He then traveled to India and eventually settled in Egypt . Here, at the court of the Tulunids , he wrote his Kitāb al-Buldān , which he completed in 889-890.

Works

  • Al-Yaʿqūbīs Kitāb al-Buldān ("Book of Lands") is considered to be the first geographical work that describes the areas south of the Sahara more precisely, but without mentioning Lake Chad . Some authors suspect that the geography work can be ascribed to a namesake of the historian, since it does not show any Shiite tendencies. His geography was published in 1892 by M. de Goeje in Leiden ( Kitab al-Boldan ). Digitization of the first part
  • His chronicle Taʾrīḫ al-Yaʿqūbī is considered to be one of the earliest cultural histories of the Islamic Middle Ages. The first part deals with the pre-Islamic period and non-Islamic peoples, such as ancient Greece, Babylonia / Assyria, ancient Egypt, biblical narratives (using the Syrian Treasure Cave as a source), the Gospels and India (with narratives from the Panchatantra and description of the sea routes to India and the Far East). He also gives excerpts from Greek ancient scholars such as Hippocrates of Kos , Galen , Euclid , Aristotle , Nicomachus of Gerasa and Claudius Ptolemy . The second part deals with the history of Islamic countries up to 872. One focus is Armenia and Khorasan , it mainly cites theologians instead of poets and gives astronomical information. His inclination is the Shiite point of view. The chronicle was published in two volumes by MT Houtsma in Leiden in 1883.

Translations

  • Matthew S. Gordon et al. a. (Ed.): The Works of Ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Yaʿqūbī. An English Translation. 3 volumes. Brill, Leiden 2018.

literature

  • Martin Klamroth : About the excerpts from Greek writers in al-Ja'qubi , 4 parts, Journal of the German Oriental Society, Volume 40, 1886, pp. 189–233, 612–638, Volume 41, 1887, pp. 415–442 , Volume 42, 1888, pp. 1–44, part 1 (Hippocrates) , part 2 (the other doctors) , part 3 (philosophical) , part 4 (mathematicians and astronomers)
  • Martin Klamroth: The excerpt from the Gospels by the Arab historian Ja'qûbî , in: Festschrift for the inauguration of the Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Hamburg on May 21, 1885. pp. 115–128.
  • André Miquel : La geographie humaine du monde musulman , Vol. I, Paris 1967, 285-292.
  • N. Levtzion and J. Hopkins: Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History , Cambridge 1981, 19-22.
  • Muhammad Zaman: "Al-Yaqūbī". In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , Vol. XI, Leiden 2002, 257-258.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Levtzion / Hopkins: Corpus , 19.
  2. ^ Levtzion / Hopkins: Corpus , 20.


personal data
SURNAME Yaʿqūbī, al-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abu l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ishaq ibn Jafar ibn Wahab ibn Wadih al-Yaqubi (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Arab historian and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH before 889
PLACE OF BIRTH Baghdad
DATE OF DEATH at 897