Hudūd al-ʿĀlam

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The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam ( Persian حدود العالم, 'The Limits of the World') is one of the earliest known Persian works of geography . It was created in AD 982–983 in Juzdschan , what is now northern Afghanistan . It is to the prince Abu l-Ḥārith Muḥammad b. Dedicated to Aḥmad from the local Farighunid dynasty . The author of the work is unknown. Barthold published the Persian text as a facsimile in Leningrad in 1930 . Minorski translated the work into English in 1937 with extensive commentary.

Discovery and content

The Russian orientalist and officer AG Tumanski , with the help of Persian friends, researched the whereabouts of Ulūs-i arbaʿa , a lost work of Ulugh Beg . They discovered a manuscript of 'Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam in Bukhara in 1892 . The manuscript dates from 1258. The copyist was Abu l-Mu'ayyad ʿAbd al-Qayyūm ibn al-Ḥusain ibn 'Alī al-Farīsī. The copy has 39 pages with 23 lines each. The work is descriptive and contains no maps, but the text refers to a map, which is always mentioned in the singular ( sūrat ). The handwriting is well preserved. Only pages 29 and 30 are slightly damaged. The last page is torn. The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam is part of a bound work that consists of the following parts:

  1. A copy of the Jihān-nāma by Muḥammad ibn Najīb Bakrān
  2. A Brief Treatise on Music
  3. The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam
  4. The Jamiʿ al-ʿUlūm of Fachr ad-Din ar-Razi

The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam contains information about the then known Islamic and non-Islamic world. The anonymous author reports on countries (nāḥiyat), peoples, languages, clothing, eating habits, religion, local products, cities, rivers, seas, lakes, islands, steppes, deserts, topography, power relations and trade. The inhabited world is divided into Asia, Europe and "Libya" (ie Africa). The author lists a total of 45 countries north of the equator. The anonymous author did not travel to the countries personally, but drew on earlier sources such as the works of Al-Istachrī ( Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik , Arabic كتاب المسالك والممالك), al-Jaihānī and Ibn Churradādhbih. In particular, the book provides information on the Turkish tribes of Central Asia.

Tumanski died before finishing work on publication. The find became known as "Anonymous Tumanski".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ JB Harley, David Woodward, G Malcolm Lewis: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. Oxford University Press US, 1992, p. 139
  2. ^ Fr. Taeschner in Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, sv DJUGHRĀFĪYA
  3. ^ CE Bosworth in: Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, sv ḤUDŪD AL-ʿĀLAM
  4. Maqbul Ahmad in: CE Bosworth and MS Asimov (eds.): History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV, Part 2, Paris 1992, p. 221
  5. "L'anonyme de Toumansky" (Rıza Kurtuluş in: İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Istanbul 1998, sv HUDUDU'L-ALEM)

literature

  • V. Minorsky (Ed.): Hudud al-Alam. The regions of the world: a Persian geography, 372 AH - 982 AD, translated and explained by V. Minorsky; with the preface by VV Barthold, London 1937 ( digitized version )
  • CE Bosworth in: Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, sv ḤUDŪD AL-ʿĀLAM