al-Muqaddasi
Shams ad-Dīn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Muqaddasī ( Arabic شمس الدين محمد بن أحمد المقدسي, DMG Šams ad-Dīn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Muqaddasī , more rarely al-Maqdisi or el-Mukaddasi ; born 945 in Jerusalem ; died after 1000 ) was an Arab geographer and, together with al-Istachri and Ibn Hauqal, a representative of the descriptive school. The main places of his work were Aleppo and Shiraz .
Al-Muqaddasi had received an excellent education and after his pilgrimage to Mecca devoted himself entirely to the study of geography. For his major work Aḥsan at-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm, written in 985/988 أحسن التقاسيم في معرفة الأقاليم( The most beautiful division, acting on the knowledge of the countries ) he traveled the entire Islamic world. It is characterized by impartial observations and reports going beyond geography on the customs, traditions, religions, economy, culture and characteristics of the inhabitants of the countries visited, as well as by its prosaic literary style. The book was edited in 1906 in Leiden Michael Jan de Goeje .
literature
- Zakariyeh Mohammed: Maqdisi: An 11th Century Palestinian Consciousness . Jerusalem Quarterly, Double Edition 22 & 23, 2005.
Web links
- Al-Muqaddasi
- Al-Muqaddasi: An Encyclopaedic Scholar ( Muslim Heritage )
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Muqaddasī, al- |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Shams ad-Dīn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Muqaddasī; Maqdisi, al-; el-Mukaddasi; شمس الدين محمد بن أحمد المقدسي (Arabic) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Arab-Islamic geographer and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 945 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Jerusalem |
| DATE OF DEATH | 11th century |