Muqaddasi, Al-

Muqaddasi, Al- 

(Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Muqaddasi [also, al-Maqdisi]). Born 946 or 947(?) in Jerusalem; died circa 1000. Arab geographer and traveler.

Having visited almost all the countries of the Muslim East, al-Muqaddasi compiled, on the basis of his personal observations and his critical study of the works of his predecessors, a complete and systematic description of these countries in Akhsan attaqasim fi marifat al-aqalim (The Best Division for the Knowledge of Climates), written in the 980’s. In the book’s 14 chapters, which deal with individual regions of the Arab Caliphate, al-Muqaddasi provided information about each region’s geography, population, economy, trade routes, local customs, and religious beliefs. Al-Muqaddasi’s works are an important source for the study of the medieval East, including Middle Asia and Transcaucasia.

PUBLICATIONS

Descriptio imperii Moslemici, auctore . . . al-Mokaddasi. Edited by M. J. de Goeje. Leiden, 1887; 2nd ed., 1906. (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, p. 3.)

REFERENCES

Krachkovskii, I. Iu. Izbr. soch., vol. 4. Moscow-Leningrad, 1957. Pages 210–18.
Drevnie i srednevekovye istochniki po etnografii i istorii narodov Afriki iuzhnee Sakhary [vol. 2.]
Arabskie istochniki X-XII vekov. Moscow-Leningrad, 1965. Pages 71–80.