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Estakhri
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri () (also ''Estakhri'', , i.e. from the Iranian city of Istakhr, b. – d. 346 AH/AD 957) was a 10th-century travel author and Islamic geographer who wrote valuable accounts in Arabic of the many Muslim territories he visited during the Abbasid era of the Islamic Golden Age. There is no consensus regarding his origin. Some sources describe him as Persian, while others state he was Arab. IV:222b-223b. The ''Encyclopedia Iranica'' states: "Biographical data are very meager. From his ''nesbas'' (attributive names) he appears to have been a native of Eṣṭaḵr in Fārs, but it is not known whether he was Persian". VIII(6):646-647 (I have used the updated online version). Istakhri's account of windmills is the earliest known. Istakhri met the celebrated traveller-geographer Ibn Hawqal, while travelling, and Ibn Hawqal incorporated the work of Istakhri in his book ''Kitab al-Surat al-Ard''. Works Istakhri's two surviving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windmill
A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern periods; the horizontal or panemone windmill first appeared in Persia during the 9th century, and the vertical windmill first appeared in northwestern Europe in the 12th century. Regarded as an icon of Dutch culture, there are approximately 1,000 windmills in the Netherlands today. Forerunners Wind-powered machines have been known earlier, the Babylonian emperor Hammurabi had used wind mill power for his irrigation project in Mesopotamia in the 17th century BC. Later, Hero of Alexandria (Heron) in first-century Roman Egypt described what appears to be a wind-driven wheel to power a machine.Dietrich Lohrmann, "Von der östlichen zur westlichen Windmühle", ''Archiv für Kulturgeschichte'', Vol. 77, Issue 1 (1995), pp. 1–30 (10f.) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Istakhr
Istakhr (Middle Persian romanized: ''Stakhr'', ) was an ancient city in Fars province, north of Persepolis in southwestern Iran. It flourished as the capital of the Persian '' Frataraka'' governors and Kings of Persis from the third century BC to the early 3rd century AD. It reached its apex under the Sasanian Empire (224-651 AD), and was the hometown of the Sasanian dynasty. Istakhr briefly served as the first capital of the Sasanian Empire from 224 to 226 AD and then as principal city, region, and religious centre of the Sasanian province of Pars. During the Arab conquest of Iran, Istakhr was noted for its stiff resistance, which resulted in the death of many of its inhabitants. Istakhr remained a stronghold of Zoroastrianism long after the conquests, and remained relatively important in the early Islamic era. It went into gradual decline after the founding of nearby Shiraz, before being destroyed and abandoned under the Buyids. Cursorily explored by Ernst Herzfeld and a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Itinerarium
An ''itinerarium'' (plural: ''itineraria'') was an ancient Roman travel guide in the form of a listing of cities, villages ( ''vici'') and other stops on the way, including the distances between each stop and the next. Surviving examples include the Antonine Itinerary and the Bordeaux Itinerary. The term later evolved and took wider meanings (see later meanings below). Ancient practice The Romans and ancient travelers in general did not use maps. While illustrated maps existed as specialty items, they were hard to copy and not in general use. On the Roman road system, however, the traveller needed some idea of where he or she was going, how to get there, and how long it would take. The ''itinerarium'' filled this need. In origin, it was simply a list of cities along a road: "at their most basic, ''itineraria'' involve the transposition of information given on milestones, which were an integral feature of the major Roman roads, to a written script." It was only a short step f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Masudi
al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geography, natural science and philosophy, his celebrated magnum opus '' The Meadows of Gold'' () combines universal history with scientific geography, social commentary and biography. Birth, travels and literary output Apart from what al-Mas'udi writes of himself little is known. Born in Baghdad, he was descended from Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, a companion of Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is believed that he was a member of Banu Hudhayl tribe of Arabs. Al-Masudi mentions a number of scholar associates he encountered during his journeys: Al-Masʿudi may have reached Sri Lanka and China although he is known to have met Abu Zayd al-Sirafi on the coast of the Persian Gulf and received information on China from him.[Mas‘udi. ''The Meadows of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Ya'qubi
ʾAbū al-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (died 897/8), commonly referred to simply by his nisba al-Yaʿqūbī, was an Arab Muslim geographer. Life Ya'qubi was born in Baghdad to a family of noble background, his great-grandfather was Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Al-Mansur and ruler of Egypt during the reign of al-Mahdi. Until 873, he lived in Armenia and Khorasan, working under the patronage of the Tahirid Governors; then he traveled to India, Egypt and the Maghreb. In 872, he listed the kingdoms of Bilād as-Sūdān, including Ghana, Gao, and Kanem. His methodical approach to writing history includes personal observations and interviews to close relations on topics that Yaqubi could not encounter first-hand. He covered topics of natural, human and economic geography as well as noting down cultural, historical and topographic information. His sympathies with Ahl al-Bayt are found throughout his works. He di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibn Rustah
Ahmad ibn Rusta Isfahani (), more commonly known as ibn Rusta (, also spelled ''ibn Roste''), was a tenth-century Muslim Persian explorer and geographer born in Rosta, Isfahan in the Abbasid Caliphate. He wrote a geographical compendium known as the ''Kitāb al-A‘lāq al-Nafīsa'' (). The information on Isfahan is especially extensive and valuable. Ibn Rusta states that, while for other lands he had to depend on second-hand reports, often acquired with great difficulty and with no means of checking their veracity, for Isfahan he could use his own experience and observations or statements from others known to be reliable. Thus we have a description of the twenty districts (''rostaq''s) of Isfahan containing details not found in other geographers' works. Concerning the town itself, we learn that it was perfectly circular in shape, with a circumference of half a parasang, walls defended by a hundred towers, and four gates. Recorded information His information on the non-Isla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibn Khordadbeh
Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography. Biography Ibn Khordadbeh was the son of Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh, who had governed the northern Iranian region of Tabaristan under the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (), and in 816/17 conquered the neighbouring region of Daylam, as well as repelled the Bavandid '' ispahbadh'' (ruler) Shahriyar I () from the highlands of Tabaristan. Ibn Khordadbeh's grandfather was Khordadbeh, a former Zoroastrian who was convinced by the Barmakids to convert to Islam. He may have been the same person as Khordadbeh al-Razi, who had provided Abu'l-Hasan al-Mada'ini (died 843) the details regarding the flight of the last Sasanian emperor Yazdegerd III during the Arab conquest of Iran. Ib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qudama Ibn Ja'far
Qudāma ibn Jaʿfar al-Kātib al-Baghdādī (; c. 873 – c. 932/948), was a Syriac scholar and administrator for the Abbasid Caliphate. Life Little is known with certainty about Qudama's life and work. He was probably born ca. 873/874, possibly at Basra. His grandfather was a Syriac Christian. Whether it was his grandfather, or he himself, who converted to Islam under al-Muktafi bi-Allah in ca. 902–908 is unclear. Ibn al-Nadim described him as a master of literary style, a polished writer and distinguished philosopher of Logic despite having an uneducated father. He held various junior administrative positions in the caliphal secretariat in Baghdad, and eventually rose to a senior post the treasury department. Various dates for his death have been supplied, ranging from 932 to 939/940 and 948. Works Of his several books on philosophy, history, philology, and administration, only three survive: * the ''Kitab al-Kharaj'' ( -the ''Book of the Land Tax'', in full form ''Book of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibn Al-Faqih
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani () (fl. 902) was a 10th-century Persian historian and geographer, famous for his ''Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan'' ("Concise Book of Lands") written in Arabic. In the 1870s the Dutch orientalist Michael Jan de Goeje edited a selection of geography works of Arab geographers in an eight-volume series titled ''Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum'' published by Lugduni-Batavae (Leiden) Brill publishers Brill Academic Publishers () is a Dutch international academic publisher of books, academic journals, and Bibliographic database, databases founded in 1683, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the Netherlands. Founded in the South .... Al-Hamadhānī's ''Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan'' was published in volume 5 of this series. In 1967 second editions were printed by Dar Sadir (Beirut) and E.J. Brill (Lugduni Batavorum). See also * Manuscript 5229. References * Iranian explorers 10th-century Iranian geographers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Maqdisi
Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the ''Nisba (onomastics), nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and ''Description of Syria (Including Palestine)''. Al-Maqdisi is one of the earliest known historical figures to self-identify as a Palestinians, Palestinian, having done so during one of his travels in Iran, Persia. Biography Sources Outside of his own work, there is little biographical information available about al-Maqdisi.Miquel 1993, p. 492. He is neither found in the voluminous biographies of Ibn Khallikan (d. 1282) nor were the aspects of his life mentioned in the works of his contemporaries.Al-Mukaddasi, ed. Le Strange 1886, piii/ref> Early life and education He was born in Jerusalem in and belonged to a middle-class family whose roots in the city's environs dated from the period approximate to the Muslim conquest of the Levant, 7t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Noldeke
Theodore may refer to: Places * Theodore, Australian Capital Territory, Australia * Theodore, Queensland, Australia * Theodore, Saskatchewan, Canada * Theodore, Alabama, United States * Theodore Reservoir, in Saskatchewan People * Theodore (given name), including a list of people with the name ** Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States **Grand Wizzard Theodore, American musician and DJ * Theodore (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters * T-Bag (''Prison Break'') (Theodore Bagwell), in ''Prison Break'' * T-Dog (''The Walking Dead'') (Theodore Douglas), in ''The Walking Dead'' * Theodore Huxtable, in ''The Cosby Show'' * Theodore, in ''Alvin and the Chipmunks'' * Theodore Grambell, or CatNap, in video game ''Poppy Playtime'' * Theodore "The Roach" Roachmont, from Supernoobs Other uses * Theodore (horse), a British Thoroughbred racehorse * Theodore Racing, a Formula One constructor See also * Theodoros, or Theodorus * Principali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Jan De Goeje
Michael Jan de Goeje (August 13, 1836 – May 17, 1909) was a Dutch orientalist focusing on Arabia and Islam. Early life Michael Jan de Goeje was born in Dronrijp, Friesland. He devoted himself at an early age to the study of oriental languages and became especially proficient in Arabic, under the guidance of Reinhart Dozy and Theodor Juynboll, to whom he was afterwards an intimate friend and colleague. He took his degree of doctor at Leiden in 1860, and then studied for a year in Oxford, where he examined and collated the Bodleian manuscripts of al-Idrisi (part being published in 1866, in collaboration with Dozy, as ''Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne''). About the same time he wrote ''Mémoires de l'histoire et de la géographie orientales'', and edited ''Expugnatio regionum''. In 1883, on the death of Dozy, he became Arabic professor at Leiden, retiring in 1906. Career Though perhaps not a teacher of the first order, he wielded great influence during his long te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
