Sheikh Shams al-Din al-Ansari al-Dimashqi or simply al-Dimashqi () (1256–1327) was a medieval

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

, completing his main work in 1300. Born in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

—as his name "Dimashqi" implies—he mostly wrote of his native land, the Greater Syria (''Bilad ash-Sham''), upon the complete withdrawal of the Crusaders. He became a contemporary of the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

sultan Baibars, the general who led the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s in war against the Crusaders. His work is of value in connection with the Crusader Chronicles. He died while in

Safad Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortified town in the Upper Gal ...

, in 1327.le Strange, 1890
p.10
Al-Dimashqi (1325) gives detailed accounts of islands in

Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. The terms Island Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia are sometimes given the same meaning as ...

, its inhabitants, flora, fauna and customs. He mentions "the country of

Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...

...is inhabited by Muslims and idolaters. Islam arrived there during the time of Caliph Uthman...and Ali, many Muslims who were expelled by the Umayyads and by Al-Hajjaj, fled there, and since then a majority of the Cham have embraced Islam." Of their rivals the Khmer, Al-Dimashqi (1325) mentions they inhabit the island of Komor (Khmer), also called Malay Island, are many towns and cities, rich-dense forests with huge, tall trees, and white elephants; they supplemented their income from the trade routes not only by exporting

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

and

aloe ''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering plant, flowering succulent plant, succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Acc ...

, but also by engaging in piracy and raiding on Muslim and Chinese shipping. Al-Dimaski's writings on Syria were published in St. Petersburg in 1866 by M.A.F Mehren, and this edition was later used for the English translation by Guy Le Strange in 1890.

References

Bibliography

*, London,

External links

* * *
Al-Dimashqī biography in The Filāḥa Texts Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimashqi 1256 births 1327 deaths 13th-century Arab people 14th-century Arab people Writers from Damascus Medieval Syrian geographers 14th-century explorers 14th-century Syrian historians 14th-century geographers Scholars from the Mamluk Sultanate Explorers of Asia