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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
World Map of al-Istakhri
{{Authority control 950s deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain 10th-century Iranian writers Balkhi school Istakhr 10th-century Iranian geographers People associated with wind power Scholars under the Buyid dynasty Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world
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
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
of the many Muslim territories he visited during the Abbasid era of the Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century.
This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign o ...
. There is no consensus regarding his origin. Some sources describe him as Persian, while others state he was 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 ...
. IV:222b-223b. The ''Encyclopedia Iranica
An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by artic ...
'' 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 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 period ...
s is the earliest known. Istakhri met the celebrated traveller-geographer Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Al-Jazira (caliphal province), Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronic ...
, while travelling, and Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Al-Jazira (caliphal province), Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronic ...
incorporated the work of Istakhri in his book ''Kitab al-Surat al-Ard''.
Works
Istakhri's two surviving works are: *''Masālik al-Mamālik'' (, ''Routes of the Realms''), or ''Kitab al-masalik wa-l-mamalik'' (كتاب المسالك والممالك ''Book of Roads and Kingdoms''), a contribution to the " Book of Roads and Kingdoms" tradition. This combines maps with descriptive text to describe the geography of Iran and surrounding kingdoms. It is based mainly on lists of stations of postal routes, and seems intended to help commit those lists to memory rather than to guide travellers through the territory. There is no consistency between themap projection
In cartography, a map projection is any of a broad set of Transformation (function) , transformations employed to represent the curved two-dimensional Surface (mathematics), surface of a globe on a Plane (mathematics), plane. In a map projection, ...
s. An illuminated manuscript (MS Or. 3101) dated AH 589 (AD 1193) is held by Leiden University Libraries
Leiden University Libraries is the set of libraries of Leiden University, founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands.
A later edition entitled ''The bastion of liberty : a history of Leiden University'', was published in 2018. Full-text at archive ...
and is digitally available. Another illuminated manuscript dated AH 706 (AD 1306–07) now resides in the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. It contains many maps, though some mentioned in the text are missing.
*''Ṣuwar al-ʿAqālīm'' ( , ''Pictures of the Regions'').
Published editions
An 8-volume edition of works by medieval Arab geographers, edited by the Dutch orientalist Michael Jan de Goeje in a series titled ''Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum'' was published by Brill, Lugduni-Batavora (Leiden) in the 1870s. An edition of Istakhri's MS text was produced for the first volume under the Latin title ''Viae Regnorum descriptio ditionis Moslemicae'' – "Description of Roads of the Kingdoms in Muslim territories". In 1927, the editor Theodore Noldeke produced a second edition. In 1845, the German orientalist A. D. Mordtmann published a translation in Hamburg with the title ''Das Buch der Länder von Schech Ebu Ishak el Farsi el Isztachri'', with a foreword by C. Ritter. (Schriften der Akademie von Ham Bd. 1, Abth. 2).See also
*Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Al-Jazira (caliphal province), Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronic ...
*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 '' ...
* Ibn al-Faqih
* Qudama ibn Ja'far
*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 aut ...
* Ibn Rustah
* Al-Ya'qubi
*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), geo ...
* List of Iranian scientists
* Surat Al-Ard
References
Sources
* * * * – * * * *External links
*World Map of al-Istakhri
{{Authority control 950s deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain 10th-century Iranian writers Balkhi school Istakhr 10th-century Iranian geographers People associated with wind power Scholars under the Buyid dynasty Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world