Al-Bakri
Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī | |
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Personal | |
Born | 1040 Islamic history, geography |
Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī (
Life
Al-Bakri was born in
Works
Al-Bakri wrote about Europe, North Africa, and the Arabian peninsula. Only two of his works have survived. His Mu'jam mā ista'jam contains a list of place names mostly within the Arabian peninsula with an introduction giving the geographical background. His most important work is his Kitāb al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik ("
Al-Bakri mentions the earliest urban centres in the trans-Saharan trade to embrace Islam, late in the 10th century,
His works are noted for the relative objectivity with which they present information. For each area, he describes the people, their customs, as well as the geography, climate and main cities. Similar information was also contained in his written geography of the Arabian Peninsula, and in the encyclopedia of the world in which he wrote. He also presented various anecdotes about each area. Unfortunately, parts of his main work have been lost, and of the surviving parts, some have never been published.[6]
Legacy
The crater Al-Bakri on the Moon is named after him.[8]
See also
- Muhammad al-Idrisi, a 12th-century Moroccan geographer who lived in Sicily
Notes
- ^ Lévi-Provençal, E. (24 April 2012). "Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī".
- ^ Lévi-Provençal 1960, p. 155
- ^ a b "Al-Bakrī, Ab | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-07-11.
- ^ Hermes, N. (2012). The [European] Other in Medieval Arabic Literature and Culture: Ninth-Twelfth Century AD. Springer. "Judged as the greatest geographer of al-Andalus, polyvalent scholar Abu ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allah al-Bakri belonged to the powerful Arab tribe of Bakr ibn Wail"
- ^ a b Vernet 1970
- ^ a b c d Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, pp. 62–63
- ^ "Saudi Aramco World : From Africa, in Ajami". Archived from the original on 2014-11-30. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
- ^ "Al-Bakri". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
References
- Lévi-Provençal, E. (1960), "Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī", Encyclopaedia of Islam 2nd Ed. Vol. 1, Leiden: Brill, pp. 155–157.
- ISBN 1-55876-241-8. Pages 62–87 contain an extract from "The Book of Routes and Realms" describing West Africa.
- Vernet, J. (1970), "Bakrī, Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbdallāh Ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Muḥammad al-", in Gillispie, Charles C. (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 1, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 413–414.
Further reading
- El-Bekri (1859). Description de l'Afrique septentrionale. Mac Guckin de Slane, translator and editor. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale. Revised edition with corrections (1913), Tangiers: Adolphe Jourdan. Available from Gallica.
- Reinaud, J.T. (1860). "Notice sur les dictionnaries géographiques arabes". Journal Asiatique. 5. 16: 65–106. Al-Bakri's dictionary is mentioned on page 75.
- White, Robert C. (1968). "Early geographical dictionaries". Geographical Review. 58 (4): 652–659. JSTOR 212687.
External links
- Vernet, J. (2008) [1970-80]. "Al-Bakrī, Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbdallāh Ibn ʿAbd Al-ʿAzīz Ibn Muḥammad". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Encyclopedia.com.
- "The Culture of Al-Andalus: Geography". Unity Productions Foundation.