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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
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Al-Muqaddasi was a famous geographer, whose seminal work was Ahsan al-Taqasim "The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions". He was a very extensive, expert traveler, and he included a lot of personal observations which may account for the respect and authority of his work. Wrote it around 380/990. Full name was Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi.
He has been called Muqaddasi, Filastini, Misri, Maghribi, Khurasani, Silmi, Muqri', Faqih, Sufi, Wali, 'Abid, Zahid, Sayyah, Warraq, Mujallid, Tajir, Mudhakkir, Imam, Mu'adhdhin, Khatib, Gharib, 'Iraqi, Baghdadi, Shami, Hanifi, Muta'addib, Kari, Mutafaqqih, Muta'allim, Fara'idhi, Ustadh, Danishumand, Shaykh, Nishastah, Rakib, and Rasul.
Posted at Oct 19/2006 11:59PM:
Bobby: He travelled mamlaket al-Islam (the lands of Islam) a slight difference from dar al-Islam. His report was arrogant, unprecedented, constantly citing his forebearers (as most early Islamic sources were), and he doesn't claim to know all the answers...just most of them.