Book of Roads and Kingdoms (al-Bakri)
Encyclopedia
Book of Roads and Kingdoms or Book of Highways and Kingdoms is the name of an eleventh-century geography
text by Abu Abdullah al-Bakri
. It was written around 1068 in Córdoba
, al-Andalus
(present day Spain).
Al-Bakri based his work on the accounts of merchants geologists and adventurers such as Muhammad ibn, Yusuf al-Warraq (On the Topography of North Africa), and Abraham ben Jacob
. Despite the fact that al-Bakri never left al-Andalus, his writings are regarded as objectively reporting the accounts of other travelers by modern historians, and much of what he wrote is substantiated in other sources.
He described a wide array of regions from the Atlantic Ocean
, through the Sahara
, to Central Africa
, giving descriptions of the geography, people, culture and political situation in each region. The Book of Roads and Kingdoms exists today only in fragmentary form. It is sometimes confused with a work by the same name
written in the ninth century by ibn Khordadbeh
.
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
text by Abu Abdullah al-Bakri
Abu Abdullah al-Bakri
', or simply Al-Bakri was an Andalusian-Arab geographer and historian.-Life:Al-Bakri was born in Huelva, the son of the sovereign of the short lived principality of Huelva. When his father was deposed by al-Mu'tadid he moved to Córdoba where he studied with the geographer al-Udri and the...
. It was written around 1068 in Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
, al-Andalus
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
(present day Spain).
Al-Bakri based his work on the accounts of merchants geologists and adventurers such as Muhammad ibn, Yusuf al-Warraq (On the Topography of North Africa), and Abraham ben Jacob
Abraham ben Jacob
Abraham ben Jacob, better known under his Arabic name of Ibrâhîm ibn Ya`qûb was a 10th century Hispano-Arabic, plausibly Sephardi Jewish, traveller, probably a merchant, whose brief may have included diplomacy and espionage...
. Despite the fact that al-Bakri never left al-Andalus, his writings are regarded as objectively reporting the accounts of other travelers by modern historians, and much of what he wrote is substantiated in other sources.
He described a wide array of regions from the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, through the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
, to Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
, giving descriptions of the geography, people, culture and political situation in each region. The Book of Roads and Kingdoms exists today only in fragmentary form. It is sometimes confused with a work by the same name
Book of Roads and Kingdoms (ibn Khordadbeh)
The Book of Roads and Kingdoms is a 9th-century geography text by the Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh. It maps and describes the major trade routes of the time within the Muslim world, and discusses distant trading regions such as Japan, Korea, and China...
written in the ninth century by ibn Khordadbeh
Ibn Khordadbeh
Abu'l Qasim Ubaid'Allah ibn Khordadbeh , author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography, was a Persian geographer and bureaucrat of the 9th century...
.
Reference
- Islamic-spain.tv: Geography and al-Andalus - Website of a documentary on the rise, reign, and fall of Islamic Spain.