The Geographers

As mentioned in an earlier post, an understanding of geography was firstly necessary to enable Muslims to work out the direction of prayer. The actual pilgrimage to Mecca also promoted travel for Muslims not close at hand to the site and guidebooks were necessary for the journeys to Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem among other pilgrimage sites. A degree of geographic learning was also required to make the histories discussed in the last post meaningful and also in order to trade in, send mail over, administer and continue to control a large Empire. A final motivation for geographical learning was simply a sense of curiosity and adventure that was promoted by Islam itself and appears also to have been a feature of the early Arab psychology.

The idea of travelling as a scholar was developed initially in order that Hadith could be collected from the inhabitants of various regions and the Sufi movement also produced seekers of truth willing to travel in order to seek it from wise ones not living locally. Ibn Khaldoun, for example, followed the by-his-time long tradition of travelling in order to seek religious and other knowledge. Ibn Battuta, his contemporary from whom he had heard traveller's tales that he had at first thought were exaggerations, is a classic case of a geographical scholar of note and travelled further than any other. He also wrote about his travels and the people, local features and styles of government and thinking he noticed (among other things) for the benefit of others. His work thus falls mainly into the categories of satisfying a sense of curiosity and adventure and 'mind broadening' but even it could potentially be and conceivably was put to other uses.

Firstly, the Arabs translated geographical and astronomic works of Greek-speaking geographers such as Ptolemy of Alexandria and Marinus of Tyre. The 9^th Century also saw the beginnings of original work in Arabic including astronomical, ethnographic, regional literary anthologies and historical work. The state officials Ibn Khurdadhbeh (d. c. 912), al-Ya’qubi (d. c. 900) and Qudama Ibn Ja’far (d. c. 932) all produced early works. Al-Istakhri (d. 952), Ibn Hawqal (d. c. 989 or later) and al-Maqdisi (d. c. 1000) all produced geographical work including maps.

The work of al-Maqdisi of Jerusalem, who also travelled fairly extensively, covered a wide variety of themes concerning the Islamic world of the time and surrounding countries. Al-Biruni (d. c. 1050 or later) wrote especially about the climates at various locations and degrees of latitude. Al-Mas’udi (d. 956) wrote an encyclopaedic combined work of history and geography. Al-Idrisi, who lived in both Morocco and Norman Sicily, wrote on world geography with various detailed maps in the 12^th Century. Yaqut (d. 1229) wrote a major geographical dictionary including especially place-name listings.

Arab sea captains such as Ahmad Ibn Majid (d. 1500) also contributed geographical works that aided navigation in the Indian Ocean.

Al-Harawi (d. 1215), who lived in Palestine and Syria, wrote a guide book for religious and general tourists (both Christian and Muslim).

Muslim al-Jarmi (mid 9^th Century) and Harun Ibn Yahya (9^th and early 10^th Centuries) wrote works based on their experiences in captivity outside the Muslim world and Abu Hamid of Granada (1080 – 1170) wrote of his experience as a merchant which included experiences in Hungary. Ibn Fadlan, Abu Dulaf and Ibrahim of Tortosa (a Jew from Muslim Spain) all wrote of their experiences as envoys in the 10^th Century. Ibn Fadlan had been appointed by an ‘Abbasid Caliph as Muslim envoy to the Bulgars and wrote accounts of the Khazars and Russians. Ibrahim was an envoy of the Spanish Umayyad caliph at Cordoba to central Europe. Abu Dulaf travelled to central Asia.

Nasir ibn Khusraw, born in Afghanistan, also wrote in neo-Persian of his travels in the 11^th Century. Ibn Butlan (d. 1038) was an Arab Christian traveller and physician whose account of his travels from Baghdad through Syria and Anatolia we have in the form of a letter written to a friend in Baghdad.

Two major works by pilgrims to Mecca from the West of the then Arab world concerning the experience of the pilgrimage and side-trips are the works of Ibn Jubayr (d. 1217 - he recounted his travels from Spain to Mecca and back via Sicily) and Ibn Battuta (d. 1377). Ibn Battuta appears to have travelled as extensively as any Arab of the pre-modern period in Africa and Asia both within and beyond the Muslim world (including to the coast of China and to Greek Orthodox Constantinople) and wrote about it all in his great work. Finally, Ibn Khaldoun wrote of his own travels in his memoirs.