Everything about Ibn Hawqal totally explained
Mohammed Abul-Kassem ibn Hawqal (born in
Nisibis; travelled 943-969 CE) was a 10th century
Arab writer, geographer, and chronicler. His famous work, written in 977, is called
Surat al-Ardh (صورة الارض; "The face of the Earth").
What little is known of his life is extrapolated from his book, which was a revision and extension of the
Masalik ul-Mamalik of
Istakhri (951). That itself was a revised edition of the
Suwar al-aqalim of
Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, who wrote about 921. Ibn Hawqal was clearly more than an editor; he was a traveller who spent much of his time writing about the areas and things he'd seen. He spent the last 30 years of his life travelling to remote parts of
Asia and
Africa. One of his travels brought him 20º south of the equator along the East African coast. One of the things he noticed was that there were large numbers of people living in areas that the
Greeks, working from logic rather than experience, said must be uninhabitable.
His descriptions were accurate and very helpful to travellers.
Surat al-Ardh included a detailed description of
Muslim-held
Spain,
Italy and particularly
Sicily, and the "Lands of the Romans," the term used by the Muslim world to describe the
Byzantine Empire. In it, among other things, he describes his first-hand observation that 360 languages are spoken in the
Caucasus, with
Azeri and
Persian languages being used as Lingua Franca across the Caucasus, he also gives a description of
Kiev, and is said to have mentioned the route of the
Volga Bulgars and the
Khazars, perhaps by
Sviatoslav I of Kiev Encyclopedia of Ukraine
.
lbn Hauqal's work was published by M. J. de Goeie (Leiden, 1873). An anonymous epitome of the book was written in 1233.
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