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Al-Muqaddasi



 
 
Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, (c. 945/946 - 1000) was a notable medieval Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
 geographer
Geographer

A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical natural environment and human habitat .Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography....
, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim (The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions).

uqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
 in 946 AD. He had the advantage of an excellent education and after having made the Pilgrimage to Mekka in his twentieth year, determined to devote himself to the study of geography.






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Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi , also transliterated as Al-Maqdisi and el-Mukaddasi, (c. 945/946 - 1000) was a notable medieval Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
 geographer
Geographer

A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical natural environment and human habitat .Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography....
, author of Ahsan at-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim (The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions).

Biography

Al-Muqaddasi, "the Hierosolomite" was born in Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
 in 946 AD. He had the advantage of an excellent education and after having made the Pilgrimage to Mekka in his twentieth year, determined to devote himself to the study of geography. For the purpose of acquiring the necessary information he undertook a series of journeys which lasted over a score of years, and carried him in turn through all the countries of Islam. It was only in 985 that he set himself to write his book, which gives us a systematic account of all the places and regions he had visited. Le Strange comments of Al-Mukaddassi work: ' His description of Palestine, and especially of Jerusalem, his native city, is one of the best parts of the work. All he wrote is the fruit of his own observation, and his descriptions of the manners and customs of the various countries, bear the stamp of a shrewd and observant mind, fortified by profound knowledge of both books and men'. (From: Guy le Strange, 1890: Palestine Under The Muslims pp. 5-6.)

Further reading

  • Al-Muqaddasi (Basil Anthony Collins (Translator)): The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions. Ahasan al-Taqasim Fi Ma'rifat al-Aqalim. Garnet Publishing, Reading, 1994, ISBN 1873938144
  • Al-Mukaddasi, Shams Al-Deen Abu Abdallah: Description of Syria, Including Palestine. Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1866 (Translated by Le Strange when he was living in Haifa at the end of the nineteenth century.)
  • Collins, Basil Anthony: Al-Muqaddasi; the man and His Work, Michigan Geographical Publication, 1974,


Resources

  • Zakariyeh Mohammed: Double Edition 22 & 23, 2005, Jerusalem Quarterly
    Jerusalem Quarterly

    The Jerusalem Quarterly was conceived in 1998 as the Jerusalem Quarterly File, and is published by the Institute of Jerusalem Studies , an affiliate of the Institute for Palestine Studies....


See also

  • List of Arab scientists and scholars
    List of Arab scientists and scholars

    This is a list of scientists and scholars from the Arab World and Islamic Spain that lived from Ancient history up until the beginning of the Modern era, consisting primarily of scholars during the Middle Ages....
  • Zedekiah's Cave
    Zedekiah's Cave

    Zedekiah's Cave ? also known as Solomon's Quarries ? is a underground meleke limestone quarry that runs the length of five city blocks under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem....