Book of Roads and Kingdoms (ibn Khordadbeh)
Encyclopedia
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
. It was written around 870 CE, while its author was Director of Posts and Police for the Abbasid
province of Djibal.
The work uses much of the Persian administrative terms, gives considerable attention to pre-Islamic Iranian history, uses "native Iranian cosmological division system of the world". These all show "the existence of Iranian sources at the core of the work".
Claudius Ptolemy, and Greek and pre-Islamic Iranian history, have clear influence on the work.
The book is also referred to in English as The Book of Roads and Provinces.
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 the Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
geographer 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...
. It maps and describes the major trade routes of the time within the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
world, and discusses distant trading regions such as Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. It was written around 870 CE, while its author was Director of Posts and Police for the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
province of Djibal.
The work uses much of the Persian administrative terms, gives considerable attention to pre-Islamic Iranian history, uses "native Iranian cosmological division system of the world". These all show "the existence of Iranian sources at the core of the work".
Claudius Ptolemy, and Greek and pre-Islamic Iranian history, have clear influence on the work.
The book is also referred to in English as The Book of Roads and Provinces.