''Aalamul Quran'' ( ur, اعلام القرآن) is a book written by

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

scholar

Abdul Majid Daryabadi Abdul Majid Daryabadi (16 March 1892 – 6 January 1977) was an Islamic scholar, philosopher, writer, critic, researcher, journalist and exegete of the Quran in Indian subcontinent in 20th century. He was as one of the most influential Indian Mus ...

on Science of

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

in the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

. Published in 1959 by Sidq-i-Jadid Book Agency,

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

, comprising 208 pages, the book is an alphabetically arranged comprehensive dictionary of Quranic Personalities, whether human, angelic or diabolic mentioned in the Quran explicitly or implicitly. Thus, it is a book on the human geography of the Quran: both individual and tribal geography is furnished. The book introduces to 158 personalities. It is a unique work on this genre. Along with '' Tafseer-e-Majidi'' written both in Urdu & English, Daryabadi has authored another book entitled ''Jugrafiyah Qurani'' which elaborates physical geography employed in the Quran. CC-BY icon

Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
.

Methodology

As for his methodology, not only did he incorporate the number of time a particular personality is mentioned in specific chapter &

Ruku Rukūʿ ( ar, رُكوع, ) can refer to either of two things in Islam: * The act of belt-low bowing in standardized prayers, where the backbone should be in rest, before straightening up to go for sujud (full earth-low bowing). * A paragr ...

, but also supplemented it with details ransacked from other divinely inspired books, for example,

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

& other scriptures. The exhaustive details are avoided here, because in another book entitled ''The Tales of the Holy Quran'', he intended to write all these details.

Content

Anthropological Geography of the Prophets

In individual geography, he furnishes details of whereabouts of all the 26 Prophets mentioned in the Quran. He not only presents the contrary views about their location but also prefers one view, for example, describing the opposite views of descent of Prophet

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

either in Celon (Sirāndīp) or in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

between two waters of Tigris & Euphrates, he prefers the later view, but this view is not supported by majority. Secondly, he identifies Sirāndīp with Celon (modern day Sri-Lanka), while the modern geographers opine that Sirāndīp is modern day Maldev Islands. The latters view seems correct when the story of Rājah Dāhir, his loot, storm and deviation of the ship bearing the Muslim converts is kept in mind. While alluding to the Prophets abode, he dilates on its present geography & even distance from other cities, for instance, Prophet Isḥāq dwelt at Bi’r Shībā, once a thriving city, near Kinʻān, which lies to south of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, to the North of Wādī al-Sabā, & is 28 miles South West to Al-Khalīl. While describing Prophets & others, he alludes to their relation to different geographical important cities or geographical achievements & areas of their empires, for example, the Prophet Dā’ūd made Ḥebraum his capital & then, shifted it to Jerusalem; secondly, Tubba, mentioned in the Qur’ān, whose empire lies to the North of Saba Empire, held Ḥimyar & Hadhar Maut in sway. While his father, says ʻAbd al-Mājid on the authority of Ibn-i Ḥabīb, got a road constructed from Madina to Yemen.

Anthropological Geography of the People

In addition to Prophets, he introduced to good People, for example, Tubba, Zaid, Saul (Ṭālūt). Vicious People like Āzar, Jālūt (Margoliuth), Pharaoh, Qārūn, Devil, Sāmrī, and so forth are also made familiarized. Geography of groups like Aiders to Jesus (Naṣārā), the companions of Prophet Mūsā, Brothers of Prophet Yusūf, idols like Yāʻūq, Yāghūth, Uzzā, Lāt, Manāt, Wad, Suvāʻ, Nassar & Baʻl, etc. are geographically delineated. The geographically represented groups of people like "The People of Ditch", "The People of Aikah", "The People of Ḥijr", "The People of Well", "The People of Saturday", "The People of Elephant", "The People of Town", "The People of Madyan" & "The People of Cave & Raqīm", and so forth, are fully introduced. The people mentioned with attributes instead of names are also elaborately described, for example, "the person whom Allāh has blessed", "the person who was given knowledge", "the person who passed by a person", etc. are introduced to establish their historicity. Thus, geography helps establish the historicity of people & tribes.

Tribal Geography

In tribal geography, he furnishes details regarding Quraysh, Thamūd, ʻĀd, Israelites, Yagot (Yājūj), Magot (Mājūj), and so forth. Progeny of different Prophets is given ample space, for example, progeny of Prophet Dā’ūd (Āl-i Dā’ūd), progeny of Prophet Mūsā, of Prophet Lūṭ, of Aram, of Prophet Yaʻqūb, and so forth.

Anthropological Geography of Women

Women or Feminine geography is also emphasized in the book: wives of Prophets & others, for example, of Prophet Lūṭ, Prophet Nūḥ, Pharaoh, ʻImrān, ʻAzīz; mothers like the mother of Prophet Mūsā are geographically delineated to assert their historicity. Some others are expounded by appending possessive cases like his wife, his mother, her mother, and so forth. Hārūn’s sister & Prophet Lūṭ’s daughters are also elaborated.

Non-human Personalities

Non-human personalities like angels (Gibrā’īl, Mikā’īl, Hārūt, Mārūt), Devil or Satan (Iblīs); idols (Lāt, Manāt, etc) are also geographically depicted.

Drawbacks

The writer did not hail the research conducted by

Sulaiman Nadvi Syed Sulaiman Nadvi (—; 22 November 1884 – 22 November 1953) was a Pakistani historian, writer and scholar of Islam. He co-authored ''Sirat-un-Nabi'' and wrote ''Khutbat-e-Madras''.

Reception

Mohd Mahboob, a researcher of

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

wrote about the book,

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* ''Aalamul Quran'' at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Authority control Books by Abdul Majid Daryabadi Deobandi Quranic literature 1959 books Urdu-language books Quranic places Tafsir works Works about the Quran Works about geography Geography books 20th-century Indian books Indian non-fiction books Indian religious texts