Abu Hamid al-Gharnati (full name: Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman ibn Rabi al-Māzinī al-Qaysi; c. 1080 – 1170) was an Andalusian traveller from

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

who travelled around eastern and central Europe, and wrote about his travels in an Arabic travelogue, ''Tuhfat al-Albab'' ("Gift of Hearts"). He also wrote about spectacular places and things in ''al''-''Mu’rib ‘an ba’d ‘aja’ib al-Maghreb'' (''Praise of Some of the Wonders of North Africa''), and established a genre of books of wonder in Arabic. Many of the things he saw and wrote about were embellished with fantastic details. Al-Gharnati's family is thought to have fled Granada to escape the reign of the Almoravid emir

Yusuf ibn Tashfin Yusuf ibn Tashfin, also Tashafin, Teshufin, ( ar, يوسف بن تاشفين ناصر الدين بن تالاكاكين الصنهاجي , Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn Naṣr al-Dīn ibn Tālākakīn al-Ṣanhājī ; reigned c. 1061 – 1106) was l ...

. He travelled from Iberia to Egypt and Syria in 1106, reaching Alexandria in 1115 via Sardinia and Sicily, writing about

Mount Etna Mount Etna, or simply Etna ( it, Etna or ; scn, Muncibbeḍḍu or ; la, Aetna; grc, Αἴτνα and ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina a ...

. He moved to Baghdad in 1123. He lived with the

Volga Bulgaria Volga Bulgaria or Volga–Kama Bulgaria, was a historic Bulgar state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now European Russia. Volga Bulgaria was a multi-ethnic state wi ...

ns from 1131 to 1150 and travelled to Hungary, where he worked as an advisor in the court of King

Géza II Géza is a Hungarian given name and may refer to any of the following: * Benjamin Géza Affleck * Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians * Géza I of Hungary, King of Hungary * Géza II of Hungary, King of Hungary * Géza, son of Géza II of Hungar ...

. He moved through Kiev to Baghdad in 1154 and lived in Mosul from 1161, Aleppo from 1165, and finally Damascus from 1169.

References

External links

Scanned version of ''Tuhfat al-albab'' (in Arabic)

by Ingrid Bejarano Escanilla (2015) from Aramco World 66(2). {{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Gharnati, Abu Hamid 1080s births 1170 deaths 12th-century explorers 12th-century Al-Andalus writers Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world