Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Hamdānī (, 279/280-333/334 A.H.; 947;) was an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, grammarian,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

, and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, from the tribe of

Banu Hamdan Banu Hamdan (; Ancient South Arabian script, Musnad: 𐩠𐩣𐩵𐩬) is an ancient, large, and prominent Arab tribe in northern Yemen. Origins and location The Hamdan stemmed from the eponymous progenitor Awsala (nickname Hamdan) whose descent ...

, western 'Amran,

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. He was one of the best representatives of Islamic culture during the last period of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

. His work was the subject of extensive 19th-century Austrian scholarship.

Biography

The biographical details of al-Hamdani's life are scant, despite his extensive

scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

work. He was held in high repute as a grammarian, wrote much poetry, compiled astronomical tables and is said to have devoted most of his life to the study of the ancient history and geography of Arabia. Before he was born his family had lived in al-Marashi (المراشي). Then they moved to

Sana'a Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...

(صنعاء), where al-Hamdani was born in the year 893. His father had been a traveller and had visited

Kufa Kufa ( ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates, Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya ...

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. At around the age of seven, al-Marashi started to talk about his desire to travel. Somewhat later he left for

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, where he remained and studied for more than six years, after which he departed for Sa'dah (صعدة). There he gathered information on Khawlan (خولان). Later, he went back to Sanaa and became interested in the land that was

Himyar Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to class ...

(حمْير), but was imprisoned for two years due to his political views. After his release from prison, he went to Raydah (ريدة) to live under the protection of his own tribe. He compiled most of his books while there and stayed on until his death in 945.

Writings

His ''Geography of the Arabian Peninsula'' (''Sifat Jazirat ul-Arab'') is by far the most important work on the subject, where he describes the

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

and the linguistic situation in the Arabian peninsula and

Socotra Socotra, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, it lies near major shipping routes. Socotra is the largest of the six islands in the Socotra archipelago as ...

. The manuscript was used by Austrian orientalist, Aloys Sprenger in his ''Post- und Reiserouten des Orients'' (Leipzig, 1864) and further in his ''Alte Geographie Arabiens'' (Bern, 1875), and was edited by D.H. Müller (Leiden, 1884; cf. Sprenger's criticism in ''Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft'', vol. 45, pp. 361–394). His work has been the subject of extensive research and publications by the Austrian Arabist, Eduard Glaser, a specialist on ancient Arabia. The other great work of al-Hamdānī is his ten volume, '' al-Iklil'' (the

Diadem A diadem is a Crown (headgear), crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of Monarch, royalty. Overview The word derives from the Ancient Greek, Greek διάδημα ''diádēma'', "band" or "fillet", fro ...

), concerning the genealogies of the

ites and the wars waged by their kings. Volume 8, on the citadels and castles of southern Arabia, has been translated into German, edited and annotated by David Heinrich Müller as ''Die Burgen und Schlösser Sudarabiens'' (Vienna, 1881). Other works said to have been written by al-Hamdani are listed in G. L. Flügel's ''Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber'' (Leipzig, 1862), pp. 220–221.

List of works

* ''Kitab al-Jawharatayn al-ʻatīqatayn'' - A book describing

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

s known at that time, including their physical and chemical properties as well as treatment and processing (such as

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

, and

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

). He is also considered the first person who explained

gravity of Earth The gravity of Earth, denoted by , is the net force, net acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the combined effect of gravitation (from mass distribution within Earth) and the centrifugal force (from the Earth's rotation). It is a Eucl ...

in a way similar to

magnetic field A magnetic field (sometimes called B-field) is a physical field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular ...

behavior. *'' Sifat Jazirat ul-Arab'' (), ''Geography/Character of the Arabian Peninsula''. *'' Kitāb al-Iklīl min akhbār al-Yaman wa-ansāb Ḥimyar'' (); ''Crowns from the Accounts of al-Yemen and the genealogies of Ḥimyar''. ''al-Iklīl'' consists of ten volumes. However, only four volumes have been found (Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol.8 and Vol.10); the other volumes are missing.Crowns from the Accounts of al-Yemen and the genealogies of Himyar (in Arabic)
*History of Sabaʾ. *Language of Himyar and Najran.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *
Britannica
* Nabih Amin Faris: ''The Antiquities of South Arabia being a Translation from the Arabic with Linguistic, Geographic and Historic Notes of the Eight Book of al-Hamdānī's al-Iklīl'', Princeton, 1938 * Yūsuf Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh (Hrsg.): ''Al-Hamdani. A great Yemeni Scholar. Studies on the Occasion of his Millenial Anniversary.'' Sanaa, 1986 * Yūsuf Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh: ''al-Ḥasan b. Aḥmad al-Hamdānī'', In: Al-Mausūʿa al-Yamanīya, Sanaa, 2003, vol. 4, S. 3097ff. * Yūsuf Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh: ''Die Personennamen in al-Hamdānī's al-Iklīl und ihre Parallel in den altsüdarabischen Inschriften'', Dissertation, Universität Tübingen, 1975. * Jörn Heise: ''Die Gründung Sana'as – Ein orientalisch-islamischer Mythos?'' Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, May 2010, (the fifth chapter is devoted to al-Hamdani's Biography ) * O. Löfgren: Art. "al-Hamdānī" in ''The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition'' vol. III, S. 124a-125a.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamdani, Abu Muhammad Hasan 890s births 945 deaths Year of birth uncertain 10th-century Arab people 10th-century astronomers 10th-century geographers 10th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate Arab grammarians Medieval grammarians of Arabic Astronomers of the medieval Islamic world Yemeni astronomers Geographers of the medieval Islamic world Yemeni geographers People from Sanaa Yemeni Muslims Yemeni historians Yemeni people who died in prison custody Yemeni writers Banu Hamdan 10th-century Yemeni people 10th-century poets Yemeni poets Yemeni genealogists