HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian,
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 ...
and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "
Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...
of the Arabs". A
polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
and prolific author of over twenty works on theology,
history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
(Islamic and universal),
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, a ...
, natural science and philosophy, his celebrated magnum opus '' Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Ma'ādin al-Jawhar'' ( ar, مُرُوج ٱلذَّهَب وَمَعَادِن ٱلْجَوْهَر, link=no), combines universal
history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
with scientific
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, a ...
, social commentary and biography, and is published in English in a multi-volume series as '' The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems''.


Birth, travels and literary output

Apart from what Al-Mas'udi writes of himself little is known. Born in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...
, he was descended from Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, a companion of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...
. He mentions many scholar associates met on his travels through many lands: Al-Mas‘udi may have reached
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
and China although he is known to have met
Abu Zaid al-Sirafi Abu or ABU may refer to: Places * Abu (volcano), a volcano on the island of Honshū in Japan * Abu, Yamaguchi, a town in Japan * Ahmadu Bello University, a university located in Zaria, Nigeria * Atlantic Baptist University, a Christian universi ...
on the coast of the Persian Gulf and received information on China from him.[Mas‘udi. ''The Meadows of Gold, The Abbasids''. Transl. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, Kegan Paul. London and New York, 1989, p. 11. He presumably gathered information on Byzantium from the Byzantine admiral, Leo of Tripoli, a convert-to-Islam whom he met in Syria where his last years were divided between there and Egypt. In Egypt he found a copy of a Frankish king list from
Clovis Clovis may refer to: People * Clovis (given name), the early medieval (Frankish) form of the name Louis ** Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler ** Clovis II (c. 634 – c. 657), ...
to Louis IV of France, Louis IV that had been written by an
Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...
n bishop. Little is known of his means and funding of his extensive travels within and beyond the lands of Islam, and it has been speculated that like many travelers he may have been involved in trade. Towards the end of ''The Meadows of Gold,'' al-Mas‘udi wrote: We know that al-Mas‘udi wrote a revised edition of ''Muruj adh-dhahab'' in 956 CE; however, only a draft version from 947 is extant. Al-Mas‘udi in his ''Tanbih'' states that the revised edition of ''Muruj adh-dhahab'' contained 365 chapters.


Al-Mas‘udi's intellectual environment

Al-Mas'udi lived at a time when books were available and cheap. Major towns like Baghdad had large public libraries and many individuals, such as as-Suli, a friend of Mas‘udi's, had private libraries, often containing thousands of volumes. Early in the Abbasid era the art of papermaking was brought to the Islamic world by Chinese prisoners after the battle of Talas and most large towns and cities had paper mills. Available cheap writing material contributed to the lively intellectual life. Al-Mas‘udi often refers readers to his other books, assuming their availability. The high literacy and vigor of the Islamic world with its rich cultural heritage of Greek philosophy, Persian literature, Indian mathematics, contrasted with that of Europe, when the author of the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of A ...
'' was writing. Islamic Abbasid society of al-Mas‘udi's world manifested a knowledge seeking, perceptive analytical attitude and scholarly-minded people associated naturally in this highly civilized atmosphere. Al-Mas‘udi was a pupil, or junior colleague, of a number of prominent intellectuals, including the philologists al-Zajjaj,
ibn Duraid Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Duraid al-Azdī al-Baṣrī ad-Dawsī Al-Zahrani (), or Ibn Duraid () (c. 837-933 CE), a leading grammarian of Baṣrah, was described as "the most accomplished scholar, ablest philologer and first poet of t ...
,
Niftawayh Abu Abdillah Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin 'Urfah bin Sulaiman bin al-Mughira bin Habib bin al-Muhallab bin Abi Sufra al-Azdi () better known as Niftawayh, was a Medieval Muslim scholar. He was considered to be the best writer of his time, Al-Masudi' ...
and ibn Anbari. He was acquainted with famous poets, including Kashajim, whom he probably met in Aleppo. He was well-read in philosophy, the works of
al-Kindi Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ar, أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي; la, Alkindus; c. 801–873 AD) was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician ...
and al-Razi, the Aristotelian thought of
al-Farabi Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a renowned early Is ...
and the
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...
nic writings. It is probable al-Mas‘udi met al-Razi and al-Farabi, but only a meeting with al-Farabi's pupil Yahya ibn Adi, of whom he spoke highly, is recorded. He was familiar with the medical work of
Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be on ...
, with Ptolemaic astronomy, with the geographical work of Marinus and with the studies of Islamic geographers and astronomers. In ''The Meadows of Gold,'' al-Mas‘udi wrote his famous condemnation of revelation over reason: He mentions meeting a number of influential jurists and the work of others and indicates training in jurisprudence. According to
Al-Subki Abu Al-Hasan Taqī al-Dīn Ali ibn Abd al-Kafi ibn Ali al-Khazraji al-Ansari al-Subkī ( ar, أبو الحسن تقي الدين علي بن عبد الكافي بن علي الخزرجي الأنصاري السبكي), was a leading polymath a ...
al-Mas‘udi was a student of ibn Surayj, the leading scholar of the
Shafi'ite The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by A ...
school. Al-Subki claimed he found al-Mas‘udi's notes of ibn Surayj's lectures. Al-Mas‘udi also met Shafi'ites during his stay in Egypt. He met
Zahiri The Ẓāhirī ( ar, ظاهري, otherwise transliterated as ''Dhāhirī'') ''madhhab'' or al-Ẓāhirīyyah ( ar, الظاهرية) is a Sunnī school of Islamic jurisprudence founded by Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī in the 9th century CE. It is char ...
tes in Baghdad and Aleppo such as Ibn Jabir and Niftawayh; modern scholarship leans toward the view that Al-Mas‘udi was an adherent of the latter school. Al-Mas‘udi knew leading
Mu'tazili Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islami ...
tes, including al-Jubba, al-Nawbakhti, ibn Abdak al-Jurjani and Abu'l Qasim al-Balkhi al-Ka'bi. He was also well acquainted with previous Mu'tazilite literature. His reasoning, his phraseology, his expressed high esteem for Mu'tazilities could suggest that he was one of their number. However, Shboul points out that his extant works do not specifically state that he was. Al-Mas‘udi included the history of the ancient civilizations that had occupied the land upon which Islam later spread. He mentions the
Assyrians Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...
, Babylonians, Egyptians and Persians among others. He is also the only Arab historian to refer (albeit indirectly) to the kingdom of
Urartu Urartu (; Assyrian: ',Eberhard Schrader, ''The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament'' (1885), p. 65. Babylonian: ''Urashtu'', he, אֲרָרָט ''Ararat'') is a geographical region and Iron Age kingdom also known as the Kingdom of Va ...
, when he speaks about the wars between the Assyrians (led by the legendary Queen
Semiramis ''Samīrāmīs'', hy, Շամիրամ ''Šamiram'') was the semi-legendary Lydian-Babylonian wife of Onnes and Ninus, who succeeded the latter to the throne of Assyria, according to Movses Khorenatsi. Legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, who dr ...
) and
Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
(led by Ara the Beautiful). Al-Mas‘udi was aware of the influence of ancient Babylon on Persia. He had access to a wealth of translations by scholars such as ibn al-Muqaffa from
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
into Arabic. In his travels, he also personally consulted Persian scholars and
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
priests. He thus had access to much material, factual and mythical. Like other Arabic historians, he was unclear on the
Achaemenid dynasty The Achaemenid dynasty (Old Persian: ; Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) was an ancient Persian royal dynasty that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, an Iranian empire that stretched from Egypt and Southeastern Europe in the west to the ...
, though he knew of Kurush (
Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced ...
). He was much clearer on the more recent dynasties and his estimation of the time between
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
and Ardashir is much more accurately depicted than it is in
al-Tabari ( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari ...
. His wide-ranging interests included the Greeks and the Romans. Again, like other Arabic historians, he was unclear on Greece before the
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
dynasty that produced
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
. He is aware that there were kings before this, but is unclear on their names and reigns. He also seems unfamiliar with such additional aspects of Greek political life as Athenian democratic institutions. The same holds for Rome prior to
Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
. However, he is the earliest extant Arabic author to mention the Roman founding myth of
Romulus and Remus In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus (, ) are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his fratricide of Remus. The image of a she-wolf sucklin ...
. In al-Mas‘udi's view the greatest contribution of the Greeks was philosophy. He was aware of the progression of Greek philosophy from the pre-Socratics onward. He also was keenly interested in the earlier events of the Arabian peninsula. He recognized that Arabia had a long and rich history. He also was well-aware of the mixture of interesting facts in pre-Islamic times, in myths and controversial details from competing tribes and even referred to the similarity between some of this material and the legendary and story telling contributions of some
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
and Indian books to the ''
Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
''.


Travels in lands beyond Islam

Ahmad Shboul notes that al-Mas'udi is distinguished above his contemporaries for the extent of his interest in and coverage of the non-Islamic lands and peoples of his day. Other authors, even Christians writing in Arabic in the Caliphate, had less to say about the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...
than al-Mas‘udi. He also described the geography of many lands beyond the
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...
, as well as the customs and religious beliefs of many peoples. His normal inquiries of travelers and extensive reading of previous writers were supplemented in the case of
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
with his personal experiences in the western part of the subcontinent. He demonstrates a deep understanding of historical change, tracing current conditions to the unfolding of events over generations and centuries. He perceived the significance of interstate relations and of the interaction of Muslims and Hindus in the various states of the subcontinent. He described previous rulers in China, underlined the importance of the revolt by
Huang Chao Huang Chao (835 – July 13, 884) was a Chinese smuggler, soldier, and rebel, and is most well known for being the leader of a major rebellion that severely weakened the Tang dynasty. Huang was a salt smuggler before joining Wang Xianzhi's ...
in the late
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...
, and mentioned, though less detailed than for India, Chinese beliefs. His brief portrayal of Southeast Asia stands out for its degree of accuracy and clarity. He surveyed the vast areas inhabited by
Turkic peoples The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose memb ...
, commenting on what had been the extensive authority of the
Khaqan Khagan or Qaghan (Mongolian:; or ''Khagan''; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣 ), or , tr, Kağan or ; ug, قاغان, Qaghan, Mongolian Script: ; or ; fa, خاقان ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakha ...
, though this was no longer the case by al-Mas‘udi's time. He conveyed the great diversity of Turkic peoples, including the distinction between sedentary and nomadic Turks. He spoke of the significance of the
Khazars The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
and provided much fresh material on them. His account of the Rus is an important early source for the study of
Russian history The history of Russia begins with the histories of the East Slavs. The traditional start-date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' state in the north in 862, ruled by Varangians. Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod became ...
and the
history of Ukraine Prehistoric Ukraine, as a part of the Pontic steppe in Eastern Europe, played an important role in Eurasian cultural contacts, including the spread of the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, Indo-European migrations and the domestication of the ho ...
. Again, while he may have read such earlier Arabic authors as
Ibn Khordadbeh Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh ( ar, ابوالقاسم عبیدالله ابن خرداذبه; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking Persian bureaucrat and ...
,
Ibn al-Faqih Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani ( fa, احمد بن محمد ابن الفقيه الهمذانی) (floruit, fl. 902) was a 10th-century Persians, Persian historian and geographer, famous for his ''Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan'' ("Co ...
,
ibn Rustah Ahmad ibn Rustah Isfahani ( fa, احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی ''Aḥmad ibn Rusta Iṣfahānī''), more commonly known as Ibn Rustah (, also spelled ''Ibn Rusta'' and ''Ibn Ruste''), was a tenth-century Persian explorer and geographer ...
and
Ibn Fadlan Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, ( ar, أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; ) commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of hi ...
, al-Mas‘udi presented most of his material based on his personal observations and contacts made while traveling. He informed the Arabic reader that the Rus were more than just a few traders. They were a diverse and varied collection of peoples. He noted their independent attitude, the absence of a strong central authority among them and their paganism. He was very well informed on Rus trade with the Byzantines and on the competence of the Rus in sailing merchant vessels and warships. He was aware that the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...
and the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...
are two separate bodies of water. His ''Kuhsabin'' were probably
Kashubians The Kashubians ( csb, Kaszëbi; pl, Kaszubi; german: Kaschuben), also known as Cassubians or Kashubs, are a Lechitic ( West Slavic) ethnic group native to the historical region of Pomerania, including its eastern part called Pomerelia, in no ...
. Al-Mas'udi was also very well informed about Byzantine affairs, even internal political events and the unfolding of palace coups. He recorded the effect of the westward migration of various tribes upon the Byzantines, especially the invading
Bulgars The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomad ...
. He spoke of Byzantine relations with western Europe. And, of course, he was attentively interested in Byzantine-Islamic relations. One example of Al-Mas‘udi's influence on Muslim knowledge of the Byzantine world is that the use of the name
Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
(in place of
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
) can be traced to his writings during the year 947, centuries before the eventual Ottoman use of this term. He writes that the
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, Albania, Greeks in Italy, ...
(i.e. the Byzantines of the tenth century) call it "the City" (''bulin'' in the Arabic script, which lacks the letter p: so
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''polin''); "and when they wish to express that it is the capital of the Empire because of its greatness they say Istan Bulin. They do not call it Constantinople. It is only Arabs who so designate it". A present-day analogy would be the use of the phrases "I am going Downtown" or "I am going into the City" by those who live near say Chicago or London respectively. He has some knowledge of other peoples of eastern and western Europe, even far away
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and Anglo-Saxon England. He names it, though he is sketchy about it. He knows
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
as the Frankish capital. He obtained a copy of a list of Frankish rulers from
Clovis Clovis may refer to: People * Clovis (given name), the early medieval (Frankish) form of the name Louis ** Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler ** Clovis II (c. 634 – c. 657), ...
to his own time. He makes several references to people interpreted as
Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
, described by him as Majus, they came to Al-Andalus from the North. Al-Mas‘udi's global interest included Africa. He was well aware of peoples in the eastern portion of the continent (mentioning interesting details of the
Zanj Zanj ( ar, زَنْج, adj. , ''Zanjī''; fa, زنگی, Zangi) was a name used by medieval Muslim geographers to refer to both a certain portion of Southeast Africa (primarily the Swahili Coast) and to its Bantu inhabitants. This word is al ...
, for example). He knows less of West Africa, though he names such contemporary states as
Zagawa The Zaghawa people, also called Beri or Zakhawa, are a Sahelian Muslim ethnic group primarily residing in Fezzan North-eastern Chad, and western Sudan, including Darfur. Zaghawas speak the Zaghawa language, which is an eastern Saharan language. ...
, Kawkaw and
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...
. He described the relations of African states with each other and with Islam. He provided material on the cultures and beliefs of non-Islamic Africans. In general his surviving works reveal an intensely curious mind, a universalist eagerly acquiring as extensive a background of the entire world as possible. The geographical range of his material and the reach of his ever inquiring spirit is truly impressive. Al-Masudi describes Sistan, Iran in 947 AD:


Al-Mas‘udi and the Abbasids

Lunde and Stone have provided the English reader with a fluent translation of some three-quarters of al-Mas‘udi's material on the Abbasids from the ''Muruj al-dhahab''. This is in the form of more than two hundred passages, many of these containing amusing and informative anecdotes. The very first one recounts the meeting of
al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور‎; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) ...
and a blind poet unaware of the identity of his distinguished interlocutor. The poet on two separate occasions recites praise poems for the defeated Umayyads to the Abbasid caliph; al-Mansur good naturedly rewards him. There is the tale (p. 28 ff.) of the arrow that landed at al-Mansur's feet with verses inscribed in each of the three feathers and along the shaft causing him to investigate the unjust imprisonment of a distinguished notable from Hamadan. There is the story of the singer Harun al-Rashid asks to keep singing until the caliph falls asleep. Then a handsome young man arrives, snatches the lute from the singer's hand and shows him how it really should be done. On awakening Harun is told of this and suggests his singer had a supernatural visitation. Al-Mas‘udi quotes the lines (five in English) of this remarkable song. These anecdotes provide glimpses of other aspects of these prominent people, sharing, actually, greater realization of their humanity and the human concerns of their officials and ordinary subjects. One of the more interesting passages is the account of the symposium held at the home of
Harun al-Rashid Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar , أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
's famous vizier Yahya the Barmakid on the topic of love. A dozen leading thinkers provide their definition of love and then a thirteenth, a Magian judge, speaks at greater length on that theme.


Works

''Kitab at-Tanbih wa-l-'Ishraf'' (), 'Book of Admonition and Revision'; an abridged ''Muruj adh-Dhahab'', about one-fifth its length, containing new material on the Byzantines, that al-Mas‘udi wrote shortly before his death. *''Les Prairies d’or'' (Arabic text with French translation of ''Kitāb Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Ma‘ādin al-Jawhar''). Translated by
Barbier de Meynard Charles Adrien Casimir Barbier de Meynard (6 February 1826 – 31 March 1908), born at sea on a ship from Constantinople to Marseille, was a nineteenth-century French historian and orientalist. Biography His studies focused on the early histor ...
and Pavet de Courteille. 9 vols. Paris, Societe Asiatique, Imprimerie impériale, 1861–69; Imprimerie nationale, 1871–77. Revised Arabic edition by
Charles Pellat Charles Pellat (28 September 1914, in Souk Ahras – 28 October 1992, in Bourg-la-Reine) was an Algerian-born French academic, historian, translator, and scholar of Oriental studies, specialized in Arab studies and Islamic studies. He was an ed ...
5 vols. Universite Libanaise, Beirut, 1966–74. Incomplete revised French edition by Pellat. Lunde and Stone's English edition of Abbasid material, 1989.


Reception

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote infl ...
compared al-Masudi to the second century A.D. Greek geographer Pausanias, while others compared him to the Roman writer
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...
. Even before al-Masudi's work was available in a European languages, orientalists had compared him to
Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...
, the ancient Greek historian called "The Father of History."


Religious influences

Some early commentators on al-Masudi indicate the influence of religious antagonisms. The Sunni scholar
Ibn Hajar Ibn Hajar may refer to: *Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (1372–1449), Shafi'i and Hadith scholar *Ibn Hajar al-Haytami Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī al-Makkī al-Anṣārī known as Ibn Haja ...
wrote: " l-Mas‘udi'sbooks are imprecise because he was a Shi‘a, a Muʿtazili.". Adh-Dhahabi and Taj al-Din al-Subki believed he espoused heretical Mu'tazili doctrine. Indications of Shi‘i theology are cited in the following: * Aga Buzurg al-Tehrani in ''Mawsu'a al-Dhari'a ila Tasanif al-Shi'a'' * Isma'il al-Baghdadi in ''Hadīyat al-ʻārifīn'' * ''Bahr al-'Uloom in ''al-Fawa'id al-Rijalia * ''Al-Hilli in ''Khulasa al-Aqwal * ''Al-Najashi in his book on Rijal'' * ''Al-Tafrashi in ''Naqd al-Rijal * ''Al-'Amli in ''Amal al-Aamal * ''Al-Barujardi in ''Tara'if al-Maqal''http://209.85.122.83/2505/29/0/p1006798/Tashreeh.pdf ''


See also

*
List of pre-modern Arab scientists and scholars This is a list of Arab scientists and scholars from the Muslim World, including Al-Andalus (Spain), who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age, consisting primarily of scholars during the Middle Ages. For a list of con ...
*
Yahya ibn Umar Yaḥyā ibn ʿUmar ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Zayd ibn ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was an Alid Imam. His mother was Umm al-Ḥusayn Fāṭima bint al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ...
*
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...


Notes


Further reading

* * Shboul, Ahmad A. M.''Al-Mas'udi and His World'', Ithaca Press, London, 1979 *Mas'udi, ''The Meadows of Gold, The Abbasids'', transl. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, Kegan Paul, London and New York, 1989 *Haywood. John A
Mas'udi, al-
" Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 7 December 2006. *"Masūdī, al-." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006. *Tolan, John, Giles Veinstein, and Henry Laurens, ''Europe and the Islamic World: A History'' Princeton University Press. 2013. .


External links



*''Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems''; translation of ''Muruj al-dhahab'' by Aloys Sprenger, London, 1841
Vol.1 (only volume published)
*''Prairies d'or'', Arabic edition and French translation of ''Muruj al-dhahab'' by
Barbier de Meynard Charles Adrien Casimir Barbier de Meynard (6 February 1826 – 31 March 1908), born at sea on a ship from Constantinople to Marseille, was a nineteenth-century French historian and orientalist. Biography His studies focused on the early histor ...
and Pavet de Courteille, Paris 1861–77
Vol.1/9Vol.2/9Vol.3/9Vol.4/9Vol.5/9Vol.6/9Vol.7/9Vol.8/9Vol.9/9
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Masudi 890s births 956 deaths Year of birth uncertain 10th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate 10th-century Arabs 10th-century geographers Geographers from the Abbasid Caliphate Khazar studies Writers from Baghdad Explorers of India