Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...

ancestry active during the late

Abbasid period 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-Muttalib ...

(12th-13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography containing valuable information pertaining to biography, history and literature as well as geography.

Life

''Yāqūt'' ('' ruby'' or '' hyacinth'') was the '' kunya'' of Ibn Abdullāh ("son of Abdullāh"). He was born in Constantinople, and as his '' nisba'' "al-Rumi" ("from Rūm") indicates he had Byzantine Greek ancestry. Yāqūt was " mawali" to ‘Askar ibn Abī Naṣr al-Ḥamawī, a trader of Baghdad, Iraq, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate, from whom he received the '' laqab'' "Al-Hamawī". As ‘Askar's apprentice, he learned about accounting and commerce, becoming his envoy on trade missions and travelling twice or three times to Kish in the Persian Gulf. In 1194 ‘Askar stopped his salary over some dispute and Yāqūt found work as copyist to support himself. He embarked on a course of study under the grammarian Al-‘Ukbarî. Five years later he was on another mission to Kish for ‘Askar. On his return to Baghdad he set up as a bookseller and began his writing career. Yāqūt spent ten years travelling in Persia,

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, and Egypt and his significance as a scholar lies in his testimony of the great, and largely lost, literary heritage found in libraries east of the Caspian Sea, being one of the last visitors before their destruction by Mongol invaders. He gained much material from the libraries of the ancient cities of Merv(present-day Turkmenistan), where he had studied for two years,and of

Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...

. Circa 1222 he was working on his "Geography" in Mosul and completed the first draft in 1224. In 1227 he was in Alexandria. From there he moved to

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, where he died in 1229.

Works

*''Kitāb Mu'jam al-Buldān'' ( ar, معجم البلدان) "Dictionary of Countries
(Ar) Book 1(Ar) Appendix Book 1
Classified a "literary geography", composed between 1224 and 1228, and completed a year before the author's death. An alphabetical index of place names from the literary corpus of the Arabs, vocalizations, their Arabic or foreign derivation and location. Yaqut supplements geographic descriptions with historical, ethnographic, and associated narrative material with historical sketches and accounts of

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

conquests, names of governors, monuments, local celebrities etc., and preserves much valuable early literary, historical, biographic and geographic material of prose and poetry. (ed.

F. Wüstenfeld F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distribution, a cont ...

, 6 vols., Leipzig, 1866–73) *''

Irshād al-Arīb ilā Ma’rifat al-Adīb Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

'' or "Dictionary of Learned Men of Yāqūt"; ed. D. S. Margoliouth, 7 vols. ("E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series," vol.VI; Leiden, Brill 1907–31
download archive.org
*''Mu'jam al-Udabā'' (=''Irshād al-Arīb ilā Ma’rifat al-Adīb''), ( ar, معجم الادباء إرشاد الأريب إلى معرفة الأديب) "Literary Encyclopedia, Expert Guide to Literature" (1226)
(Ar.) www.archive.org (Ar., Beirut, 1993)
*
al-Mushtarak wadh'ā wal-Muftaraq Sa'qā
' ( ar, المشترک وضعا والمفترق صقعا); 1845 edition by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld. ::''Marâçid''; a 6-volume Latin edition by Theodor Juynboll, published as ''Lexicon geographicum, cui titulus est, Marâsid al ittilâ’ ‘ala asmâ’ al-amkina wa-l-biqâ'', in 1852
vol.3, archive.org
* **Alt: * (alt
1.(1866)

2.(1867)3.(1868)4.(1869)5.(1873)6.(1870)
*''Lexicon geographicum, cui titulus est, Marâsid al ittilâ’ ‘ala asmâ’ al-amkina wa-l-biqâ’,'' ( Observation study of placenames and sites) 6 vols, edited by T.G. Juynboll, 1852 4; as ''Marasid al-ittila’ ‘ala asma’ al-amkina wa-al-biqa’: wa-huwa mukhtasar mu’jam al-buldan li-Yaqut,'' 3 vols, edited by ‘Ali Muhammad al-Bajjawi, 1992 *Yāqūt Ibn-ʻAbdallāh ar-Rūmī; ed. Theodor Juynboll;
Lexicon geographicum, cui titulus est Introductionem in hunc librum et annotationem in literas
'; Vol.4, p. 729; Leiden, Brill (1859, Arabic-Latin)

Commentary

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Notes

References

External links