Book of Roads and Kingdoms

File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art mss 0972 fol 6b-7a.jpg

Map of Arabia from the Kitab al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik by al-Istakhri (copy dated to c. Template:Trim CE)

Template:Italic title The Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Template:Langx, Kitāb al-Masālik waʿl-Mamālik) is a group of Islamic manuscripts composed from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.Template:Sfn They emerged from the administrative tradition of listing pilgrim and post stages.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Their text covers the cities, roads, topography, and peoples of the Muslim world, interspersed with personal anecdotes.Template:Sfn A theoretical explanation of the "Inhabited Quarter" of the world, comparable to the ecumene, frames the world with classical concepts like the seven climes.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The books include illustrations so geometric that they are barely recognizable as maps.Template:Sfn These schematic maps do not attempt a mimetic depiction of physical boundaries.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With little change in design, the treatises typically offer twenty regional maps and a disc-shaped map of the world surrounded by the Encircling Ocean.Template:Sfn The maps have a flat quality, but the textual component implies a spherical Earth. Andalusi scholar Abi Bakr Zuhri explained, "Their objective is the depiction of the earth, even if it does not correspond to reality. Because the earth is spherical but the [map] is simple".Template:Sfn

The first, incomplete Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik by Ja‘far ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi is now lost.Template:Sfn The earliest surviving version was written by Ibn Khordadbeh circa 870 CE,Template:Sfn during the reigns of Abbasid caliphs al-Wathiq and al-Mu'tamid.Template:Sfn The earliest known version of the idiosyncratic cartography was composed by al-Istakhri circa 950 CE,Template:Sfn although only copies by later artists survive.Template:Sfn As he was a follower of Abu Zayd al-Balkhi,Template:Sfn this style of map-making is often referred to as the "Balkhī school",Template:Sfn or the "Classical School". Leiden University Libraries holds مختصر كتاب المسالك والممالك لابي اسحاق ابراهيم بن محمد الاصطخري / World map in a summary of Kitab al-masalik wa’l mamalik, MS Or. 3101, 1193. The maps are sometimes called the "Atlas of Islam",Template:Sfn or abbreviated as KMMS maps.Template:Sfn This tradition of mapping appears in related works including Ibn Hawqal's Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ (; "The face of the Earth").Template:Sfn

History

The first, incomplete Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik by Ja‘far ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi is now lost. The earliest surviving version was written by Ibn Khordadbeh circa 870 CE,Template:Sfn during the reigns of Abbasid caliphs al-Wathiq and al-Mu'tamid.Template:Sfn Ibn Khordadbeh's text was the first to arrange the world according to the qibla. In Islam, the qibla is the direction to orient prayers in order to face towards the Kaaba in Mecca. This results in a circular model of the world with Mecca in the center and other locations radiating outward.Template:Sfn

The earliest known version of the idiosyncratic cartography was composed by al-Istakhri circa 950 CE,Template:Sfn although only copies by later artists survive.Template:Sfn As he was a follower of Abu Zayd al-Balkhi,Template:Sfn this style of map-making is often referred to as the "Balkhī school",Template:Sfn or the "Classical School".Template:Sfn The maps are sometimes called the "Atlas of Islam",Template:Sfn or abbreviated as KMMS maps.Template:Sfn This tradition of mapping appears in related works including Ibn Hawqal's Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ (; "The face of the Earth").Template:Sfn

Ibn Hawqal began work on a revised copy of the Book of Roads and Kingdoms, but shifted to creating his own geographical treatise covering everything he knew of geography.Template:Sfn The treatises belong to what historian Zayde Antrim calls the "discourse of place".Template:Sfn This literary tradition both describes the significance of the land and through writing gives the land literary and spiritual meaning.Template:Sfn It includes geographical works, travelogues, poetry, topographical works, and anthologies.Template:Sfn

There are unresolved questions about the authorship of the works of Ibn Hawqal, al-Istakhri, and al-Balkhi. Around 921 AD, al-Istakhri likely used a series of annotated maps by al-Balkhi as the basis for an expanded commentary on those maps, or similar maps derived from them. According to Ibn Hawqal, he met al-Istakhri while traveling and began a revision of his work, completed by 988. Manuscripts attributed to Ibn Hawqal contain much material from manuscripts attributed to al-Istakhri. It's unclear what material is coming from Ibn Hawqal, from al-Istakhri, and what if any is coming from al-Balkhi. This is compounded by additions and changes made by later, often anonymous, copyists.Template:Sfn

Most surviving manuscripts are later copies; few texts from the tenth century survive and even fewer original texts.Template:Sfn Leiden University Libraries holds مختصر كتاب المسالك والممالك لابي اسحاق ابراهيم بن محمد الاصطخري / World map in a summary of Kitab al-masalik wa’l mamalik, MS Or. 3101, 1193.

Works

• Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 9th century by Ibn Khordadbeh.
• Template:Ill, written in the early 10th century by Istakhri.
• Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the mid 11th century by al-Bakri in Spain.
• Template:Ill, written in the 10th century by Ibn Hawqal.
• Template:Ill, written in the 10th century by Template:Ill.
• Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 10th century by Muhammad ibn Yūsuf al-Warrāq.
• Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 9th century by Ahmad ibn al-Harith al-Kharraz (al-Khazzaz).
• Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 10th century by Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jayhani.

Gallery

• Istakhri's world map (South at top, copy dated to 1193) Leiden University Libraries
  Istakhri's world map (South at top, copy dated to 1193) Leiden University Libraries
• Ibn Hawqal's world map (South at top, copy dated to the 14th century)
  Ibn Hawqal's world map (South at top, copy dated to the 14th century)
• Ibn Hawqal's world map translated into English
  Ibn Hawqal's world map translated into English
• Map of the Persian Gulf from the Kitab al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik by al-Istakhri (restored in 2018, Persian translation dated to the 14-15th century CE)
  Map of the Persian Gulf from the Kitab al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik by al-Istakhri (restored in 2018, Persian translation dated to the 14-15th century CE)
• Map of Pars by al-Istakhri from folio 40b of the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art MSS 972 (dated to c. Template:TrimScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". CE)
  Map of Pars by al-Istakhri from folio 40b of the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art MSS 972 (dated to c. Template:Trim CE)
• Istakhri's map of the Mediterranean, with Fraxinetum depicted as an island (West at top, copy dated to 1173)
  Istakhri's map of the Mediterranean, with Fraxinetum depicted as an island (West at top, copy dated to 1173)

See also

• Geography and cartography in the medieval Islamic world
• Surat Al-Ard

References

• Accessed 2023-05-27.