Ibn Hawqal

{{Short description|10th century Arab writer and geographer}} {{More citations needed|date=November 2015}} {{Infobox scholar | name = Ibn Hawqal | birth_date = | birth_place = Nisibis, Abbasid Caliphate<br />(modern-day Nusaybin, Mardin, Turkey) | death_date = after 978 | death_place = | era = Islamic Golden Age | school_tradition = Balkhi school | main_interests = Islamic geography | notable_ideas = | major_works = ''Surat al-Ard'' | influences = Al-Balkhi | influenced = }} [[File:Ibn Howqal World map.jpg|thumb|right|10th century map of the World by Ibn Hawqal. For an English version, see here.]] thumb|right|10th century map of the Caspian sea by Ibn Hawqal thumb|right|10th century map of the Caspian sea by Ibn Hawqal

'''Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal''' ({{lang|ar|محمد أبو القاسم بن حوقل}}), also known as '''Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī''', born in Nisibis, Upper Mesopotamia;<ref>Soucek, Svat, ''A History of Inner Asia'' (Cambridge University Press:2000), p.73.</ref> was a 10th-century Arab<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Jean-Charles|first1=Ducène|title=Ibn Ḥawqal|journal=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three|url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/ibn-hawqal-COM_30810|language=en|date=January 2017}}</ref> Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler who travelled from AD 943 to 969.<ref name="Ludwig 2009">Ludwig W. Adamec (2009), ''Historical Dictionary of Islam'', p.137. Scarecrow Press. {{ISBN|0810861615}}.</ref> His famous work, written in 977, is called ''Surat al-Ard'' ({{lang|ar|صورة الارض}}; "The face of the Earth"). The date of his death, known from his writings, was after AH 368/AD 978.

==Biography== Details known of Ibn Hawqal's life are extrapolated from his book. He spent the last 30 years of his life traveling to remote parts of Asia and Africa, and writing about different things he saw during his journey. One journey brought him 20° south of the equator along the East African coast where he discovered large populations in regions the ancient Greek writers had deemed uninhabitable.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

==Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ== Ibn Hawqal based his great work of geography on a revision and augmentation of the text called ''Masālik ul-Mamālik'' by Istakhri (AD 951), which itself was a revised edition of the ''Ṣuwar al-aqālīm'' by Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, (ca. AD 921).<ref name=EB1911>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Ibn Hauḳal |volume=14|page=221}}</ref>{{sfn|Şeşen|1999|p=35}} However Ibn Hawqal was more than an editor, he was a travel writer writing in the style followed later by Abu Ubaydallah al-Bakri in his ''Kitab al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik'', a literary genre which uses reports of merchants and travellers. Ibn Hawqal introduces 10th century humour into his account of Sicily during the Kalbid-Fatimid dynasty. As a primary source his medieval geography tends to exaggeration, depicting the "barbaric and uncivilised" Christians of Palermo, reflecting the prevailing politics and attitudes of his time. Yet his geographic accounts of his personal travels were relied upon, and found useful, by medieval Arab travellers.

The chapters on al-Andalus, Sicily, and the richly cultivated area of Fraxinet (La Garde-Freinet) describes in detail a number of regional innovations practiced by Muslim farmers and fishermen.

The chapter on the Byzantine Empire—known in the Muslim world as, and called by the Byzantines themselves, the "Lands of the Romans"—gives his first-hand observation of the 360 languages spoken in the Caucasus, with the Lingua Franca being Arabic and Persian across the region. With the description of Kiev, he may have mentioned the route of the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars, which was perhaps taken from Sviatoslav I of Kiev.<ref>[http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/A/R/Arabs.htm Encyclopedia of Ukraine]</ref> He also published a cartographic map of Sindh together with accounts of the geography and culture of Sindh and the Indus River.

==Editions==

An anonymous epitome of the book was written in AD 1233.<ref name=EB1911/>

In the 1870s, the famous Dutch orientalist Michael Jan de Goeje edited a selection of manuscript texts by Arab geographers, which was published by Brill, Leiden in the eight-volume series ''Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum''. Ibn Haukal's text was the second volume published in 1873 under the Latin title ''Viae et Regna, descriptio ditionis Moslemicae auctore Abu'l-Kásim Ibn Haukal'' - "Routes and Realms, a description of Muslim territories by the author Abu'l-Kásim Ibn Haukal".{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * James, Preston Everett. ''All Possible Worlds: A History of Geography''. New York: Wiley, 1981. *{{cite book|last=Uylenbroek|first=P. J.|title=Specimen geographico-historicum exhibens dissertationem de Ibn Haukalo geographo, nec non descriptionem Iracae Persicae cum ex eo scriptore tum ex aliis mss. arabicis bibl. L.B. petitam| publisher=Luchtmans, S. et J.|place=Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden) |year=1822|oclc=905422872}} *{{cite encyclopedia|last=Ibn Haukal|editor-last=de Goeje|editor-first=M. J.|title=Viae et regna, descriptio ditionis moslemicae auctore Abu'l-Kasim Ibn Haukal|encyclopedia=Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum|publisher=Brill|place=Lugdunum Batavorum (Leiden)|year=1873| volume=2| language=ar, la|url=https://archive.org/details/viaeetregnadescr02ibnh/page/n426}} *{{citation| last=Al-Istakhri|first=Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad|editor-last=Goeje|editor-first=M. J. de|title=Viae Regnorum descriptio ditionis Moslemicae auctore Abū Ishāk al-Fārisi al-Istakhri |journal=Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum|publisher=Brill |place=Lugdunum Batavorum (Leiden)|year=1927|volume=1|language=ar, la|url=https://archive.org/details/BibliothecaGeographorumArabicorum1927Vol1ViaeRegnorumDescriptio}} *{{citation|editor-last=Goeje|editor-first=M. J. de|title=Indices, glossarium et addenda et emendanda ad Part I-III|journal=Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum|publisher=Brill|place=Lugdunum Batavorum (Leiden)|year=1870| volume=4| language=ar, la|url=https://archive.org/details/bibliothecageogr04goejuoft/page/n5}} * {{Cite journal | first = Francesco | last = Gabrieli | title = Ibn Ḥawqal e gli Arabi di Sicilia | journal = Rivista degli studi orientali | volume = 36 | year = 1961 | pp = 245-253 | jstor = 41879386 }} *{{cite book |last1=Şeşen |first1=Ramzan |title=IBN HAVKAL |date=1999 |publisher=TDV Encyclopedia of Islam |isbn=9789753894470 |pages=34-35 |volume=20 (Ibn Haldun - Ibnu'l Cezeri) |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ibn-havkal |lang=tr}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Ibn Hawqal}} * {{cite encyclopedia | last = Vernet | first = J. | title=Ibn Ḥawqal Abū'l-Qāsim Muḥammad | url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830901901.html | encyclopedia = Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography | publisher = Encyclopedia.com | orig-year=1970-80 | year = 2008 }} * {{cite book|last=Calvo|first=Emilia|title=Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-western cultures|year=1997|publisher=Kluer Academic Publishing|isbn=0-7923-4066-3|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=raKRY3KQspsC&pg=PA419|editor-last=Selin|editor-first=Helaine|editor-link=Helaine Selin|chapter=Ibn Hawqal}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Hawqal}} Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Year of death unknown Category:10th-century geographers Category:10th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate Category:10th-century writers Category:10th-century Arab people Category:Balkhi school Category:Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world Category:Writers from Baghdad Category:10th-century travelers Category:10th-century cartographers Category:Medieval travel writers