10th century geography book written in Persian by an unknown author
TheḤudūd al-ʿĀlam (Arabic:حدود العالم,lit. "Boundaries of the World," "Limits of the World," or also in English "The Regions of the World"[1]) is a 10th-century geography book written inPersian by an anonymous author fromGuzgan (present day northern Afghanistan),[2] possiblyŠaʿyā bin Farīghūn.[1] The title in full isحدود العالم من المشرق الی المغرب (Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam min al-Mashriq ilá l-Maghrib,lit. "The Boundaries of the World from the East to the West").
The sections of its geographical treatise which describes the margins of Islamic world, are of great historical importance, including early descriptions of theTurkic peoples inCentral Asia.[3] Also noteworthy is the archaic language and style of theḤudud, which makes it a valuable Persian linguistic document as well.[1]
In regards to the title,Vladimir Minorsky commented on it in his 1937 translation as follows: "The wordḥudūd (properly 'boundaries') in our case evidently refers to the 'regions within definite boundaries' into which the world is divided in the Ḥ.-'Ā., the author indicating with special care the frontiers of each one of these areas, v.i., p. 30."
Finished in 982 CE, it was dedicated toAbu'l Haret Muhammad, the ruler of theFarighunids. Its author is unknown, butVladimir Minorsky surmised that it might have been written by the enigmaticŠaʿyā bin Farīghūn.[1] The available text ofḤudūd al-ʿĀlam is part of a larger manuscript which contains other works:
- A copy of theJahān-Nāma ("Book of The World") by Muḥammad ibn Najīb Bakrān;
- A short passage about music;
- TheḤudūd al-ʿĀlam;
- TheJāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm ("Collection of Knowledge") byFakhr al-Din al-Razi;
TheḤudūd al-ʿĀlam contains information about the known world at the time. The anonymous author reports about different countries (nāḥiyat), people, languages, clothing, food, religion, local products, towns and cities, rivers, seas, lakes, islands, the steppe, deserts, topography, politics and dynasties, as well as trade. The inhabited world is divided in Asia, Europe and "Libya" (i.e. theMaghreb). The author counts 45 countries north of the equator.[citation needed] Among other things, Hudud al-Alam appears to mention aRus' Khaganate; it refers to the Rus' king as "Khāqān-i Rus".[4]
The author never visited those countries personally, but rather compiled the book from earlier works and tales.[5] He did not indicate his sources, but researchers deduced several 9th-century sources.[5]Minorsky (1937) reconstructed them as follows:
- Non-literary sources, includingyādhkird-i haklmān ("memories of the sages"),akhbār ("information [heard]"; more fullyha-akhbār-hā ba-shanidim, "the information that we have heard"), anddhikr ("mention").[6] It is unclear whether or not these non-literary sources included the author's personal experiences, which were probably limited to his home region ofGuzganan, and maybeGilan.[7]
- Books, calledkitāb-hā-yipīshīnagān ("books of the predecessors").[5]
- (a)Ibn Khordadbeh (I.Kh.),Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Arabic:كِتَاب ٱلْمَسَالِك وَٱلْمَمَالِك,romanized: Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik).[6] This work shows overlap with the similarly titled now-lost bookKitāb al-Masālik wal-Mamālik written byAbu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jayhani, and therefore these books were sometimes confused with each other.[8]
- (b) An unknown source also used byAhmad ibn Rustah,Al-Bakri,Gardizi,Muhammad Aufi, and others.[9] This unknown source is usually identified as the lost bookKitāb al-Masālik wal-Mamālik written by Jayhani.[9]
- (c)Istakhri (Ist.),Masālik al-Mamālik (مسالك الممالك, "Routes of the Realms") orkitab al-masalik wa-l-mamalik (Arabic:كتاب المسالك والممالك "Book of Roads and Kingdoms", or "Book of the Paths and Provinces"[10]).[11] As his source, Istakhri used the work ofAbu Zayd al-Balkhi, theFigures of the Regions (Suwar al-aqalim), and thus he belonged to the Balkhī school.[12] The Balkhī school also includedIbn Hawqal andAl-Maqdisi, whose works show significant overlap with theḤudūd al-ʿĀlam, but they appear to have directly copied their content from Istakhri rather than viaḤudūd al-ʿĀlam.[13]
- (d)Al-Masudi,The Meadows of Gold. According to Minorsky (1937), asḤudūd al-ʿĀlam contains more details about the same topics, the author probably did not directly copy from Masudi's work, but they both drew from a common source 'of which Mas'udī possessed only an abstract. Possibly the same source is responsible for the interesting details on Gīlān.'[14]
- (e) Some contents about Arabia appear to derive fromHamdani'sGeography of the Arabian Peninsula (Arabic:صفة جزيرة العرب,romanized: Sifat Jazirat ul-Arab), perhaps a more complete version of Ibn Khordadbeh's work, or a yet unknown source.[14]
- Preface
- The disposition (nihādh) of the Earth; the amount of (its) cultivation and lack of cultivation (miqdār-i ābādhānī va vīrānī) and its countries (nāḥiyat-hā)
- The Seas
- The Islands
- The Mountains
- The Rivers
- The Deserts
- The countries (nāḥiyat-hā) of the World
- The country (nāḥiyat) ofChīnistān
- The country ofHindūstān
- The country ofTibet
- The country of theToghuzghuz andTātār
- The country of theYaghmā
- The country of theKhirkhīz
- The country of theKarluk
- The country of theChigil
- The country of theTukhs
- The country of theKīmāk
- The country of theGhūz
- The country of thePechenegs (Cumans)
- The country of theKhifjākh
- The country of theMajgharī
- The country ofKhurāsān
- The country of the Marches (ḥudūd) of Khurāsān
- The country ofTransoxania
- The country of the Marches (ḥudūd) of Transoxania
- The country ofSind
- The country ofKirmān
- The country ofFārs
- The country ofKhūzistān
- The country ofJibāl
- The country ofDaylamān (all the IranianCaspian region)
- The country of'Irāq
- The country ofJazīra
- The country ofĀdharbādhagān
- The country ofArmīniya andArrān
- The country of theArabs
- The country ofSyria (Shām)
- The country ofEgypt
- The country ofMaghrib
- The country ofSpain (Andalus)
- The country ofByzantium (Rūm) (Includes all of christian Europe, includingFrance,Rome andBritain)
- The country of theSlavs (Ṣaqlāb)
- The country of theRūs
- The country of theInner Bulghār
- The country of theMirvāt
- The country of theKhazarian Pechenegs
- The country of theAlān
- The country of theSarīr
- The country of theKhazar
- The country of the Burṭās (Bolghar andSuvar)
- The country of theBarādhās
- The country of the V.n.nd.r (TheVolga Bulgarian tribes ofEsegel,Barsil andBulgar)
- Southern Inhabited Lands
- The country ofZangistān
- The country ofZābaj
- The country ofAbyssinia
- The country ofBuja
- The country ofNubia
- The country of theSūdān
- Epilogue of the book
Rediscovery and translation
[edit]TheOrientalist scholarAlexander Tumansky found a manuscript with a copy of this text in 1892 in Bukhara. The copy from the original was made by the Persian chronographer Abu l-Mu'ayyad ʿAbd al-Qayyūm ibn al-Ḥusain ibn 'Alī al-Farīsī in 1258.[2] The facsimile edition with introduction and index was published byVasily Bartold in 1930; a thoroughly commented English translation was made by Vladmir Minorsky in 1937, and a printed Persian text byManouchehr Sotudeh in 1962.[15]
- ^abcd"Hudud al-'Alam" atEncyclopædia Iranica
- ^abC. E. Bosworth in:Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, s.v. ḤUDŪD AL-ʿĀLAM
- ^Bosworth & Asimov 2003, p. 221.
- ^Minorsky 1937, p. 159.
- ^abcMinorsky 1937, p. xiv.
- ^abMinorsky 1937, p. xvi.
- ^Minorsky 1937, p. xiv–xv.
- ^Minorsky 1937, p. xvi–xvii.
- ^abMinorsky 1937, p. xvii.
- ^Fr. Taeschner inEncyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, s.v. Djughrāfīya
- ^Minorsky 1937, p. xviii.
- ^Minorsky 1937, p. xviii–xix, 5.
- ^Minorsky 1937, p. xviii–xix.
- ^abMinorsky 1937, p. xix.
- ^The Hejri-ye Shamsi date on the title page of Sotudeh's edition reads in Persian "esfand-mah 1340"; on the 4. cover page, which is in English, the year "1962" is written.
