Author
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Mūsá ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī al-Andalūsī al-Gharnāṭī Nūr al-Dīn
Publication Date
ca 1300 (CE, Gregorian)
Subject
1
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
220 x 145 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 1524
Record ID
vdc_100081349737.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
ca 1300 (CE, Gregorian)
Notes
The earliest-known copy of a geographical manual, written after 1260 by Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Mūsá ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī al-Andalūsī al-Gharnāṭī Nūr al-Dīn (Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Musa ibn Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Malik Ibn Sa`id al-Maghrib al-Andalusi al-Gharnati Nur al-Din, d. 1286).
The present copy can be dated to around 1300 on the basis of a collation note on f. 99v which gives the date 700/1300-01. The text was copied by Muḥammad ibn al-Muʾayyad (Muḥammad ibn al-Muayyad, see
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
, f. 74v, line 7).
Folios 1 and 2 of the present copy are later replacements (see 'Contents', below). A title on the replaced f. 1r names the text as
Kitāb ʿajāʾib al-aqālīm al-sabʿah
(Book of the Seven Wonders of the Regions).
The original title of this work is unconfirmed, as neither of the other surviving copies of this text preserve title pages (see Ducène, 'The Map entitled Geography used by Ibn Sa‘īd (13th C.) and al-‘Umarī (d. 1348) as a Source’). London, Cartography between Europe and the Islamic World 1100-1600, September 8-9, 2014, Queen Mary University (unpublished conference paper).
Kitāb basṭ al-arḍ fī ṭūlihā wa-al-ʿarḍ
(The Book of Expanding the Earth in Its Length and Width) appears within the text of Bodleian Library MS Seld. Sup. 76 (copied 1305), while the incipit of BNF Arabe 2234 (copied 1314-15) relates it as
Kitāb jamaʿhu wa-akhtaṣarhu ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī al-Andalūsī– raḥimahu Allāh – min kitāb jughrāfiyā fī-l-aqāl[īm] al-sab’
(A book compiled and summarized by Ali Ibn Saeed al-Maghribi al-Andalusi, may God have mercy on him, from the book Geography in the Seven Provinces).
From the above it appears that this text is Ibn Saʿīd's abridgement of a fuller work known as
Kitāb jughrāfiyā
or
Kitāb jugrāfiyā fī al-aqālīm al-sabʿ
, and apparently now lost. The text has also been referred to as
Mukhtaṣar jughrāfiyā
(See Pellat, Ch., “Ibn Saʿīd al-Mag̲h̲ribī”, in:
Encyclopaedia of Islam
, Second Edition) and
Kitāb jughrāfiyā
(see Ibn Sa`īd al-Maghribī,
Kitāb al-Jughrāfiyā
. ed by Isma’īl al-ʿArabī (Bayrūt: Manshūrāt al-Maktab al-Tijārī lil-Tibāʿah, 1970)).
Drawing on the organization of Ptolemy's
Geographia
, the text describes the seven climes and the two zones to the north and south of them, and lists the geographic coordinates of significant cities and natural features. Certain phrases suggest that at least one of Ibn Saʿīd's sources was visual, probably an annotated map like those produced by al-Idrīsī (Al-Idrisi, d. ca 1165) a century earlier.
As well as numerous corrections and collation notes (reading an interview) on ff. 9v, 19v, 29v, 38v, 51r, and f. 61r, Arabic marginal notes are found on ff. 22v, 29v, 42r. Pencil notations in English, probably Rawlinson's, are found on the first unfoliated flyleaf, f. 1r (dated 1859 and 1872) and on f. 44v.
Contents:
[The torrid zone, from the fourth
juzʾ
onwards]:ff. 1r- 10v, line 2;
The First Clime, ff. 10v, line 2-f. 28v, line 11;
The Second Clime (The Second Region; incomplete: Eastern Arabic foliation f. 30 missing) f. 28v, line 11-ff. 37r, line 2;
The Third Clime (Third Region) f. 37r, line 2-f. 47v, line 13;
The Fourth Clime (incomplete: Eastern Arabic foliation ff. 62-74 missing) ff. 47v, line 13-f. 60v, line 17;
The Fifth Clime (incomplete: Eastern Arabic foliation ff. 76-78 missing) ff. 61r, line 1- 61v, line 17;
The Sixth Clime (incomplete: Eastern Arabic foliation ff. 81-88 missing) ff. 62r, line 1-63v, line 17;
The Seventh Clime (the Seventh Clime; imperfect at the beginning) ff. 64r, line 1-67v, line 8;
Zone to the north of the seven climes (Al-Ma'mur in the north of the seven climes, Ar. ff. 92-99v) ff. 67v, line 8-f. 74v, line 7.
Begins (f. 1v, line 2-5):
Muhammad bin Ahmed Al-Khwarizmi said: The earth is in the middle of the sky and the middle
It is the bottom in reality and it is round like a ball with a cubit in diameter
If we build something from it or miss something from it, that does not take it out of the ball. Glory be to Him
Who does not know the secrets of his wisdom except him...
Ends (f. 74v, lines 5-7)
The tenth part of Al-Ma'mur Khalaf
All regions are within the lands of Gog and Magog
The last is the sea surrounding the East
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 74v, line 7)
Complete, thank God, written by Muhammad bin Al-Muayyad
Erişim Koşulları
Unrestricted
Bulma Yardımcıları
Rieu, Charles,
Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum
(London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 696, pp. 471-2.
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased from Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810-95), 24 November 1877
Köken
Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson: his purchase record, with date April 28, 1844, Baghdad.
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Editions:
Ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī,
Kitāb basṭ al-arḍ fī al-ṭūl wa-al-ʿarḍ
, ed by Joan Vernet i Ginés (Tetouan: Maʿhad Mūlay al-Hassan, 1958)
Ibn Sa`īd al-Maghribī,
Kitāb al-jughrāfiyā
. ed by Isma’īl al-ʿArabī (Bayrūt: Manshūrāt al-Maktab al-Tijārī lil-Tibāʿah, 1970)
Studies:
Ducène, Jean-Charles, 'The Map entitled Geography used by Ibn Sa‘īd (13th C.) and al-‘Umarī (d. 1348) as a Source'. London, Cartography between Europe and the Islamic World 1100-1600, September 8-9, 2014, Queen Mary University (unpublished conference paper). Published in French as:
Ducene, J-C, 'Quel est ce Kitāb al-Jughrāfiyā cité par al-‘Umarī?', in Vermeulen, U., D’Hulster, K. et Van Steenbergen, J. (eds),
Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras
(Leuven, 2016) pp. 187-196 and pp. 401-418.
Brockelmann, Carl,
Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur: Zweite den Supplementbänden angepasste Auflage
(GALS), 3 vols (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996), vol 1, pp. 410-11, Supplement 1, p. 576
Pellat, Ch., "Ibn Saʿīd al-Mag̲h̲ribī”, in:
Encyclopaedia of Islam
, Second Edition
