Yaqut's Geographical Dictionary (Mu'jam al-buldan)
A thirteenth-century Arabic gazetteer that preserves earlier travellers, including long Ibn Fadlan extracts, about 1224 to 1228.
Full title Geographical Dictionary, Arabic text edited by F. Wuestenfeld (Leipzig 1866-1873, 6 vols)
معجم البلدان
Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179-1229)
Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179 to 1229) compiled this alphabetical Arabic gazetteer in 1224 to 1228 from earlier authors, adding his own knowledge of Khorezm and Marv, from where he fled the Mongol invasion of 1220. It carries long extracts from Ibn Fadlan under Bulghar, Rus, Khazar and Itil. The corpus holds scans of Wüstenfeld's Leipzig edition (1866 to 1873) and of the Cairo edition (1906 to 1907), but this guide has not read them and quotes nothing from them.
- How they knew
- Compiled from others
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. Yaqut wrote as the first Mongol invasion was happening. The card lists Mongols along with Turks, Khazars, Bulghars and Rus.
- Why read it
- It preserves Ibn Fadlan's report and the place names of Khorezm and Transoxiana on the eve of the Mongol conquest.
- Watch out
- It is largely a compilation of earlier writers, and Wüstenfeld's text has been superseded by the Cairo and Beirut editions. The atlas quotes nothing from this work.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation of earlier authors (including the long Ibn Fadlan excerpts under Bulghar, Rus, Khazar, Itil) with the author's own travels in Khorezm and Marv c.1219-1220
Research notes
- DLI catalogue tags language as English. Wuestenfeld's text superseded by the Cairo (1906-1907, on IA as 7-8-1907) and Beirut editions.
- Related to W110 (Ibn Fadlan via Yaqut) as the source of the excerpts.
Why it matters
Transmits the Ibn Fadlan excerpts used in W110 and preserves Khorezmian and Transoxanian toponymy on the eve of the Mongol conquest; the editio princeps used by all nineteenth-century scholars.
Places named
Khorezm; Transoxiana; Volga; Khazaria; Turkestan; China
Peoples named
Bulghars; Khazars; Rus; Oghuz; Turks; Khwarazmshahs; Mongols (author fled the invasion in 1220)