lettered by Abraham Ortelius, 1570
Written source · Russian

al-Umari's Routes of Insight: a Mamluk encyclopedia of the known world

A Cairo chancery official's world encyclopedia of c.1340 to 1349; this copy is the first volume only, on general geography.

Full title Routes of Insight into the Realms of the Metropolises: chapters on the kingdom of the Tatars (Golden Horde, Chaghadaids, Ilkhanids), Russian translation with Arabic text in Tiesenhausen’s 1884 collection

مسالك الأبصار في ممالك الأمصار

al-Umari (1301-1349), Mamluk chancery official

Read the 4 passagesOpen the original book

Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari (1301 to 1349) served in the Mamluk chancery in Cairo and Damascus. His vast encyclopedia gathers geography and history, with famous chapters on the Mongol states (the Golden Horde, the Chaghadaids, the Ilkhans) built from merchants and envoys he questioned. The corpus copy is volume 1 of Ahmad Zaki Pasha's Cairo edition (Dar al-Kutub, 1924), which covers the earth, climes, seas, rivers and mountains. The Mongol chapters (in later volumes, and in Tiesenhausen's 1884 Russian extracts) are not in this volume.

How they knew
Compiled from others
Who “Tartar” means here
al-Tatar or al-Tatar (Tatars) means the Mongols and their subjects, especially the Ilkhanid enemies of the Mamluks; 'the land of the Tatars' is a broad region of inner Asia between China and Fergana. The steppe of the Golden Horde is 'the deserts of the Qipchaq'.
Why read it
Brief but telling glimpses: the sultan hailed as conqueror of the Tatars, a mountain chain crossing 'the land of the Tatars', the Volga as the river of Sarai, and old Gog and Magog lore about ruined lands in the far north-east.
Watch out
This volume is general geography, largely copied from earlier Arabic writers; the rich informant-based chapters on the Golden Horde are elsewhere and were not read.

What it says: 4 passages

CitiesVolga river and Sarai (Astrakhan oblast)c.1340

The Volga, 'the river on which the city of Sarai stands'

Editorial contextIn his list of rivers al-Umari describes the Athil (Volga) as the river on which the city of al-Sarai is set, flowing through 'the deserts of the Qipchaq' into the Caspian. Sarai was then the capital of the Golden Horde, with which the Mamluks were allied.

Among them is the river Athil. It is the river on which the city of al-Sarai is set. Its source is a spring welling up at the foot of Mount Qaquna; then it turns south, heading west through the deserts of the Qipchaq, north of the silver mines, until it flows into the Sea of Tabaristan [the Caspian].

Working translation

Original wording

ومن ذلك نهر أثيل . وهو المركب عليه مدينة السراى . ومخرجه من عين تنبع فى ذيل جبل قاقونا ، ثم يقتبل الجنوب آخذا بغرب فى صحارى القبجاق على شمالى معادن الفضة ، حتى يصب فى بحر طبرستان

al-Umari (Arabic text ed. Ahmad Zaki Pasha, Cairo 1924)
See the original page (p. 83)

About Golden Horde (Qipchaq steppe)

Keep in mind

Geographical summary; the source and course are partly traditional.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); vowel marks omitted.

The nameInner Asia, from China to Ferganac.1340

A mountain chain that crosses 'the land of the Tatars'

Editorial contextTracing the great mountain chain that ends in Syria, al-Umari starts it in China at the encircling ocean and says it cuts across 'the land of the Tatars' along its mines before reaching Fergana. Here 'land of the Tatars' is simply the Mamluk name for Mongol-ruled inner Asia, much as Europeans used 'Tartary'.

Its beginning is in the east, in China, at the Encircling Ocean. It cuts across the land of the Tatars, along its mines, until it reaches Farghana.

Working translation

Original wording

فإن أوله بالمشرق من الصين من البحر المحيط . فيقطع بلاد التتر على معادنها إلى أن يأتى فرغانة

al-Umari (Arabic text ed. Ahmad Zaki Pasha, Cairo 1924)
See the original page (p. 60)

About Tatars (Mongol-ruled inner Asia)

A note on this quote

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); vowel marks omitted.

The nameCairoc.1340

The sultan who 'vanquished the Tatars'

Editorial contextIn the dedication al-Umari praises the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun as king of Arabs, Persians and Turks and 'vanquisher of the Rum, the Franks, the Georgians, the Armenians and the Tatars'. For a Mamluk official the Tatars are one of the great enemy peoples, set beside the Crusaders.

vanquisher of the Rum, the Franks, the Georgians, the Armenians and the Tatars, sultan of the wide earth

Working translation

Original wording

هازم الروم والفرنج والكرج والأرمن والتتار ، سلطان البسيطه

al-Umari (Arabic text ed. Ahmad Zaki Pasha, Cairo 1924)
See the original page (p. 6)

About Tatars (Ilkhanid Mongols), enemies of the Mamluks

Keep in mind

Court flattery; the Mamluks defeated Ilkhanid armies, notably in 1303, and made peace with them in 1323.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); vowel marks omitted.

Strange talesFar north-east of the seventh climec.1340

Lands ruined by the raids of Gog and Magog

Editorial contextDescribing the far north, al-Umari says the eastern end is a region peopled by Gog and Magog within the Barrier (the wall). He reports that the Rus lands and the land of the Ankariyya (Hungarians) are inhabited, but that the land of Sisaban was once flourishing and populated and fell to ruin long ago because Gog and Magog raided it.

Its beginning on the eastern side is a stretch peopled by Gog and Magog, within the Barrier … They say: as for the Rus lands, they are flourishing and inhabited, and so are those of the Ankariyya; but the land of Sisaban was once flourishing, populated and settled, then fell to ruin long ago because of the raids of Gog and Magog upon them.

Working translation

Original wording

فأوله من جهة الشرق قطعة معمورة بيأجوج ومأجوج ، فيما هو داخل السد … قالوا : فأما الروسية ، فعامرة آهلة . وكذلك الأنكرية . وأما بلاد سيسبان ، فقد كانت عامرة آهلة مسكونة ، ثم خربت من قديم ، لإغارات يأجوج ومأجوج عليهم

al-Umari (Arabic text ed. Ahmad Zaki Pasha, Cairo 1924)
See the original page (p. 28)

About Gog and Magog (legendary), Rus

Keep in mind

'They say': copied lore, of the same family as Sallam's ruined cities.

Transcribed from the page image (corpus OCR is partly garbled); vowel marks omitted.

The fine print

How we know

informant testimony Written down from what informants reported.

informant testimony gathered in Cairo and Damascus from merchants and envoys (e.g. the merchant al-Isfahani on the Chaghadaids, Shaykh Ala al-Din al-Birzali on Sarai); compiled c.1340

Research notes
  • Klaus Lech's 1968 Wiesbaden edition of the Mongol chapters (Das mongolische Weltreich) not open online; the full Abu Dhabi Arabic edition exists on IA (masalik-al-absar-... uploads) but was not verified volume by volume.

Why it matters

The richest fourteenth-century description of the Golden Horde as a state (extent, towns, revenues, Uzbek Khan's court) and of the Chaghadaid ulus; the Arabic basis of later Mamluk encyclopaedias (Nuwayri, Qalqashandi).

Places named

Qipchaq steppe; Volga (Sarai); Crimea; Khorezm; Transoxiana; Moghulistan; Iran; Anatolia

Peoples named

Golden Horde and its Tatar successor khanates
Mongols and the Mongol empire
Persian, Arab, Ottoman and other Islamic states
Turkic and Central Asian peoples and states
Early steppe and pre-Mongol peoples
Peoples of the Caucasus
Rus, Muscovy and the Russian Empire

Golden Horde (Uzbek Khan); Chaghadaids; Ilkhanids; Mamluks; Qipchaqs; Bulghars; Circassians; Rus; Alans

Keep exploring

The witness before
1300 to 1333Mustawfi's Delight of Hearts: a geography of Mongol IranA Persian tax official's gazetteer of the Ilkhanid realm and its neighbours, written in 1340.Part eyewitness · 4 passages
The witness after
c. 1300 to 1320Sanudo's crusade plan: the Secrets of the Faithful of the CrossA Venetian merchant-noble's crusade treatise of c. 1321, with a history of the Tartars and advice on using them against Egypt.Part eyewitness · 11 passages
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