Ya'qubi

Aḥmad ibn Abī Ya‘qūb ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb ibn Waḍīḥ al-Ya‘qūbī (died 897/8), known as Ahmad al-Ya'qubi, or Ya'qubi (Arabic: اليعقوبي‎), was a Muslim geographer[3] and perhaps the first historian of world culture in the Abbasid Caliphate.[4]

For the Syrian Islamic scholar, see Muhammad al-Yaqoubi.

Aḥmad ibn Abī Ya‘qūb ibn Ja'far al-Ya‘qūbī
Title	Ya'qubi اليعقوبي
Personal
Died	AH 284 (AD 897–898)[1][2]
Religion	Islam
Era	Islamic golden age
Main interest(s)	History and geography
Notable work(s)	Ta'rikh ibn Wadih and Kitab al-Buldan

Biography

He was a great-grandson of Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Al-Mansur. Until 873 he lived in Armenia and Khorasan, working under the patronage of the Tahirids Governors; then he traveled to India, Egypt and the Maghreb,[5] and died in Egypt. He died in AH 284 (897/8).[2]

His sympathies with Ahl al-Bayt[6] are found throughout his works.[7]

In 872, he lists the kingdoms of Bilad el-Sudan, including Ghana, Gao, and Kanem.[8]

Works

• Ta'rikh ibn Wadih (Chronicle of Ibn Wadih)
• Kitab al-Buldan (Book of the Countries) - biology, contains a description of the Maghreb, with a full account of the larger cities and much topographical and political information (ed. M. de Goeje, Leiden, 1892).[5]
• Ya'qubi (1861). A. W. T. Juynboll (ed.). Kitab al-Buldan (in Arabic). BRILL.
  • Alt: Ya'qubi (1861). A. W. T. Juynboll (ed.). Kitab al-Buldan (in Arabic). BRILL.

See also

• List of Islamic scholars

References

1. Muhammad's successor
2. Ya'qubi at the Encyclopædia Britannica
3. Thatcher 1911.
4. Daly, Okasha El (2005). Egyptology : the missing millennium : ancient Egypt in medieval Arabic writings. London: UCL. p. 166. ISBN 1844720632.
5.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Thatcher, Griffithes Wheeler (1911). "Ya'qūbī". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 904.
6. Camilla Adang, Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm, (E.J. Brill, 1996), 37.
7. Ya'qubi
8. Levtzion, Nehemia (1973). Ancient Ghana and Mali. New York: Methuen & Co Ltd. p. 3. ISBN 0841904316.

External links