ابن حوقل
Ibn Hawqal based his great work of geography on a revision and augmentation of the text called "Masālik ul-Mamālik" by Istakhri (951 AD), which itself was a revised edition of the "Ṣuwar al-aqālīm" by Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, (ca. 921 AD). However Ibn Hawqal was more than an editor, he was travel writer writing in the style followed later by Abu Ubaydallah al-Bakri in his Kitab al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik, a literary genre which uses reports of merchants and travellers. Ibn Hawqal introduces 10th century humour into his account of Sicily during the Kalbid-Fatimid dynasty. As a primary source his medieval geography tends to exaggeration and his depiction of the barbaric uncivilised Christians of Palermo, reflects the prevailing politics of his time. Yet his geographic accounts of his personal travels were relied upon, and found useful, by medieval Arab travellers.