Ahsan al-taqasim fi ma'rifat al-aqalim
Subtitle: Descriptio imperii Moslemici / auctore Schamso'd-din Abu Abdollah Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn abi Bekr al-Banna al-Basschari al-Mokaddasi = Kitāb Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʻrifat al-aqālīm. M.J. de Goeje's Classic Edition (1877)
By: by al-Muqadassi =
Contributors: Goeje, M.J. de
Series: Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum -- I:3
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Leiden
Language: ara
Number of pages: 498
ISBN-13: 9789004258709
Subjects: Arab Geography; Description and travel
Other titles: Descriptio imperii Moslemici; Kitāb Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʻrifat al-aqālīm
Work titles: Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʻrifat al-aqālīm
Description: Shams al-Din Abu ʻAbdallah Muḥammad b. Ahmad b. Abi Bakr al-Bannaʼ al-Shami al-Muqadassi is one of the most prominent representatives of Arabic geography in the second half of the 10th century CE. Building on the tradition of the "atlas of Islam" of which al-Istakhri and Ibn Hawqal were also representatives, al-Muqadassi was the first to systematize the subject into a proper science of geography of Islam for the benefit of both merchants and the cultivated man. Al-Muqadass's Ahsan al-taqasim fi maʻrifat al-aqalim ("the best division for the knowledge of the provinces") was the first work of its kind to be accepted as a form of literature. The treatment of each "province" (iqlim) begins with the division of its districts and towns, followed by their description. Then a general chapter of the province tends to discuss the following aspects: climate, products and specialties, waters, mines, mountains, holy places, money, taxes, weights and measures, customs, marvels, calendar, political power, factions, schools and Qurʼanic readings, and routes.
Notes: In Arabic.