Ya'qubi

Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far al-Ya'qubi
Title	Ya'qubi
Died	AH 284 (AD 897-898)[1][2]
Era	Islamic golden age
Religion	Islam
Main interest(s)	History and geography
Notable work(s)	Ta'rikh ibn Wadih and Kitab al-Buldan

Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (died 897/8), known as Ahmad al-Ya'qubi, or Ya'qubi, was a Muslim geographer^[3] and perhaps the first historian of world culture in the Abbasid Caliphate.^[4]

Biography

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

His Shia sympathies are found throughout his works.^[6]

In 872, he lists the kingdoms of Bilad el-Sudan, including Ghana, Gao, and Kanem.^[7]

Works

• Ta'rikh ibn Wadih (Chronicle of Ibn Wadih)
• Kitab al-Buldan (Book of the Countries) - geography, 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]

See also

• List of Islamic scholars

References

1. Muhammad's successor
2. Ya'qubi at Encyclopædia Britannica
3. Chisholm 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. Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 904.
6. Ya'qubi
7. Levtzion, Nehemia (1973). Ancient Ghana and Mali. New York: Methuen & Co Ltd. p. 3. ISBN 0841904316.

External links