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Moving Frontiers, Shifting Identities in the Land of Rome (13th-15th Centuries)
Warriors, Martyrs, and Dervishes: Moving Frontiers, Shifting Identities in the Land of Rome (13th-15th Centuries) focuses on the perceptions of geopolitical and cultural change, which was triggered by the arrival of Turkish Muslim groups into the territories of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the eleventh century, through intersecting stories transmitted in Turkish Muslim warrior epics and dervish vitas, and late Byzantine martyria. It examines the Byzantines’ encounters with the newcomers in a shared story-world, here called “land of Rome,” as well as its perception, changing geopolitical and cultural frontiers, and in relation to these changes, the shifts in identity of the people inhabiting this space. The study highlights the complex relationship between the character of specific places and the cultural identities of the people who inhabited them.
From the Medieval Golden Age until the Present
In
The Shīʿīs in PalestineYaron Friedman offers a survey of the presence of Shīʿism in the region of Palestine (today: Israel) from early Islamic history until the contemporary period. It brings to light many pieces of information and interesting developments that are not widely known, in addition to the general point that, contrary to common belief, the Shīʿī community has played a significant role in the history of Palestine. The volume includes a study of Shīʿī shrines in Palestine, as well as showing the importance of these Muslim sites and holy towns in Palestine in the Shīʿī religion.
Territory and Belonging in the Medieval and Early Modern Middle East and Mediterranean
Editor:
Steve Tamari
Grounded Identities: Territory and Belonging in the Medieval and Early Modern Middle East and Mediterranean is a collection of essays on attachment to specific lands including Kurdistan, Andalusia and the Maghrib, and geographical Syria in the pre-modern Islamicate world. Together these essays put a premium on the affective and cultural dimensions of such attachments, fluctuations in the meaning and significance of lands in the face of historical transformations and, at the same time, the real and persistent qualities of lands and human attachments to them over long periods of time. These essays demonstrate that grounded identities are persistent and never static.
Contributors are: Zayde Antrim, Alexander Elinson, Mary Hoyt Halavais, Boris James, Steve Tamari.
Contributors are: Zayde Antrim, Alexander Elinson, Mary Hoyt Halavais, Boris James, Steve Tamari.
Territoriality in Contemporary Islamic Legal Discourse on Muslims in the West
Series:
Muslim Minorities, Volume: 29
Where is
dār al-islām, and who defines its boundaries in the 21st century? In
Dār al-Islām Revisited. Territoriality in Contemporary Islamic Legal Discourse on Muslims in the West, Sarah Albrecht explores the variety of ways in which contemporary Sunni Muslim scholars, intellectuals, and activists reinterpret the Islamic legal tradition of dividing the world into
dār al-islām, the “territory of Islam,”
dār al-ḥarb, the “territory of war,” and other geo-religious categories. Starting with an overview of the rich history of debate about this tradition, this book traces how and why territorial boundaries have remained a matter of controversy until today. It shows that they play a crucial role in current discussions of religious authority, identity, and the interpretation of the shariʿa in the West.
State Formation and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1918-2010
The
Atlas of the Near East offers an in-depth examination of the economic, social, and demographic dynamics of the Arab Near East, defined here as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, in the period from 1918 to 2010. It discusses the central problem of aridity, the effects of foreign domination, Arab nationalism, Baʿathism, and communitarianism. It addresses the makeup of the population, the region’s development, economic issues, cities, and urban areas. It assesses the partition of Palestine and the geography of the Occupied Territories, and concludes with a chapter on the geopolitics of the Near East. With numerous maps, charts, and data published for the first time, it is key to a comprehensive understanding of the region.
The Magyar Chapter of the Jayhānī Tradition
The Jayhānī tradition contains the most detailed description of the Magyars/Hungarians before the Conquest of the Carpathian Basin (895). Unfortunately, the book itself was lost and it can only be reconstructed from late Arabic, Persian and Turkic copies. The reconstruction is primarily based on the texts of al-Marwazī, Ibn Rusta and Gardīzī. The original text has shorter and longer versions. The basic text was reformed at least twice and later copyists added further emendation. This study focuses on the philological comments and historical interpretation of the Magyar chapter, integrating the results in the fields of medieval Islamic studies, the medieval history of Eurasian steppe, and the historiography of early Hungarian history.
Geopolitics and History. Volume One: 1521-1699
This atlas offers a survey of the history of Southeast Europe from 1521 until 1699, from the first major land campaign undertaken by Sultan Süleyman I until the Treaty of Karlowitz at the end of the seventeenth century. It covers modern-day Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania (Walachia and Transylvania), Dalmatia, Greece and Cyprus.
Descriptio imperii Moslemici / auctore Schamso ’d-din Abu Abdollah Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn abi Bekr al-Banna al-Basschari al-Mokaddasi. M.J. de Goeje’s Classic Edition (1877)
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Bannāʾ al-Shāmī al-Muqaddasī 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-Iṣṭakhrī and Ibn Ḥawqal were also representatives,
al-Muqaddasī 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-Muqaddasī’s
Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm (“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” (
iqlīm) 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 Qurʾānic readings, and routes.
Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm by al-Muqaddasī covers North Africa (including Iberia), Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Greater Syria, Iraq and Upper Mesopotamia, as well as eight non-Arab provinces including Iran and Afghanistan.
Descriptio imperii Moslemici / auctore Schamso ’d-din Abu Abdollah Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn abi Bekr al-Banna al-Basschari al-Mokaddasi. The Second Edition (1906) by M.J. de Goeje
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
This is the second edition by M.J. de Goeje of the Arabic text of al-Muqaddasī’s
Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm, the first BGA edition of which was published in 1877 by the same editor.
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Bannāʾ al-Shāmī al-Muqaddasī 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-Iṣṭakhrī and Ibn Ḥawqal were also representatives, al-Muqaddasī 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-Muqaddasī’s Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm (“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” ( iqlīm) 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 Qurʾānic readings, and routes. Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm by al-Muqaddasī covers North Africa (including Iberia), Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Greater Syria, Iraq and Upper Mesopotamia, as well as eight non-Arab provinces including Iran and Afghanistan.
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Bannāʾ al-Shāmī al-Muqaddasī 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-Iṣṭakhrī and Ibn Ḥawqal were also representatives, al-Muqaddasī 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-Muqaddasī’s Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm (“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” ( iqlīm) 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 Qurʾānic readings, and routes. Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm by al-Muqaddasī covers North Africa (including Iberia), Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Greater Syria, Iraq and Upper Mesopotamia, as well as eight non-Arab provinces including Iran and Afghanistan.
Viae regnorum: descriptio ditionis Moslemicae / auctore Abu Ishák al-Fárisí al-Istakhrí. M.J. De Goeje's Classic Edition (1870)
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
Little is known about the life of
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad al-Iṣṭakhrī, the author of
Kitāb al-Masālik wa l-mamālik, which was written towards the end of the first half of the 10th century CE. The work built on the earlier concept of the “atlas of Islam”, which it developed further. The climates (
iqlīm) it describes are no longer those of Ptolemean geography, but, reflecting the Iranian tradition, refer to geographical entities or “countries”. Also reflecting the author’s background—whose most common
nisba is al-Fārisī—Iran holds a favoured position on this work. Published in 1870, the present edition by M.J. de Goeje was the first volume in the first series of the Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum.
Viae et regna: descriptio ditionis Moslemicae / auctore Abu ’l-Kásim Ibn Haukal. M.J. de Goeje’s Classic Edition (1873)
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
The journeys of
Abū l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal, who might have been a merchant, took him to North Africa, Spain and the southern edge of the Sahara (947-51), Egypt, Armenia and Azerbaijan (c. 955), the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Khuzistan, and Iran (961-69), Khwarazm and Transoxania (c. 969), and Sicily (973). By about 988 CE the final version of Ibn Ḥawqal’s
Kitāb Ṣūrat al-arḍ was ready. It is effectively both a continuation and an update of al-Iṣṭakhrī’s
Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik and is also known under that same title.
Ibn Ḥawqal transformed what was meant as a commentary on a series of maps into a work in its own right, which also included remarks on various countries or peoples bordering on the Islamic world, e.g. the Turks, the Khazars, the towns of southern Italy, the Sudanese and the Nubians. Although he owed much to al-Iṣṭakhrī’s work, Ibn Ḥawqal aimed to place the text firmly within his own period. He took great care to depict a region precisely in the state and at the date that he himself had seen it, with occasional references to the distant or more recent past. This is particularly true of the notes on economic matters, which form a complete break with convention. Ibn Ḥawqal was the only Arab geographer of the period who really sketched a vivid picture of production.
Ibn Ḥawqal transformed what was meant as a commentary on a series of maps into a work in its own right, which also included remarks on various countries or peoples bordering on the Islamic world, e.g. the Turks, the Khazars, the towns of southern Italy, the Sudanese and the Nubians. Although he owed much to al-Iṣṭakhrī’s work, Ibn Ḥawqal aimed to place the text firmly within his own period. He took great care to depict a region precisely in the state and at the date that he himself had seen it, with occasional references to the distant or more recent past. This is particularly true of the notes on economic matters, which form a complete break with convention. Ibn Ḥawqal was the only Arab geographer of the period who really sketched a vivid picture of production.
Opus geographicum / Abu al-Kasim Ibn Haukal al-Nasibi. The Second Edition (1938-39) by J.H. Kramers
Editor:
J.H. Kramers
This is the second edition by J.H. Kramers of the Arabic text of Ibn Ḥawqal’s
Kitāb Ṣūrat al-arḍ, the first BGA edition of which was published in 1873.
The journeys of Abū l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal, who might have been a merchant, took him to North Africa, Spain and the southern edge of the Sahara (947-51), Egypt, Armenia and Azerbaijan (c. 955), the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Khuzistan, and Iran (961-69), Khwarazm and Transoxania (c. 969), and Sicily (973). By about 988 CE the final version of Ibn Ḥawqal’s Kitāb Ṣūrat al-arḍ was ready. It is effectively both a continuation and an update of al-Iṣṭakhrī’s Kitāb al-Masālik wa l-mamālik and is also known under that same title.
Ibn Ḥawqal transformed what was meant as a commentary on a series of maps into a work in its own right, which also included remarks on various countries or peoples bordering on the Islamic world, e.g. the Turks, the Khazars, the towns of southern Italy, the Sudanese and the Nubians. Although he owed much to al-Iṣṭakhrī’s work, Ibn Ḥawqal aimed to place the text firmly within his own period. He took great care to depict a region precisely in the state and at the date that he himself had seen it, with occasional references to the distant or more recent past. This is particularly true of the notes on economic matters, which form a complete break with convention. Ibn Ḥawqal was the only Arab geographer of the period who really sketched a vivid picture of production.
The journeys of Abū l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal, who might have been a merchant, took him to North Africa, Spain and the southern edge of the Sahara (947-51), Egypt, Armenia and Azerbaijan (c. 955), the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Khuzistan, and Iran (961-69), Khwarazm and Transoxania (c. 969), and Sicily (973). By about 988 CE the final version of Ibn Ḥawqal’s Kitāb Ṣūrat al-arḍ was ready. It is effectively both a continuation and an update of al-Iṣṭakhrī’s Kitāb al-Masālik wa l-mamālik and is also known under that same title.
Ibn Ḥawqal transformed what was meant as a commentary on a series of maps into a work in its own right, which also included remarks on various countries or peoples bordering on the Islamic world, e.g. the Turks, the Khazars, the towns of southern Italy, the Sudanese and the Nubians. Although he owed much to al-Iṣṭakhrī’s work, Ibn Ḥawqal aimed to place the text firmly within his own period. He took great care to depict a region precisely in the state and at the date that he himself had seen it, with occasional references to the distant or more recent past. This is particularly true of the notes on economic matters, which form a complete break with convention. Ibn Ḥawqal was the only Arab geographer of the period who really sketched a vivid picture of production.
Indices, glossarium et addenda et emendanda ad part I-III. Compiled by M.J. de Goeje (1879)
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
This volume, which was originally published in 1879, contains the indices compiled by
M.J. de Goeje to his critical text editions of al-Iṣṭakhrī’s
Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik (BGA I:1), Ibn Ḥawqal’s
Kitāb Ṣūrat al-arḍ (BGA I:2) and al-Muqaddasī’s
Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm (BGA I:3). It also includes his Arabic-Latin glossary to these works, and additions and corrections.
Kitab al-Tanbih wa-al-israf / li-Abi al-Hasan Ali b. al-Husayn al-Masudi. M.J. de Goeje’s Classic Edition (1894) with Indices and Glossary to BGA I: 7–8
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
Al-Masʿūdī composed his
Kitāb al-Tanbīh wal-ishrāf in the years 955 and 956, finishing it not long before his death. Based in part on earlier historical-geographical works, it offers a description of astronomical and meteorological phenomena; the divisions of the earth; the seas; ancient nations; universal chronology, and then the history of Islam until the caliphate of al-Muṭīʿ (r. 946-74).
Muktasar kitab al-buldan / talif Abi Bakr Ahmad Ibn Muhammad al-Hamadani al-maruf bi-Ibn al-Faqih. M.J. de Goeje’s Classic Edition (1885) with Index and Glossary
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
Ibn al-Faqīh was the Iranian author of a Geography in Arabic entitled
Kitāb al-buldan written around the year 903. The original work is lost, but the abridged version, possibly composed around 1022, has survived in a handful of manuscripts. Only three manuscripts were known during De Goeje’s life and he used them all for his edition, which was originally published in 1885. Its introduction includes a summary of Ibn Faqīh’s life on the basis of the classical sources by De Goeje. Ibn al-Faqīh’s
Kitāb al-buldan offers geographical and historical details not found in other sources, and it was in itself an important source for later works, for example by Muqaddasī and Yāqūt.
Liber viarum et regnorum / auctore Abu al-Kasim Obaidallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadhbeh; et excerpta e Kitab al-karrag auctore Kodama ibn Dja’far. M.J. de Goeje’s Classic Editions (1889) with Indices and Glossary
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
Abu ’l-Qāsim ʿUbayd Allāh b. ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Khurradādhbih (d. c. 911 CE) is one of the earliest geographical writers in Arabic whose writings have survived more or less in their original form. The
Kitāb al-Masālik wa l-mamālik (‘The book of itineraries and kingdoms’) made his reputation. In this edition, Ibn Khurradādhbih’s geographical text is published alongside an excerpt from Qudāma Ibn Jaʿfar’s
Kitāb al-Kharāj, which relied on the same sources as Ibn Khurradādhbih. Qudāma b. Jaʿfar was a prominent philologist and historian who died between 940 and 948 CE.
Kitab al-Alaq al-nafisa / tasnif Abi Ali Ahmad b. Umar b. Rusta. Kitab al-buldan / tasnif Ahmad b. Abi Yaqub b. Wadih al-Katib al-maruf bi-al-Yaqubi. M.J. de Goeje’s Classic Editions (1892)
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
Abu ʿAlī Aḥmad b. ʿUmar Ibn Rusta was born in Isfahan at an unknown date and he flourished in the first decade of the 10th century CE. Only the seventh volume of his
Kitāb al-Aʿlāq al-nafīsa has survived. The work deals with mathematical, descriptive and human geography and a variety of historical and other subjects. One of his sources seems to have been a more complete version of Ibn Khurradādhbih, which has not survived. The
Kitāb al-Aʿlāq al-nafīsa, which has been characterized as an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, is a rich source on the kinds of subjects that interested
the cultivated classes of ʿAbbāsid society. It is published here together with the Kitāb al-buldān (‘The book of countries’) by al-Yaʿqūbī (d. c. 905 CE). al-Yaʿqūbī’s Kitāb al-buldān is an administrative geography based in part on the author’s extensive travels, which also contains valuable historical data. For instance, it provides the earliest information about the political history and state-building of the Sudan west of the Nile.
the cultivated classes of ʿAbbāsid society. It is published here together with the Kitāb al-buldān (‘The book of countries’) by al-Yaʿqūbī (d. c. 905 CE). al-Yaʿqūbī’s Kitāb al-buldān is an administrative geography based in part on the author’s extensive travels, which also contains valuable historical data. For instance, it provides the earliest information about the political history and state-building of the Sudan west of the Nile.
Liber expugnationis regionum auctore Imámo Ahmed ibn Jahja ibn Djábir al-Beládsorí, M.J. de Goeje’s Classic Edition (1866)
Editor:
M.J. de Goeje
This is a reprint of
Kitāb Futūḥ al-buldān by Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balādhurī (d. c. 892 CE), edited by M.J. de Goeje and originally titled
Liber expugnationis regionum (Leiden,1866). The work offers an account of the early conquests of the Islamic polity. It has the form of a geographical survey of the Caliphate’s territories, describing how each location came under Muslim rule.
From the Fifth Book of the Seyāḥatnāme
Evliyā Çelebī’s Journey from Bursa to the Dardanelles and Edirne is comprised of an edition and translation of the relevant section from Evliyā’s Book of Travels detailing the 29-day journey he undertook in the autumn of 1659 from Bursa to Edirne via the Dardanelles strait. Evliyā travelled in the retinue of grand vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and Sultan Mehmed IV, who was travelling to inspect the two castles that were being built at the southern tip of each side of the Dardanelles. This was the only trip that Evliyā made to the region between Bursa and Edirne. This edition also includes a detailed annotated index of people and places as well as the geographic coordinates of all the locations and buildings mentioned in the text.