{"id":5619,"date":"2025-12-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/?p=5619"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:12:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:12:30","slug":"andalusi-geography-the-other-side-of-the-same-coin-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/?p=5619","title":{"rendered":"Andalusi geography: the other side of the same coin (part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">If geography was Greek in Antiquity, it was Arabic in the Middle Ages. At that time, in the Islamic world, great treatises on universal geography were written, and these writings were intimately linked to the existence of an empire that stretched from the Indus to the Pyrenees and spanned three continents. This powerful geographical discourse, written in Arabic, rehabilitates the medieval period as an essential moment in the constitution of the discipline<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-light-gray-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-light-gray-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cv.hal.science\/emmanuelle-tixier-du-mesnil\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Emmanuelle Tixier du Mesnil<\/a><br>Universit\u00e9 Paris-Nanterre<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-light-gray-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-light-gray-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kitab-al-Masalik.jpg?resize=1000%2C469&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kitab-al-Masalik.jpg?resize=1024%2C480&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kitab-al-Masalik.jpg?resize=300%2C141&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kitab-al-Masalik.jpg?resize=768%2C360&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kitab-al-Masalik.jpg?resize=1536%2C719&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kitab-al-Masalik.jpg?w=1753&amp;ssl=1 1753w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Detail of a map in the <em>Kit\u0101b al-Mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kitab_al-Masalik_wa-l-Mamalik#\/media\/Datei:Khalili_Collection_Islamic_Art_mss_0972_fol_6b-7a.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-light-gray-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-light-gray-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Al-Idr\u012bs\u012b is the best known of the geographers of the Middle Ages. His work, dedicated in 548\/1154 to the Sicilian king Roger II, the <em>Kit\u0101b Nuzhat al-musht\u0101q f\u012b ikhtir\u0101q al-\u0101f\u0101q<\/em> (\u201cThe Pleasure of One Passionate About Peregrination Across the World\u201d), also known as the <em>Kit\u0101b Ruj\u0101r<\/em>, the \u201cBook of Roger\u201d, is the first work of Arabic geography to include a representation of the Latin West. The geographer indicates that he spent more than fifteen years (between 1139 and 1154) painstakingly gathering information from sailors, merchants and even special envoys dispatched for this purpose by the King of Sicily. The book was intended to complement a silver planisphere on which a map of the world was engraved. Indeed, the book reinforces the pre-eminence of the graphic medium, since it contains seventy maps inserted at the end of each chapter. Both the maps and the book depict the oekoumene, i.e. a large quarter of the earth north of the equator. However, its great originality lies in the fact that each of the seven climates has ten sections or compartments, making it possible to draw up a grid of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Al-Idr\u012bs\u012b is truly innovative in the portrait he paints of the Latin West: the Frankish territories emerge from the shadows in which they had been confined by Baghdadian geographers of the ninth and tenth centuries.<sup data-fn=\"6ff5de26-68dd-43e1-81b4-c1b081d438d4\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#6ff5de26-68dd-43e1-81b4-c1b081d438d4\" id=\"6ff5de26-68dd-43e1-81b4-c1b081d438d4-link\">1<\/a><\/sup> Unsurprisingly, the descriptions of England, Normandy and France &#8211; countries that were well known in Palermo, where a Norman king reigned and traders from Western Europe flocked &#8211; are fairly accurate. Al-Idr\u012bs\u012b was also the first of the Arab geographers to produce a true portrait of Christian Spain (which he called Ishb\u00e2niya), whereas his predecessors merely listed the peoples bordering al-Andalus. He was aware of the prominent role now played by the Christian kingdoms and gave Toledo as the centre of the Peninsula. The symbolic political centre, always equated with Cordoba, was therefore replaced here by a geographical centre, justified by distance but also by geopolitics, since 478\/1085 it had been one of the capitals of the Christian states of the peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"940\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Al-Idrisis_world_map.jpg?resize=940%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5624\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Al-Idrisis_world_map.jpg?resize=940%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 940w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Al-Idrisis_world_map.jpg?resize=275%2C300&amp;ssl=1 275w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Al-Idrisis_world_map.jpg?resize=768%2C837&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Al-Idrisis_world_map.jpg?resize=1409%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1409w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Al-Idrisis_world_map.jpg?w=1424&amp;ssl=1 1424w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Al-Idr\u012bs\u012b world map from &#8216;Al\u00ee ibn Hasan al-H\u00fbf\u00ee al-Q\u00e2sim\u00ee&#8217;s 1456 copy, made at Cairo and now preserved at Oxford&#8217;s Bodleian Library as MS. Pococke 375 fol. 3v-4. Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-light-gray-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-light-gray-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The works of these geographers were reprinted and anthologised in later centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This practice, which was an integral part of medieval writing, made it possible to anchor each of the authors in the long intellectual chain of knowledge transmission. For example, the geographical dictionary written in the fifteenth century by the Andalusi-born Maghrebi al-\u1e24imyar\u012b, which considers the Islamic world in its entirety but gives pride of place to al-Andalus, reproduces many of the pages of his predecessors. Under his pen, al-Andalus extends as far as Narbonne, in a nostalgic geography designed to preserve the memory of what the Iberian peninsula was like under Islamic rule, when in reality it only extended to the Nasrid kingdom of Granada at the time he was writing. Territory becomes heritage, and the geographical discourse, now utopian, lists places to preserve the memory of a space that no longer exists; the reality of the terrain is overridden by the dictionary. The geography of al-\u1e24imyar\u012b is less that of \u2018places of memory\u2019, to use Pierre Nora\u2019s formula, which are by definition few in number and selected for their ability to embody a memory that is disintegrating, than a memory of places, where place names help to bring into existence in discourse what has been lost in warfare. Even within the framework of this project, which consists of keeping alive the memory of what al-Andalus was at its apogee, the geography of the period after the year 1000 continues to be universal, because it is also important to describe the East, the cradle of Islam, the heart of civilisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other geographers, such as al-Zuhr\u012b (around 545\/1150) and Ibn Sa\u02bf\u012bd al-Maghrib\u012b (609-684\/1213-1286), also distinguished themselves by writing treatises on universal geography, making al-Andalus one of the major production sites for the discipline within the Islamic world after the year 1000. It was thus in the Islamic West that universal geography was written, following on from Baghdad\u2019s geography of the ninth and tenth centuries. It was an extension, because the geographical approach was the same: to describe provinces and countries, to list their cities and places of interest, to entertain as well as educate. To do this, the geographers of the Islamic West combined compilation and field experience, like their predecessors in the <em>al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em> genre. The principle of indicating routes and itineraries, the insertion of historical anecdotes, and even the very title of some of the works: <em>Kit\u0101b al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em> are borrowed from this type of geographical literature. Although the main aim of geography written in al-Andalus was to repair the shortcomings of eastern geography concerning the west of the Islamic world, it did not want to confine itself to regional geography alone. It was essential to continue to describe the eastern lands, even by means of compilation, precisely in order to show that al-Andalus was an integral part of the vast whole that was the world of Islam. This need became increasingly pressing as the threats multiplied from the end of the eleventh century onwards. Describing the East, by anthologising works of geography and history written in the Abbasid domain before the year 1000, was to be part of a scholarly continuity, to assume fidelity to a scientific heritage and to take it further.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ibn_Said_al_Maghribi_World_Map.jpg?resize=1000%2C733&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5625\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ibn_Said_al_Maghribi_World_Map.jpg?resize=1024%2C751&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ibn_Said_al_Maghribi_World_Map.jpg?resize=300%2C220&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ibn_Said_al_Maghribi_World_Map.jpg?resize=768%2C563&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ibn_Said_al_Maghribi_World_Map.jpg?resize=1536%2C1126&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ibn_Said_al_Maghribi_World_Map.jpg?w=1849&amp;ssl=1 1849w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">World map by Ibn Sa&#8217;\u012bd al-Maghrib\u012b. Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-light-gray-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-light-gray-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But fidelity in this case does not means imitation. The compilation of data concerning the East is a practice inherent in the writing of geography. The great oriental <em>al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em> treatises of the tenth century were themselves largely inspired by the earlier genres of <em>\u1e63\u016brat al-ar\u1e0d<\/em> and administrative geography, themselves tributaries of ancient geography. There is a bedrock of geographical discourse, constantly enriched with new touches; geography is a constant rewriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reference to some of the great Eastern masters is thus inescapable whenever certain subjects are discussed. Al-Bakr\u012b draws his main inspiration from al-\u1e6cabar\u012b (224\/839-310\/923)<sup data-fn=\"edb2a088-769e-49c8-b4ba-7e4f1fb00e0a\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#edb2a088-769e-49c8-b4ba-7e4f1fb00e0a\" id=\"edb2a088-769e-49c8-b4ba-7e4f1fb00e0a-link\">2<\/a><\/sup> and al-Mas\u02bf\u016bd\u012b (280\/893-345\/956)<sup data-fn=\"cddd8c92-7809-4d14-9214-fda767f31b54\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#cddd8c92-7809-4d14-9214-fda767f31b54\" id=\"cddd8c92-7809-4d14-9214-fda767f31b54-link\">3<\/a><\/sup> in the first part of his work, when he traces the history of the world from Creation. Ibn Rusteh (d. 279\/892), author of an encyclopaedic work entitled <em>Kit\u0101b al-A\u02bfl\u0101q al-naf\u012bsa<\/em> (\u201cThe Precious Garments\u201d) is an essential source for depicting Constantinople, Rome and the Slavic lands. Ibn Khurrad\u0101dhbih (d. 200\/912), author of a <em>Kit\u0101b al-Mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em>, is finally the main inspiration, along with Ibn \u1e24awqal and al-Muqaddas\u012b, for the pages al-Bakr\u012b devotes to the East. Al-Idr\u012bs\u012b cites the works to which he is indebted in the prologue to the <em>Nuzhat al-musht\u0101q<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Book of Wonders of al-Mas\u02bf\u016bd\u012b and the books of Ab\u016b Nasr Sa\u02bf\u012bd al-Jayh\u0101n\u012b, of Ab\u016b al-Q\u0101sim \u02bfUbayd All\u0101h b. Khurrad\u0101dhbih, of A\u1e25mad b. \u02bfUmar al-\u02bfUdhr\u012b, of Ab\u016b al-Q\u0101sim Mu\u1e25ammad al-\u1e24awqal\u012b al-Baghd\u0101d\u012b (Ibn \u1e24awqal), of Kh\u0101n\u0101kh b. Kh\u0101q\u0101n al-K\u012bm\u0101k\u012b, of M\u016bs\u0101 b. Q\u0101sim al-Qarad\u012b, of A\u1e25mad b. Ya\u02bfq\u016bb known as al-Ya\u02bfq\u016bb\u012b, of Is\u1e25\u0101q b. al-\u1e24asan al-Munajjim (\u201cthe astronomer\u201d), Qud\u0101ma al-Ba\u1e63r\u012b, Ptolemy al-Aql\u016bd\u012b (Claudius) and Orose (Urusy\u016bs) al-An\u1e6d\u0101k\u012b\u201d.<sup data-fn=\"725938e4-f98e-4271-b38c-d57952462fe8\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#725938e4-f98e-4271-b38c-d57952462fe8\" id=\"725938e4-f98e-4271-b38c-d57952462fe8-link\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When describing this part of the world, the (handful of) oriental geographers of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries used works written in al-Andalus. Al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b (d. 682\/1283), not strictly speaking a geographer but the author of two works entitled <em>\u0100th\u0101r al-bil\u0101d<\/em> (\u201cMonuments of the Countries\u201d) and <em>Kit\u0101b \u02bfAj\u0101\u02beib al-makhl\u016bq\u0101t<\/em> (\u201cWonders of the Created Things\u201d), works that had great success in the medieval period, takes the text of al-\u02bfUdhr\u012b word for word when he evokes the wonders (<em>\u02bfaj\u0101\u02beib<\/em>) of al-Andalus, and explicitly specifies the provenance of these passages.<sup data-fn=\"115ca989-9636-405f-93f0-e8d2343b66c9\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#115ca989-9636-405f-93f0-e8d2343b66c9\" id=\"115ca989-9636-405f-93f0-e8d2343b66c9-link\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"515\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Map_Cosmography_Zakariya_al-Qazwini.jpg?resize=750%2C515&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Map_Cosmography_Zakariya_al-Qazwini.jpg?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Map_Cosmography_Zakariya_al-Qazwini.jpg?resize=300%2C206&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A map of the inhabited world, from cosmography <em>\u2018Aj\u0101\u2019ib al-makhl\u016bq\u0101t wa-ghar\u0101\u2019ib al-mawj\u016bd\u0101t<\/em> (Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing) by al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b. Manuscript of 1537. U.S. National Library of Medicine. MS P 1, fols. 71b-72a. Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-light-gray-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-light-gray-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Ayyubid prince of \u1e24am\u0101, Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be (672-732\/1273-1331), one of the great names in Arab geography after the year 1000, copied entire passages from al-Idr\u012bs\u012b\u2019s <em>Nuzhat al-musht\u0101q<\/em>. He even quotes the name of the Palermo geographer on the very first page of his book, just after that of Ibn \u1e24awqal.<sup data-fn=\"dc3eb22c-7c85-4b23-a630-96c4cf68cce4\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#dc3eb22c-7c85-4b23-a630-96c4cf68cce4\" id=\"dc3eb22c-7c85-4b23-a630-96c4cf68cce4-link\">6<\/a><\/sup> More surprisingly, the borrowing sometimes goes beyond what one might expect: Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be takes up the notes that al-Idr\u012bs\u012b devotes to the cities of Tyre, Caesarea in Palestine and Saint-Jean d\u2019Acre, perhaps because these are localities that were in the hands of the Franks and he considers that King Roger\u2019s geographer will forever remain the foremost authority on the latter.<sup data-fn=\"c4afe1e1-79ea-4d41-9f82-457a1f7b7250\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#c4afe1e1-79ea-4d41-9f82-457a1f7b7250\" id=\"c4afe1e1-79ea-4d41-9f82-457a1f7b7250-link\">7<\/a><\/sup> When he paints a picture of al-Andalus, he cites Ibn Sa\u02bf\u012bd al-Maghrib\u012b (609-684\/1213-1286). The name of the famous Andalusi polygrapher is repeated at the head of each of the entries devoted to places in al-Andalus. It is sometimes preceded by the words \u201cafter Ibn \u02bfAbd al-Barr\u201d.<sup data-fn=\"12dfa1bc-c7ba-485e-89ef-ad8971dfde68\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#12dfa1bc-c7ba-485e-89ef-ad8971dfde68\" id=\"12dfa1bc-c7ba-485e-89ef-ad8971dfde68-link\">8<\/a><\/sup> The great Andalusi traditionist Ab\u016b \u02bfUmar b.\u02bfAbd al-Barr (d. 463\/1071), author of a brief geographical opuscule that has not come down to us and is scarcely cited, serves here as an endorsement of the geographical discourse thanks to the fame he acquired in the religious sciences. It is a kind of <em>isn\u0101d<\/em> that guarantees the authenticity of information, more so than geographers themselves. Once again we see the ambiguity of the epistemological status of geography. It is clear, however, that the source is Andalusi. The main benefit that Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be finds in Ibn Sa\u02bf\u012bd is that he systematically provides the precise coordinates of the various cities; he specifies that the absence of this type of information is the main flaw in al-Idr\u012bs\u012b\u2019s work.<sup data-fn=\"364c51f8-6c9b-4b91-b1ed-b854e318dc00\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#364c51f8-6c9b-4b91-b1ed-b854e318dc00\" id=\"364c51f8-6c9b-4b91-b1ed-b854e318dc00-link\">9<\/a><\/sup> According to M. Reinaud, the translator of Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be in the nineteenth century, the Eastern geographer \u201callowed himself to be seduced by Ibn Sa\u02bf\u012bd\u2019s western origin, and had full confidence in his information about the lands of Europe and Africa\u201d.<sup data-fn=\"67e41ced-b8f1-4b37-a244-607c1bfaa318\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#67e41ced-b8f1-4b37-a244-607c1bfaa318\" id=\"67e41ced-b8f1-4b37-a244-607c1bfaa318-link\">10<\/a><\/sup> Some passages in Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, notably the portrait of the Galicians, are in fact borrowed from al-Bakr\u012b, who, however, is never mentioned by name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Y\u0101q\u016bt (574 or 575-626\/1179-1229), a slave of Byzantine origin bought and then freed by a Baghdad merchant, was a great encyclopaedist, an eminent geographer and a tireless traveller. He cites a book by al-Bakr\u012b among his works of reference, along with those by Ibn Khurrad\u0101dhbih, Ibn al-Faq\u012bh, al-I\u1e63\u1e6dakhr\u012b and Ibn \u1e24awqal, but only in his dictionary of the dubious toponyms of the Arabian Peninsula. Thus he used an Andalusi as a source of reference when talking about an eastern land, what is more, Arabia. In his description of the Iberian Peninsula, broken down into numerous entries within this geographical dictionary, we recognise the influence of al-\u02bfUdhr\u012b, al-Bakr\u012b and al-Idr\u012bs\u012b.<sup data-fn=\"509b2e00-d7d1-45a6-9209-e7551c5417a0\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#509b2e00-d7d1-45a6-9209-e7551c5417a0\" id=\"509b2e00-d7d1-45a6-9209-e7551c5417a0-link\">11<\/a><\/sup> Y\u0101q\u016bt also uses elements provided by al-R\u0101z\u012b, though without quoting this author; he thus specifies that al-Andalus is divided into 41 administrative circles (<em>k\u016bra<\/em>), which corresponds more or less to the situation in the Caliphate period, and a figure that only al-R\u0101z\u012b gives among all Andalusi geographers. In other words, Easterners recognised that Westerners were the most capable of describing their own lands and, by the same token, admitted that they were equal partners in the development of the discipline. This twofold compilation honours and legitimises the Westerners: they are indeed the other side of the same coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the fact that these Andalusi authors created an original discourse on the West does not mean that they should be seen as advocates of a \u2018national\u2019 geography. The argument that literature written in al-Andalus is ontologically \u201cHispanic\u201d does not hold water, any more than that of the sterile adoption of Eastern canons. Claudio S\u00e1nchez Albornoz, for example, defended the idea that some Andalusi geographers, foremost among them al-R\u0101z\u012b, were compilers, and hence continuators, of ancient and Visigothic sources. Al-R\u0101z\u012b certainly used the works of Orosius and Isidore of Seville,<sup data-fn=\"95ceffaf-42bb-47cf-94cd-e7866bb29fbe\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#95ceffaf-42bb-47cf-94cd-e7866bb29fbe\" id=\"95ceffaf-42bb-47cf-94cd-e7866bb29fbe-link\">12<\/a><\/sup> but this is not an exceptional approach. While the kinship with Latin works is unmistakable, the conclusions we draw must be cautious. Making al-R\u0101z\u012b the continuator of the Latin chroniclers, by and of itself, is tantamount to inserting all Andalusi geographers into the unbroken chain of Spanish authors, from Antiquity to modern times.<sup data-fn=\"0a81a261-bb93-4ab6-a13f-d1754391f3f2\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#0a81a261-bb93-4ab6-a13f-d1754391f3f2\" id=\"0a81a261-bb93-4ab6-a13f-d1754391f3f2-link\">13<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"482\" height=\"625\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Istakhris_map_of_the_Mediterranean.png?resize=482%2C625&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Istakhris_map_of_the_Mediterranean.png?w=482&amp;ssl=1 482w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Istakhris_map_of_the_Mediterranean.png?resize=231%2C300&amp;ssl=1 231w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A schematic Arabic map of the Mediterranean Sea from an 1839 litographic facsimile of an 1173 manuscript copy of al-I\u1e63\u1e6dakhr\u012b 10th-century atlas. Wikimedia Commos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-light-gray-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-light-gray-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, compilation from ancient sources was not enough to differentiate him from the geographers of the East, who drew freely on Greek, Byzantine, Persian and other texts. It is just this openness to outside influences and this ability to integrate foreign data that characterise Arab geography. What is original, however, is that Andalusi geography drew most of its information from Latin geography. The Arab and Eastern geography of the ninth and tenth centuries, that of the <em>\u1e63\u016brat al-ar\u1e0d,<\/em> the cartography of the earth, and then of the <em>al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em>, had been inspired mainly by Greek geography. Ptolemy or Marinus of Tyre thus contributed to the construction of a certain vision of the world. Latin works, on the other hand, such as Strabo\u2019s,<sup data-fn=\"c739fc38-4fa7-4776-992e-f277ff82c0f2\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#c739fc38-4fa7-4776-992e-f277ff82c0f2\" id=\"c739fc38-4fa7-4776-992e-f277ff82c0f2-link\">14<\/a><\/sup> were completely ignored. Andalusi geographers also had to describe the West. They therefore drew on the information available to them. Most of this information was to be found in the works of Orose and Isidore of Seville. Once again, it is not the borrowing that is remarkable &#8211; it is, in fact, an integral part of the development of geographical knowledge &#8211; but the content of that borrowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If there is one major characteristic of geography written after the year 1000, mainly in al-Andalus, it is that it revives the description of the whole oekoumene. It combines the approach of the <em>\u1e63\u016brat al-ar\u1e0d<\/em> (the cartography of the inhabited world) that prevailed in the ninth century and the method of <em>al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em>, albeit with one major difference: the descriptions of Islamic countries alone, characteristic of the tenth century, give way to a larger picture, which reviving the description of the entire inhabited world. Caliphal geography, which had only been interested in the Islamic world, and mainly in its eastern part, which relegated other regions to the status of mere margins, underwent a significant change. The scale of geographical investigations changed, with authors taking a closer interest not only in the Maghreb, but also in the rapidly expanding Latin and Christian world of the Mediterranean (Crusades, feudal conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Norman conquests of Sicily and Italy).<sup data-fn=\"2934904c-4e79-470e-ae0f-80375972b386\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#2934904c-4e79-470e-ae0f-80375972b386\" id=\"2934904c-4e79-470e-ae0f-80375972b386-link\">15<\/a><\/sup> The Baghdadian geography of the tenth century could play the game of splendid isolation, while the Andalusi or Western geography of the eleventh and twelfth centuries is the witness, involuntarily but from the front row, of a shift in the balance of power in the Mediterranean world. The West, both Islamic and Latin, now occupies a prominent place in these vast frescoes, and this is something entirely new. Think, for example, of al-Bakr\u012b\u2019s exceptional picture of the Maghreb or the completely new portrait painted by al-Idr\u012bs\u012b and Ibn Sa\u02bf\u012bd al-Maghrib\u012b of spaces far removed from the eastern heartland of Islam. By continuing the vast undertaking of an inventory of the known world initiated by Eastern geography as early as the eleventh century, this \u2018Andalusi\u2019 geography of the post-Millennium period certainly contributed to increasing the intellectual influence of al-Andalus, in the same way as other scholarly productions, but it also ensured that the same bubble of Arabic knowledge continued to enclose the whole of the inhabited earth, to use Fran\u00e7ois Hartog\u2019s formula with regard to Greek knowledge in Antiquity.<sup data-fn=\"1cbf8dc3-bddc-4f11-991c-44ef765a9cc2\" class=\"fn\"><a href=\"#1cbf8dc3-bddc-4f11-991c-44ef765a9cc2\" id=\"1cbf8dc3-bddc-4f11-991c-44ef765a9cc2-link\">16<\/a><\/sup> Only Arabic-language geography in the Middle Ages had the intellectual project of envisioning the world, and it did so throughout the medieval period thanks to Andalusi authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-bright-blue-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-bright-blue-background-color has-background\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notes:<\/h4>\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-footnotes\"><li id=\"6ff5de26-68dd-43e1-81b4-c1b081d438d4\">J. C. Duc\u00e8ne, <em>L\u2019Europe et les g\u00e9ographes arabes du Moyen \u00c2ge<\/em> (Paris, CNRS \u00e9ditions, 2018), 198 et seq. <a href=\"#6ff5de26-68dd-43e1-81b4-c1b081d438d4-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 1\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"edb2a088-769e-49c8-b4ba-7e4f1fb00e0a\">When he mentions al-\u1e6cabar\u012b, al-Bakr\u012b does so in different ways: either by calling him Ab\u016b Ja\u02bffar, or Mu\u1e25ammad b. Jar\u012br, or by referring to him by the first letter of his name (\u1e6c-), or very rarely by \u1e6cabar\u012b. On the other hand, he does not give the titles of the works he compiles. In fact, he mainly uses the first volume of his History, entitled <em>Ta\u02ber\u012bkh al-rusul wa-l-mul\u016bk<\/em> (Cairo: D\u0101r al-Ma\u02bf\u0101rif, 1960, 10 vols.), devoted to the history of the world from Creation to the Prophet of Islam. <a href=\"#edb2a088-769e-49c8-b4ba-7e4f1fb00e0a-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 2\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"cddd8c92-7809-4d14-9214-fda767f31b54\">The quotations borrowed from al-Mas\u02bf\u016bd\u012b are even more numerous than those made to al-\u1e6cabar\u012b. They come from the summary of the author\u2019s extensive chronicle (the <em>Kit\u0101b Akhb\u0101r al-zam\u0101n<\/em>), the Golden Meadows (<em>Kit\u0101b Mur\u016bj al-Dhahab<\/em>). They appear both in the first part of al-Bakr\u012b\u2019s work, and also in the second, the strictly geographical part. The Andalusi geographer most often quotes al-Mas\u02bf\u016bd\u012b literally. He refers to him either by name or by Ab\u016b al-\u1e24asan, but more often than not he gives no indication. <a href=\"#cddd8c92-7809-4d14-9214-fda767f31b54-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 3\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"725938e4-f98e-4271-b38c-d57952462fe8\">Al-Idr\u012bs\u012b, <em>Kit\u0101b Nuzhat al-musht\u0101q f\u012b ikhtir\u0101q al-\u0101f\u0101q, Opus geographicum, sive, Liber ad eorum delectationem qui terras peragrare studeant<\/em>, ed. Enrico Cerulli (Leiden: Brill, 1970-78), 22. For the translation, see al-Idr\u012bs\u012b, <em>La premi\u00e8re g\u00e9ographie de l\u2019Occident<\/em>, translated by Annliese Nef and Henri Bresc (Paris: GF Flammarion, 1999), 60. <a href=\"#725938e4-f98e-4271-b38c-d57952462fe8-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 4\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"115ca989-9636-405f-93f0-e8d2343b66c9\">Al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b, <em>\u0100th\u0101r al-bil\u0101d wa-akhb\u0101r al-\u02bfib\u0101d<\/em> (Beirut: D\u0101r \u1e62\u0101dir, 1380\/1960), 502, 505, 512, 549, and 553; idem, <em>Kit\u0101b \u02bfAj\u0101\u02beib al-makhl\u016bq\u0101t<\/em>, ed. W\u00fcstenfeld (G\u00f6ttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1848), 173. F\u00e1tima Rold\u00e1n and Rafael Valencia, \u201cEl g\u00e9nero al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik: Su realizaci\u00f3n en los textos de al-\u02bfU\u1e0fr\u012b y al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b sobre el Occidente de al-Andalus,\u201d <em>Philologia Hispalensi<\/em>s 3 (1988): 7\u201325. <a href=\"#115ca989-9636-405f-93f0-e8d2343b66c9-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 5\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"dc3eb22c-7c85-4b23-a630-96c4cf68cce4\">Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>G\u00e9ographie d\u2019Aboulf\u00e9da<\/em>, trans. M. Reinaud (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1848), 113 et sq. <a href=\"#dc3eb22c-7c85-4b23-a630-96c4cf68cce4-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 6\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"c4afe1e1-79ea-4d41-9f82-457a1f7b7250\">Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>Taqw\u00eem al-buld\u00e2n, g\u00e9ographie d\u2019Abulf\u00e9da<\/em>, ed. M. Reinaud and de Slane (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1840): 243, 239 and 270. <a href=\"#c4afe1e1-79ea-4d41-9f82-457a1f7b7250-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 7\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"12dfa1bc-c7ba-485e-89ef-ad8971dfde68\">Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>Taqw\u00eem<\/em>, 235. <a href=\"#12dfa1bc-c7ba-485e-89ef-ad8971dfde68-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 8\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"364c51f8-6c9b-4b91-b1ed-b854e318dc00\">Ibidem, 1. <a href=\"#364c51f8-6c9b-4b91-b1ed-b854e318dc00-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 9\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"67e41ced-b8f1-4b37-a244-607c1bfaa318\">Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>G\u00e9ographie d\u2019Aboulf\u00e9da<\/em>, CXLIII. <a href=\"#67e41ced-b8f1-4b37-a244-607c1bfaa318-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 10\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"509b2e00-d7d1-45a6-9209-e7551c5417a0\">Gamal \u02bfAbd al-Kar\u012bm, <em>La Espa\u00f1a musulmana en la obra de Y\u0101q\u016bt (s. XII-XIII). Repertorio enciclop\u00e9dico de ciudades, castillos y lugares de al-Andalus, extra\u00eddo del Mu\u02bfjam al-buld\u0101n (Diccionario de los pa\u00edses)<\/em>. Cuadernos de Historia del Islam, Serie Monogr\u00e1fica-Isl\u00e1mica Occidentalia 6 (Granada: Publicaciones del Seminario de Historia del Islam de la Universidad de Granada, 1974). <a href=\"#509b2e00-d7d1-45a6-9209-e7551c5417a0-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 11\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"95ceffaf-42bb-47cf-94cd-e7866bb29fbe\">On the question of the compilation of Latin sources, E. Tixier du Mesnil, \u201cRegards crois\u00e9s sur Hispan\/Ishb\u00e2n, h\u00e9ros \u00e9ponyme \u00e9nigmatique de l\u2019Espagne d\u2019apr\u00e8s les sources m\u00e9di\u00e9vales arabes et latine,\u201d <em>Studia Islamica<\/em> 102 (2006): 199\u2013216. <a href=\"#95ceffaf-42bb-47cf-94cd-e7866bb29fbe-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 12\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"0a81a261-bb93-4ab6-a13f-d1754391f3f2\">C. S\u00e1nchez-Albornoz, <em>Investigaciones sobre historiograf\u00eda Hispana medieval (siglos VIII al XII)<\/em> (Buenos Aires: Instituto de Historia de Espa\u00f1a, 1967), 304. Claudio S\u00e1nchez-Albornoz stated that al-R\u0101z\u012b was particularly interested in the distant past of his \u201cSpanish homeland,\u201d making him \u201cone of the great historians of the Peninsula.\u201d <a href=\"#0a81a261-bb93-4ab6-a13f-d1754391f3f2-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 13\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"c739fc38-4fa7-4776-992e-f277ff82c0f2\">Although written in Greek, they are representative of Latin geography, i.e. geography written at the time of Roman domination. <a href=\"#c739fc38-4fa7-4776-992e-f277ff82c0f2-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 14\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"2934904c-4e79-470e-ae0f-80375972b386\">J. C. Duc\u00e8ne, <em>L\u2019Europe<\/em>, 145 et seq. <a href=\"#2934904c-4e79-470e-ae0f-80375972b386-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 15\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><li id=\"1cbf8dc3-bddc-4f11-991c-44ef765a9cc2\">F. Hartog, <em>M\u00e9moire d\u2019Ulysse, r\u00e9cits sur la fronti\u00e8re en Gr\u00e8ce ancienne<\/em> (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 217. <a href=\"#1cbf8dc3-bddc-4f11-991c-44ef765a9cc2-link\" aria-label=\"Saltar a la referencia de la nota 16\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Further reading:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Primary sources<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be. <em>G\u00e9ographie d\u2019Aboulf\u00e9da<\/em>. Translated by M. Reinaud. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1848.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. <em>Taqw\u00eem al-buld\u00e2n, g\u00e9ographie d\u2019Abulf\u00e9da.<\/em> Edited by M. Reinaud and Baron de Slane. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1840.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>al-Bakr\u012b. <em>Kit\u0101b al-Mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em>. Edited by A. P. van Leeuwen and A. Ferr\u00e9. Tunis: al-D\u0101r al-\u02bfArabiyya li-l-Kit\u0101b and Bayt al-\u1e24ikma, 1992.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>al-\u1e24imyar\u012b. <em>Kit\u0101b al-Raw\u1e0d al-mi\u02bf\u1e6d\u0101r<\/em>. Edited by I. \u02bfAbb\u0101s. Beirut: Maktabat Lubn\u0101n, 1984.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ibn Khurrad\u0101dhbih [Ibn Khorrad\u0101dhbeh]. <em>Kit\u0101b al-Mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em>. Edited by De Goeje. Leiden: Brill, 1889. <em>Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum<\/em> 6.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ibn Rustah [Ibn Rosteh]. <em>Kit\u0101b al-A\u02bfl\u0101k an-naf\u012bsa<\/em>. Edited by M. J. de Goeje. Leiden: Brill, 1892. <em>Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum<\/em> 7.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014 [Ibn Rusteh]. <em>Les atours pr\u00e9cieux<\/em>. Translated by Gaston Wiet. Cairo: Publications de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de g\u00e9ographie d\u2019Egypte, 1955.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>al-Idr\u012bs\u012b. <em>Kit\u0101b Nuzhat al-musht\u0101q f\u012b ikhtir\u0101q al-\u0101f\u0101q, Opus geographicum, sive, Liber ad eorum delectationem qui terras peragrare studeant<\/em>. Edited by Enrico Cerulli. Leiden: Brill, 1970-78.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. <em>La premi\u00e8re g\u00e9ographie de l\u2019Occident.<\/em> Translated by Annliese Nef and Henri Bresc. Paris, GF Flammarion, 1999.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>L\u00e9vi-Proven\u00e7al, \u00c9. \u201cLa Description de l\u2019Espagne de al-R\u0101z\u012b.\u201d <em>Al-Andalus<\/em> 18 (1953): 51\u2013108.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. <em>La P\u00e9ninsule Ib\u00e9rique au Moyen-Age d\u2019apr\u00e8s le Kit\u0101b ar-Raw\u1e0d al-mi\u02bf\u1e6d\u0101r<\/em> <em>f\u012b \u1e2babar al-a\u1e33\u1e6d\u0101r d\u2019Ibn \u02bfAbd al-Mun\u02bfim<\/em> <em>al-\u1e24imyar\u012b<\/em>. Leiden: Brill, 1938.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Miquel, A. <em>La meilleure r\u00e9partition pour la connaissance des provinces (A\u1e25san al-taq\u0101s\u012bm f\u012b ma\u02bfrifat al-aq\u0101l\u012bm)<\/em>. Damascus: Publications de l\u2019Institut Fran\u00e7ais de Damas, 1963.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b, Zakar\u012by\u0101 b. Mu\u1e25ammad. <em>Kit\u0101b<\/em> <em>\u02bfAj\u0101\u02beib al-makhl\u016bq\u0101t<\/em>&nbsp;= Zakarija Ben Mohammad Ben Mahmud el-Cazwini. <em>Kosmographie<\/em>. Vol. 1. Edited by Ferdinand W\u00fcstenfeld. G\u00f6ttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1848.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. <em>\u0100th\u0101r al-bil\u0101d wa-akhb\u0101r al-\u02bfib\u0101d<\/em>. Beirut: D\u0101r \u1e62\u0101dir, 1380\/1960.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Y\u0101q\u016bt al-\u1e24amaw\u012b. <em>Mu\u02bfjam al-buld\u0101n<\/em>. Edited by Ferdinand W\u00fcstenfeld. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1866-1873.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. <em>Mu\u02bfjam al-buld\u0101n<\/em>. Edited by Far\u012bd \u02bfAbd al-\u02bfAz\u012bz al-Jund\u012b. Beirut: D\u0101r al-Kutub al-\u02bfIlmiyya, 1990.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Reference works<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u02bfAbd al-Kar\u012bm, Gamal. <em>La Espa\u00f1a musulmana en la obra de Y\u0101q\u016bt (s. XII-XIII). Repertorio enciclop\u00e9dico de ciudades, castillos y lugares de al-Andalus, extra\u00eddo del Mu\u02bfjam al-buld\u0101n (Diccionario de los pa\u00edses).<\/em> <em>Cuadernos de Historia del Islam<\/em>, <em>Serie Monogr\u00e1fica-Isl\u00e1mica Occidentalia <\/em>6. Granada: Publicaciones del Seminario de Historia del Islam de la Universidad de Granada, 1974.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Antrim, Zayde. <em>Routes and Realms: The Power of Place in the Early Islamic World<\/em>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>De la Granja, F. <em>La Marca superior en la obra de al-\u02bfUdr\u00ed<\/em>. Zaragoza: Escuela de Estudios Medievales-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas, 1966.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Franco-S\u00e1nchez, F. <a href=\"https:\/\/revistascientificas.us.es\/index.php\/PH\/article\/view\/4541\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201c\u2018<em>Al-Mas\u0101lik wa-l-Mam\u0101lik<\/em>\u2019: Precisiones acerca del t\u00edtulo de estas obras de la literatura geogr\u00e1fica \u00e1rabe medieval y conclusiones acerca de su origen y estructura.\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;<em>Philologia Hispalensis<\/em> 31, 2 (2018)&nbsp;: 37\u201366.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Duc\u00e8ne, J. C. <em>L\u2019Europe et les g\u00e9ographes arabes du Moyen \u00c2ge<\/em>. Paris, CNRS \u00e9ditions, 2018.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hartog,Fran\u00e7ois. <em>M\u00e9moire d\u2019Ulysse. R\u00e9cits sur la fronti\u00e8re en Gr\u00e8ce ancienne<\/em>. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kratchkovsky, I. \u201cLes g\u00e9ographes arabes des XIe et XIIe si\u00e8cles en Occident.\u201d <em>Annales de l\u2019Institut d\u2019\u00e9tudes orientales<\/em> <em>de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 d\u2019Alger<\/em> 18-19 (1960-1961), 1\u201372.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Martinez-Gros, Gabriel. <em>L\u2019id\u00e9ologie omeyyade<\/em>. Madrid: Casa de Vel\u00e1zquez, 1992.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Micheau, F. \u201cLes institutions scientifiques dans le Proche-Orient m\u00e9di\u00e9val.\u201d In <em>Histoire des sciences arabes<\/em>, ed. R. Rashed, 3:233\u201354. Paris: Seuil, 1997.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Miquel, A. \u201cLa g\u00e9ographie arabe apr\u00e8s l\u2019an mil.\u201d In <em>Popoli e paesi nella cultura altomedievale: XXIX settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull&#8217;alto medioevo, 23-29 aprile 1981<\/em>. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull\u2019Alto Medioevo, 1983, 153\u201374.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. <em>La g\u00e9ographie humaine du monde musulman jusqu\u2019au milieu du 11<sup>e<\/sup> si\u00e8cle<\/em>. Leiden: Brill, 1967-1988.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Molina, Luis. <a href=\"https:\/\/digital.csic.es\/bitstream\/10261\/13949\/1\/Molina_Orosio%20y%20los%20geografos.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00abOrosio y los ge\u00f3grafos hispanomusulmanes.\u00bb<\/a> &nbsp;<em>Al-Qantara<\/em> V, 1-2 (<em>1984<strong>)<\/strong><\/em>, 63-92.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Molina L\u00f3pez, E. <em>La cora de Tudm\u012br seg\u00fan al-\u02bfU\u1e0fr\u012b<\/em>. <em>Cuadernos de Historia del Islam.<\/em> <em>Serie <\/em><em>Monogr\u00e1fica-Isl\u00e1mica Occidentalia <\/em>4. Granada: Publicaciones del Seminario de Historia del Islam de la Universidad de Granada, 1972.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mu\u02benis, \u1e24. \u201cAl-Jughr\u0101fiyya wa-l-jughr\u0101fiyy\u016bn f\u012b al-Andalus.\u201d <em>Revista del Instituto de Estudios Isl\u00e1micos<\/em> 7-8 (1959-1960): 199\u2013359 (Arabic Section).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pons Boigues, F. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/ensayobiobibliog00ponsuoft\/page\/n5\/mode\/2up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ensayo biobibliogr\u00e1fico sobre los historiadores y ge\u00f3grafos ar\u00e1bigo-espa\u00f1oles<\/a><\/em>. Madrid, 1898.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rold\u00e1n, F\u00e1tima and Rafael Valencia. <a href=\"https:\/\/revistascientificas.us.es\/index.php\/PH\/article\/view\/2246\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cEl g\u00e9nero <em>al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik<\/em>: Su realizaci\u00f3n en los textos de al-\u02bfU\u1e0fr\u012b y al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b sobre el Occidente de al-Andalus.\u201d<\/a> <em>Philologia Hispalensis<\/em> 3 (1988): 7\u201325.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>S\u00e1nchez-Albornoz, C. <em>Investigaciones sobre historiograf<\/em><em>\u00ed<\/em><em>a hispana medieval (siglos VIII al XII)<\/em>. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Historia de Espa\u00f1a, 1967.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>S\u00e1nchez Mart\u00ednez, M. <a href=\"https:\/\/digital.csic.es\/handle\/10261\/35497\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cLa Cora de Ilb\u00eera (Granada y Almer\u00eda) en los siglos X y XI, seg\u00fan al-\u02bfU\u1e0fr\u012b (1003-1085). Traducci\u00f3n y notas.\u201d<\/a> <em>Cuadernos de Historia del Islam<\/em> 7 (1975-1976): 5\u201382.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cR\u0101z\u012b, fuente de al-\u02bfU\u1e0fr\u012b para la Espa\u00f1a preisl\u00e1mica.\u201d <em>Cuadernos de Historia del Islam<\/em> 3 (1971): 7\u201349.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Staszak, J. F. <em>La g\u00e9ographie d\u2019avant la g\u00e9ographie. Le climat chez Aristote et Hippocrate<\/em>. Paris: Editions L\u2019Harmattan, 1995.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tixier du Mesnil, E. <em>G\u00e9ographes d\u2019al-Andalus. <\/em><em>De l\u2019inventaire d\u2019un territoire \u00e0 la construction d\u2019une m\u00e9moire<\/em>. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2014.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cRegards crois\u00e9s sur Hispan\/Ishb\u00e2n, h\u00e9ros \u00e9ponyme \u00e9nigmatique de l\u2019Espagne d\u2019apr\u00e8s les sources m\u00e9di\u00e9vales arabes et latine.\u201d <em>Studia Islamica <\/em>102 (2006): 199\u2013216.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Valencia, R., \u201cLa cora de Sevilla en el <em>Tar\u1e63\u012b\u02bf al-ajb\u0101r<\/em> de A\u1e25mad ibn \u02bfUmar al-\u02bfU\u1e0fr\u012b.\u201d <em>Andaluc\u00eda isl\u00e1mica. Textos y Estudios<\/em> 4-5 (1986): 107\u201343.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emmanuelle Tixier du Mesnil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"J. C. Duc\u00e8ne, <em>L\u2019Europe et les g\u00e9ographes arabes du Moyen \u00c2ge<\/em> (Paris, CNRS \u00e9ditions, 2018), 198 et seq.\",\"id\":\"6ff5de26-68dd-43e1-81b4-c1b081d438d4\"},{\"content\":\"When he mentions al-\u1e6cabar\u012b, al-Bakr\u012b does so in different ways: either by calling him Ab\u016b Ja\u02bffar, or Mu\u1e25ammad b. Jar\u012br, or by referring to him by the first letter of his name (\u1e6c-), or very rarely by \u1e6cabar\u012b. On the other hand, he does not give the titles of the works he compiles. In fact, he mainly uses the first volume of his History, entitled <em>Ta\u02ber\u012bkh al-rusul wa-l-mul\u016bk<\/em> (Cairo: D\u0101r al-Ma\u02bf\u0101rif, 1960, 10 vols.), devoted to the history of the world from Creation to the Prophet of Islam.\",\"id\":\"edb2a088-769e-49c8-b4ba-7e4f1fb00e0a\"},{\"content\":\"The quotations borrowed from al-Mas\u02bf\u016bd\u012b are even more numerous than those made to al-\u1e6cabar\u012b. They come from the summary of the author\u2019s extensive chronicle (the <em>Kit\u0101b Akhb\u0101r al-zam\u0101n<\/em>), the Golden Meadows (<em>Kit\u0101b Mur\u016bj al-Dhahab<\/em>). They appear both in the first part of al-Bakr\u012b\u2019s work, and also in the second, the strictly geographical part. The Andalusi geographer most often quotes al-Mas\u02bf\u016bd\u012b literally. He refers to him either by name or by Ab\u016b al-\u1e24asan, but more often than not he gives no indication.\",\"id\":\"cddd8c92-7809-4d14-9214-fda767f31b54\"},{\"content\":\"Al-Idr\u012bs\u012b, <em>Kit\u0101b Nuzhat al-musht\u0101q f\u012b ikhtir\u0101q al-\u0101f\u0101q, Opus geographicum, sive, Liber ad eorum delectationem qui terras peragrare studeant<\/em>, ed. Enrico Cerulli (Leiden: Brill, 1970-78), 22. For the translation, see al-Idr\u012bs\u012b, <em>La premi\u00e8re g\u00e9ographie de l\u2019Occident<\/em>, translated by Annliese Nef and Henri Bresc (Paris: GF Flammarion, 1999), 60.\",\"id\":\"725938e4-f98e-4271-b38c-d57952462fe8\"},{\"content\":\"Al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b, <em>\u0100th\u0101r al-bil\u0101d wa-akhb\u0101r al-\u02bfib\u0101d<\/em> (Beirut: D\u0101r \u1e62\u0101dir, 1380\/1960), 502, 505, 512, 549, and 553; idem, <em>Kit\u0101b \u02bfAj\u0101\u02beib al-makhl\u016bq\u0101t<\/em>, ed. W\u00fcstenfeld (G\u00f6ttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1848), 173. F\u00e1tima Rold\u00e1n and Rafael Valencia, \u201cEl g\u00e9nero al-mas\u0101lik wa-l-mam\u0101lik: Su realizaci\u00f3n en los textos de al-\u02bfU\u1e0fr\u012b y al-Qazw\u012bn\u012b sobre el Occidente de al-Andalus,\u201d <em>Philologia Hispalensi<\/em>s 3 (1988): 7\u201325.\",\"id\":\"115ca989-9636-405f-93f0-e8d2343b66c9\"},{\"content\":\"Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>G\u00e9ographie d\u2019Aboulf\u00e9da<\/em>, trans. M. Reinaud (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1848), 113 et sq.\",\"id\":\"dc3eb22c-7c85-4b23-a630-96c4cf68cce4\"},{\"content\":\"Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>Taqw\u00eem al-buld\u00e2n, g\u00e9ographie d\u2019Abulf\u00e9da<\/em>, ed. M. Reinaud and de Slane (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1840): 243, 239 and 270.\",\"id\":\"c4afe1e1-79ea-4d41-9f82-457a1f7b7250\"},{\"content\":\"Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>Taqw\u00eem<\/em>, 235.\",\"id\":\"12dfa1bc-c7ba-485e-89ef-ad8971dfde68\"},{\"content\":\"Ibidem, 1.\",\"id\":\"364c51f8-6c9b-4b91-b1ed-b854e318dc00\"},{\"content\":\"Ab\u016b al-Fid\u0101\u02be, <em>G\u00e9ographie d\u2019Aboulf\u00e9da<\/em>, CXLIII.\",\"id\":\"67e41ced-b8f1-4b37-a244-607c1bfaa318\"},{\"content\":\"Gamal \u02bfAbd al-Kar\u012bm, <em>La Espa\u00f1a musulmana en la obra de Y\u0101q\u016bt (s. XII-XIII). Repertorio enciclop\u00e9dico de ciudades, castillos y lugares de al-Andalus, extra\u00eddo del Mu\u02bfjam al-buld\u0101n (Diccionario de los pa\u00edses)<\/em>. Cuadernos de Historia del Islam, Serie Monogr\u00e1fica-Isl\u00e1mica Occidentalia 6 (Granada: Publicaciones del Seminario de Historia del Islam de la Universidad de Granada, 1974).\",\"id\":\"509b2e00-d7d1-45a6-9209-e7551c5417a0\"},{\"content\":\"On the question of the compilation of Latin sources, E. Tixier du Mesnil, \u201cRegards crois\u00e9s sur Hispan\/Ishb\u00e2n, h\u00e9ros \u00e9ponyme \u00e9nigmatique de l\u2019Espagne d\u2019apr\u00e8s les sources m\u00e9di\u00e9vales arabes et latine,\u201d <em>Studia Islamica<\/em> 102 (2006): 199\u2013216.\",\"id\":\"95ceffaf-42bb-47cf-94cd-e7866bb29fbe\"},{\"content\":\"C. S\u00e1nchez-Albornoz, <em>Investigaciones sobre historiograf\u00eda Hispana medieval (siglos VIII al XII)<\/em> (Buenos Aires: Instituto de Historia de Espa\u00f1a, 1967), 304. Claudio S\u00e1nchez-Albornoz stated that al-R\u0101z\u012b was particularly interested in the distant past of his \u201cSpanish homeland,\u201d making him \u201cone of the great historians of the Peninsula.\u201d\",\"id\":\"0a81a261-bb93-4ab6-a13f-d1754391f3f2\"},{\"content\":\"Although written in Greek, they are representative of Latin geography, i.e. geography written at the time of Roman domination.\",\"id\":\"c739fc38-4fa7-4776-992e-f277ff82c0f2\"},{\"content\":\"J. C. Duc\u00e8ne, <em>L\u2019Europe<\/em>, 145 et seq.\",\"id\":\"2934904c-4e79-470e-ae0f-80375972b386\"},{\"content\":\"F. Hartog, <em>M\u00e9moire d\u2019Ulysse, r\u00e9cits sur la fronti\u00e8re en Gr\u00e8ce ancienne<\/em> (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 217.\",\"id\":\"1cbf8dc3-bddc-4f11-991c-44ef765a9cc2\"}]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[283,11,24],"tags":[43,471,472,473,180],"coauthors":[262],"class_list":{"0":"post-5619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-ciencia","8":"category-fuentes","9":"category-imaginarios","10":"tag-geografia","11":"tag-geografos","12":"tag-geografos-andalusies","13":"tag-geografos-arabes","14":"tag-intercambios-culturales","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Ibn_Said_al_Maghribi_World_Map.jpg?fit=1849%2C1356&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5619"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5631,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619\/revisions\/5631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5619"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alandalusylahistoria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=5619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}