Notthetag at 06:42, 16 March 2026

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{{short description|10th-century Persian geography book}}
{{italic title}}

The '''''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam''''' ({{langx|ar|حدود العالم|italic=yes}}, {{lit.}} 'Boundaries of the World', 'Limits of the World', or 'The Regions of the World')<ref name="Iranica">{{iranica|hodud-al-alam}}</ref> is a 10th-century geography book written in [[Persian language|Persian]] by an anonymous author from [[Guzgan]] (present day northern Afghanistan),<ref name="CEB">[[Clifford Edmund Bosworth|C. E. Bosworth]] in: [[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]. New Edition, s.v. ḤUDŪD AL-ʿĀLAM</ref> possibly [[Sha'ya ibn Farighun|Šaʿyā bin Farīghūn]].<ref name="Iranica" /> The full title is {{lang|ar|حدود العالم من المشرق الی المغرب|italic=yes}} (''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam min al-Mashriq ilá l-Maghrib'', {{lit.}} "The Boundaries of the World from the East to the West").

The sections of its geographical treatise, which describes the margins of Islamic world, are of great historical importance, including early descriptions of the [[Turkic peoples]] in [[Central Asia]].{{sfn|Bosworth|Asimov|2003|p=221}} Also noteworthy is the archaic language and style of the ''Ḥudud'', making it a valuable Persian linguistic document.<ref name="Iranica" />

==Contents==

In regards to the title, [[Vladimir Minorsky]] commented on it in his 1937 translation as follows: "The word [[Hudud|ḥudūd]] (properly 'boundaries') in our case evidently refers to the 'regions within definite boundaries' into which the world is divided in the Ḥ.-'Ā., the author indicating with special care the frontiers of each one of these areas, v.i., p. 30."

Finished in 982 CE, it was dedicated to [[Abu'l Haret Muhammad]], the ruler of the [[Farighunids]]. Its author is unknown, but [[Vladimir Minorsky]] surmised that it might have been written by the enigmatic [[Sha'ya ibn Farighun|Šaʿyā bin Farīghūn]].<ref name="Iranica" /> The available text of ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' is part of a larger manuscript which contains other works:

#A copy of the ''Jahān-Nāma'' ("Book of The World") by Muḥammad ibn Najīb Bakrān;
#A short passage about music;
#The ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam;''
#The ''Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm'' ("Collection of Knowledge") by [[Fakhr al-Din al-Razi]];

The ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' contains information about the known world at the time. The anonymous author reports about different countries (''nāḥiyat''), people, languages, clothing, food, religion, local products, towns and cities, rivers, seas, lakes, islands, the steppe, deserts, topography, politics and dynasties, as well as trade. The inhabited world is divided in Asia, Europe and "[[Ancient Libya|Libya]]" (i.e. the [[Maghreb]]). The author counts 45 countries north of the equator.{{cn|date=February 2023}} Among other things, Hudud al-Alam appears to mention a [[Rus' Khaganate]]; it refers to the Rus' king as "Khāqān-i Rus".{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=159}}

The author never visited those countries personally, but rather compiled the book from earlier works and tales.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xiv}} He did not indicate his sources, but researchers deduced several 9th-century sources.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xiv}} [[Vladimir Minorsky|Minorsky]] (1937) reconstructed them as follows:
# Non-literary sources, including ''yādhkird-i haklmān'' ("memories of the sages"), ''akhbār'' ("information [heard]"; more fully ''ha-akhbār-hā ba-shanidim'', "the information that we have heard"), and ''dhikr'' ("mention").{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xvi}} It is unclear whether or not these non-literary sources included the author's personal experiences, which were probably limited to his home region of [[Guzgan|Guzganan]], and maybe [[Gilan province|Gilan]].{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xiv–xv}}
# Books, called ''kitāb-hā-yipīshīnagān'' ("books of the predecessors").{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xiv}}
::(a) [[Ibn Khordadbeh]] (I.Kh.), ''[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Ibn Khordadbeh)|Book of Roads and Kingdoms]]'' ({{langx|ar|كِتَاب ٱلْمَسَالِك وَٱلْمَمَالِك|translit=Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik}}).{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xvi}} This work shows overlap with the similarly titled now-lost book ''Kitāb al-Masālik wal-Mamālik'' written by [[Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jayhani]], and therefore these books were sometimes confused with each other.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xvi–xvii}}
::(b) An unknown source also used by [[Ahmad ibn Rustah]], [[Al-Bakri]], [[Gardizi]], [[Muhammad Aufi]], and others.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xvii}} This unknown source is usually identified as the lost book ''Kitāb al-Masālik wal-Mamālik'' written by Jayhani.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xvii}}
::(c) [[Istakhri]] (Ist.), ''Masālik al-Mamālik'' ({{lang|ar|مسالك الممالك}}, "Routes of the Realms") or ''kitab al-masalik wa-l-mamalik'' ({{langx|ar|كتاب المسالك والممالك}} "Book of Roads and Kingdoms", or "Book of the Paths and Provinces"<ref>Fr. Taeschner in ''[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]''. New Edition, s.v. Djughrāfīya</ref>).{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xviii}} As his source, Istakhri used the work of [[Abu Zayd al-Balkhi]], the ''[[Abu Zayd al-Balkhi|Figures of the Regions]]'' (''Suwar al-aqalim''), and thus he belonged to the Balkhī school.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xviii–xix, 5}} The Balkhī school also included [[Ibn Hawqal]] and [[Al-Maqdisi]], whose works show significant overlap with the ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'', but they appear to have directly copied their content from Istakhri rather than via ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam''.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xviii–xix}}
::(d) [[Al-Masudi]], ''[[The Meadows of Gold]]''. According to Minorsky (1937), as ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' contains more details about the same topics, the author probably did not directly copy from Masudi's work, but they both drew from a common source 'of which Mas'udī possessed only an abstract. Possibly the same source is responsible for the interesting details on Gīlān.'{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xix}}
::(e) Some contents about Arabia appear to derive from [[Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani|Hamdani]]'s ''Geography of the Arabian Peninsula'' ({{langx|ar|صفة جزيرة العرب|translit=Sifat Jazirat ul-Arab}}), perhaps a more complete version of Ibn Khordadbeh's work, or a yet unknown source.{{sfn|Minorsky|1937|p=xix}}

===Chapters===
# Preface
# The disposition (''nihādh'') of the Earth; the amount of (its) cultivation and lack of cultivation (''miqdār-i ābādhānī va vīrānī'') and its countries (''nāḥiyat-hā'')
# The Seas
# The Islands
# The Mountains
# The Rivers
# The Deserts
# The countries (''nāḥiyat-hā'') of the World
# The country (''nāḥiyat'') of [[China|Chīnistān]]
# The country of [[Hindustan|Hindūstān]]
# The country of [[Tibet]]
# The country of the [[Uyghur Khaganate|Toghuzghuz]] and [[Tatar confederation|Tātār]]
# The country of the [[Yagma|Yaghmā]]
# The country of the [[Kyrgyz Khaganate|Khirkhīz]]
# The country of the [[Karluk Yabghu|Karluk]]
# The country of the [[Chigil]]
# The country of the [[Tuhsi|Tukhs]]
# The country of the [[Yemek|Kīmāk]]
# The country of the [[Oghuz Yabgu State|Ghūz]]
# The country of the [[Pechenegs]]
# The country of the [[Kipchaks|Khifjākh]]
# The country of the [[Eastern Hungarians|Majgharī]]
# The country of [[Khurāsān]]
# The country of the Marches (''ḥudūd'') of Khurāsān
# The country of [[Transoxania]]
# The country of the Marches (''ḥudūd'') of Transoxania
# The country of [[Sind]]
# The country of [[Kerman province|Kirmān]]
# The country of [[Fārs]]
# The country of [[Khūzistān]]
# The country of [[Jibāl]]
# The country of [[Daylam|Daylamān]] (all the Iranian [[Caspian Sea|Caspian]] region)
# The country of [[Iraq|'Irāq]]
# The country of [[Upper Mesopotamia|Jazīra]]
# The country of [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Ādharbādhagān]]
# The country of [[Armīniya]] and [[Arran (Caucasus)|Arrān]]
# The country of the [[Arabia|Arabs]]
# The country of [[Greater Syria|Syria]] (''Shām'')
# The country of [[Egypt]]
# The country of [[Maghreb|Maghrib]]
# The country of [[Hispania|Spain]] (''[[Al-Andalus|Andalus]]'')
# The country of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]] (''[[Rūm]]'') (Includes all of christian Europe, including [[France]], [[Rome]] and [[Great Britain|Britain]])
# The country of the [[Slavs]] (''[[Saqaliba|Ṣaqlāb]]'')
# The country of the [[Kievan Rus'|Rūs]]
# The country of the [[Onogurs|Inner Bulghār]]
# The country of the [[Mirvāt]]
# The country of the [[Pechenegs|Khazarian Pechenegs]]
# The country of the [[Alans|Alān]]
# The country of the [[Sarir|Sarīr]]
# The country of the [[Khazar]]
# The country of the Burṭās ([[Bolghar]] and [[Suar Principality|Suvar]])
# The country of the [[Burtas|Barādhās]]
# The country of the V.n.nd.r (The [[Volga Bulgaria|Volga Bulgarian]] tribes of [[Esegel]], [[Barsil]] and [[Bulgars|Bulgar]])
# Southern Inhabited Lands
# The country of [[Zanj|Zangistān]]
# The country of [[Zabag|Zābaj]]
# The country of [[Abyssinia]]
# The country of [[Beja people|Buja]]
# The country of [[Nubia]]
# The country of the [[Sudan (region)|Sūdān]]
# Epilogue of the book

==Rediscovery and translation==

The [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] scholar [[Alexander Tumansky]] found a manuscript with a copy of this text in 1892 in Bukhara. The copy from the original was made by the Persian chronographer Abu l-Mu'ayyad ʿAbd al-Qayyūm ibn al-Ḥusain ibn 'Alī al-Farīsī in 1258.<ref name="CEB" /> The facsimile edition with introduction and index was published by [[Vasily Bartold]] in 1930; a thoroughly commented English translation was made by Vladmir Minorsky in 1937, and a printed Persian text by [[Manouchehr Sotoudeh|Manouchehr Sotudeh]] in 1962.<ref>The Hejri-ye Shamsi date on the title page of Sotudeh's edition reads in Persian "esfand-mah 1340"; on the 4. cover page, which is in English, the year "1962" is written.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Literature==
* {{Cite book |editor-last1=Bosworth |editor-first1=C. E. |editor-last2=Asimov |editor-first2=M. S. |date=2003 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV. The age of achievement: A. D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELrRr0L8UOsC |location=Delhi |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publications |pages=745 |isbn=9788120815964}}
* Bosworth, C. E. in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition'', s.v. ḤUDŪD AL-ʿĀLAM
* {{Cite book |last1=Minorsky |first1=Vladimir |authorlink1=Vladimir Minorsky |date=1937 |title=Hudud al-'Alam, The Regions of the World A Persian Geography, 372 A.H. – 982 A.D. translated and explained by V. Minorsky |url=http://www.kroraina.com/hudud/hudud_al_alam_1937.pdf |location=London |publisher=Luzac & Co. |pages=546}}

==External links==
*[http://www.kroraina.com/hudud/index.html Hudud al-'Alam, The Regions of the World]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=3zB1CQAAQBAJ Hudud al-'Alam at Google Books]

[[Category:10th-century manuscripts]]
[[Category:10th-century Persian books]]
[[Category:Atlases]]

Hudud al-'Alam - Revision history

Notthetag at 06:42, 16 March 2026