Ajay Kumar at 21:03, 29 August 2023

2023-08-29T21:03:13Z

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{{Short description|Persian geographer and official (died 913)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Ibn Khordadbeh
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = 820/825
| birth_place = [[Khurasan]], [[Abbasid Caliphate]]
| death_date = 913
| death_place =
| occupation =
| notable_works = ''[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Ibn Khordadbeh)|Book of Roads and Kingdoms]]''
| relatives = [[Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh]] (father)
}}
'''Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh''' ({{lang-ar|ابوالقاسم عبیدالله ابن خرداذبه}}; 820/825–913), commonly known as '''Ibn Khordadbeh''' (also spelled '''Ibn Khurradadhbih'''; {{lang|ar|ابن خرددة}}), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent<ref>{{Citation |last=van Arendonk |first=C. |title=Ibn K̲h̲ordād̲h̲beh |date=2012-04-24 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-1/ibn-khordadhbeh-SIM_3030?lang=fr |work=Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936) |access-date=2023-07-31 |publisher=Brill |language=en|quote=Abu ’l-Ḳāsim ʿUbaid Allāh b. ʿAbd Allāh, an important geographer of Persian descent who was apparently born in the early years of the iii<sup>rd</sup> century a. h. (c. 820).}}</ref> in the [[Abbasid Caliphate]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=GEOGRAPHY iv. Cartography of Persia – Encyclopaedia Iranica|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/geography-iv-cartography-of-persia-|access-date=2019-08-24|website=www.iranicaonline.org|quote=Ebn Ḵordādbeh (fl. 9th cent., q.v.), one of the earliest Persian geographers, produced in 846 his major work Ketāb al-masālek wa’l mamālek, which is considered the foundation for the later Balḵī school of geography}}</ref> He is the author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography.{{sfn|Bosworth|1997|pp=37–38}}

== Biography ==
Ibn Khordadbeh was the son of [[Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh]], who had governed the northern Iranian region of [[Tabaristan]] under the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] [[caliph]] [[al-Mamun]] ({{reign|813|833}}), and in 816/17 conquered the neighbouring region of [[Daylam]], as well as repelled the [[Bavandid]] ''[[ispahbadh]]'' (ruler) [[Shahriyar I]] ({{reign|817|825}}) from the highlands of Tabaristan. Ibn Khordadbeh's grandfather was Khordadbeh, a former [[Zoroastrian]] who was convinced by the [[Barmakids]] to convert to [[Islam]]. He may have been the same person as Khordadbeh al-Razi, who had provided Abu'l-Hasan al-Mada'ini (died 843) the details regarding the flight of the last [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] emperor [[Yazdegerd III]] during the [[Arab conquest of Iran]].{{sfn|Zadeh|2018}} Ibn Khordadbeh was born in 820 or 825 in the eastern province of [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]], but grew up in the city of [[Baghdad]].{{sfn|Bosworth|1997|pp=37–38}}{{sfn|Meri|2005|p=360}} There he received a cultivated education, and studied music with the prominent singer [[Ishaq al-Mawsili]], a friend of his father. When Ibn Khordadbeh became of age, he was appointed as the caliphal postal and intelligence service in the central province of [[Jibal]], and eventually in [[Samarra]] and Baghdad.{{sfn|Bosworth|1997|pp=37–38}}
[[Image:Abbasid Caliphate 850AD.png|thumb|The [[Abbasid Caliphate]] in {{circa|850}}]]
Around 870 ibn Khordadbeh wrote ''[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms (ibn Khordadbeh)|Kitāb al Masālik w’al Mamālik]]'' (''The Book of Roads and Kingdoms'') (with the second edition of the book being published in 885).<ref>{{citation|last=Hee-Soo|first=Lee|work=Early Korea-Arabic Maritime Relations Based on Muslim Sources|publisher=Korea Journal 31(2) (1991), p. 26}}</ref> In this work, ibn Khordadbeh described the various peoples and provinces of the Abbasid Caliphate. Along with maps, the book also includes descriptions of the land, people and culture of the Southern [[Asia]]tic coast as far as Brahamputra, the [[Andaman Islands]], [[peninsular Malaysia]] and [[Java (island)|Java]].<ref name=Coedes>{{cite book|last= Coedès|first= George|author-link= George Coedès|editor= Walter F. Vella|others= trans.Susan Brown Cowing|title= The Indianized States of Southeast Asia|year= 1968|publisher= University of Hawaii Press|isbn= 978-0-8248-0368-1}}</ref>{{rp|108}} The lands of [[Tang Dynasty|Tang China]], [[Unified Silla]] (Korea) and [[Japan]] are referenced within his work.<ref name="Bird2014">{{cite book|author=Isabella Bird|title=Korea and Her Neighbours.: A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country. With a Preface by Sir Walter C. Hillier.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHeKAgAAQBAJ|date=9 January 2014|publisher=Adegi Graphics LLC|isbn=978-0-543-01434-4|chapter=1}}</ref> He was also one of the earliest Muslim writers to record Viking trade to the east: 'merchants called ''Rus'' traded in the [[Black Sea]] and the [[Caspian Sea]], transporting their merchandise by camel as far as Baghdad.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Christys |first1=Ann |title=Vikings in Spain |date=27 August 2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=9781474213752 |page=11}}</ref>

Ibn Khordadbeh clearly mentions [[Wāḳwāḳ|Waqwaq]] twice: ''East of China are the lands of Waqwaq, which are so rich in gold that the inhabitants make the chains for their dogs and the collars for their monkeys of this metal. They manufacture tunics woven with gold. Excellent ebony wood is found there.'' And again: ''Gold and ebony are exported from Waqwaq.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200504/the.seas.of.sindbad.htm|title = Saudi Aramco World : The Seas of Sindbad}}</ref>

[[Ptolemy|Claudius Ptolemy]], Greek and Pre-Islamic Iranian history have clear influence on the work.{{sfn|Meri|2005|pp=359–360}}

It is one of the few surviving sources that describes [[Jewish]] merchants known as [[Radhanites]].

Khordadbeh wrote other books. He wrote around 8–9 other books on many subjects such as "descriptive geography" (the book ''Kitāb al Masālik w’al Mamālik''), "etiquettes of listening to music", "Persian genealogy", cooking", "drinking", "astral patterns", "boon-companions", "world history", "music and musical instruments". The book on music had the title ''Kitāb al-lahw wa-l-malahi'' which is on musical matters of pre-Islamic Iran.{{sfn|Bosworth|1997|pp=37–38}}{{sfn|Meri|2005|pp=359–360}}

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

==Sources==
* {{Encyclopaedia Iranica | volume=8 | fascicle=1 | title = Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh | last = Bosworth| first = C. Edmund | url = https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ebn-kordadbeh | pages = 37–38}}
*{{cite book | last = Meri | first = Josef W. | title = Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia | isbn = 9781135455965 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CHzGvqRbV_IC | year = 2005 | publisher = Routledge }}
* {{EI3|last=Zadeh|first=Travis|year=2018|title=Ibn Khurdādhbih|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/ibn-khurdadhbih-COM_30869}}

{{Islamic geography}}
{{People of Khorasan}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Khordadbeh}}
[[Category:820s births]]
[[Category:913 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Geographers from the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:10th-century Iranian geographers]]
[[Category:9th-century Iranian writers]]
[[Category:10th-century Iranian writers]]
[[Category:Explorers of India]]

Ibn Khordadbeh - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 21:03, 29 August 2023