Ajay Kumar at 17:49, 5 September 2023

2023-09-05T17:49:29Z

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{{short description|Geographer of Abbasid period}}
{{For|places in Iran|Estakhri, Iran (disambiguation){{!}}Estakhri, Iran}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2011}}
{{Infobox scholar
| name = Abū Ishāk al-Fārisī al-Iṣṭakhrī
| birth_date =
| birth_place = [[Istakhr]]<ref name="ODB">{{ODB|last1=Shboul|first1=Ahmad M. H.|title=Iṣṭakhrī, al-|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-2533}}</ref>
| death_date = died after 952<ref name="ODB"/>
| death_place = [[Baghdad]]<ref name="ODB"/>
| era = [[Islamic Golden Age]]
| school_tradition = [[Abu Zayd al-Balkhi|Balkhi]] school
| main_interests = [[Islamic geography]]
| notable_ideas =
| major_works =
| influences = [[Abu Zayd al-Balkhi|Al-Balkhi]]
| influenced =
}}

[[File:Al Istakhri map.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Istakhri's map, from the ''Book of Roads and Kingdoms'']]
[[File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art mss 0972 fol 40b.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Map of [[Fars Province|Fars]]]]
[[File:Stylized Persian Gulf.jpg|thumb|right|upright|A map of the [[Persian Gulf]] by Istakhri]]

'''Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri''' ({{lang|ar|آبو إسحاق إبراهيم بن محمد الفارسي الإصطخري}}) (also ''Estakhri'', {{lang-fa|استخری}}, i.e. from the Iranian city of [[Istakhr]], b. - d. 346 AH/AD 957)<ref>Mojtahed-Zadeh, Pirous. "The Persian Gulf in the Geographical Views of the Ancient World" In ''Cartographie Historique du Golfe Persique''. Edited by M. Taleghani, D. Silva Couto, & J.-L. Bacque-Grammont. Louvain, Belgium: Diffusion, 2006. 17.</ref> was a 10th-century travel author and [[Geography in medieval Islam|Islamic geographer]] who wrote valuable accounts in [[Arabic]] of the many Muslim territories he visited during the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid era]] of the [[Islamic Golden Age]]. There is no consensus regarding his origin. Some sources describe him as [[Persian people|Persian]],<ref name="ODB"/> while others state he was [[Arabs|Arab]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=van Donzel |editor1-first=E.J. |title=Islamic Desk Reference (compiled from the Encyclopedia of Islam) |date=1994 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004097384 |page=[https://archive.org/details/islamicdeskrefer00donz_0/page/177 177] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/islamicdeskrefer00donz_0/page/177 }}</ref><ref name="Miquel">{{cite book|last1=Miquel|first1=André |editor1-last=Gibb |editor1-first=H. A. R. |editor2-last=Kramers |editor2-first=J. H. |editor3-last=Lévi-Provençal |editor3-first=E. |editor4-last=Schacht |editor4-first=J. |title=''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' |date=1954–2005 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |edition=2nd|chapter=Iṣṭakhrī, Abū Isḥāḳ Ibrāhīm|chapter-url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/al-istakhri-SIM_3673?s.num=162&s.start=160 |chapter-url-access=subscription}} IV:222b-223b.</ref> The ''[[Encyclopedia Iranica]]'' states: "Biographical data are very meager. From his ''nesbas'' (attributive names) he appears to have been a native of Eṣṭaḵr in Fārs, but it is not known whether he was Persian".<ref name="Bolshakov">{{cite book |last1=Bolshakov |first1=O. G. |editor1-last=Yarshater |editor1-first=Ehsan |title=Encyclopædia Iranica |date=1998 |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, Inc. |location=New York |chapter=''Eṣṭaḵrī, Abū Esḥāq Ebrāhīm'' |chapter-url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/estakri-abu-eshaq-ebrahim}} VIII(6):646-647 (I have used the updated online version).</ref>

Istakhri's account of [[windmill]]s is the earliest known. Istakhri met the celebrated traveller-geographer [[Ibn Hawqal]], while travelling, and [[Ibn Hawqal]] incorporated the work of Istakhri in his book ''Kitab al-Surat al-Ard''.<ref name="Miquel"/><ref name="Bolshakov"/>

==Works==
Istakhri's two surviving works are:

*''Masālik al-Mamālik'' ({{lang|ar|مسالك الممالك}}, ''Routes of the Realms'', or ''Kitab al-masalik wa-l-mamalik'' (كتاب المسالك والممالك ''Book of Roads and Kingdoms'')), a contribution to the "[[Book of Roads and Kingdoms]]" tradition. This combines maps with descriptive text to describe the geography of Iran and surrounding kingdoms. It is based mainly on lists of stations of postal routes, and seems intended to help commit those lists to memory rather than to guide travellers through the territory. There is no consistency between the [[map projection]]s. An illuminated manuscript dated 706 [[Hijri year|AH]] (1306-07 AD) now resides in the [[Khalili Collection of Islamic Art]]. It contains many maps, though some mentioned in the text are missing.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rogers |first=J. M. |title=The arts of Islam : treasures from the Nasser D. Khalili collection |date=2008 |edition= Revised and expanded|publisher=Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) |location=Abu Dhabi |oclc=455121277 |authorlink=J. M. Rogers|page=167}}</ref>
*''Ṣuwar al-ʿAqālīm'' ( {{lang|ar|صور الاقاليم}}, ''Pictures of the Regions'').

===Published editions===

An 8-volume edition of works by medieval Arab geographers, edited by the Dutch orientalist [[Michael Jan de Goeje]] in a series titled ''Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum'' was published by Brill, Lugduni-Batavora (Leiden) in the 1870s. An edition of Istakhri's MS text was produced for the first volume under the Latin title ''Viae Regnorum descriptio ditionis Moslemicae'' - "Description of Roads of the Kingdoms in Muslim territories". In 1927, the editor [[Theodore Noldeke]] produced a second edition.

In 1845, the German orientalist [[A. D. Mordtmann]] published a translation in Hamburg with the title ''Das Buch der Länder von Schech Ebu Ishak el Farsi el Isztachri'', with a foreword by C. Ritter. (Schriften der Akademie von Ham Bd. 1, Abth. 2).

==See also==
*[[Ibn Hawqal]]
*[[Al-Maqdisi]]
*[[Ibn al-Faqih]]
*[[Qudama ibn Ja'far]]
*[[Ibn Khordadbeh]]
*[[Ibn Rustah]]
*[[Al-Ya'qubi]]
*[[Al-Masudi]]
*[[List of Iranian scientists]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite encyclopedia | article = EṢṬAḴRĪ, ABŪ ESḤĀQ EBRĀHĪM | last = Bolshakov | first = O. G. | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/estakri-abu-eshaq-ebrahim | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 6 | pages = 646–647 | year = 1998 }}
*{{cite book|last=Bosworth|first=Clifford Edmund|title=[[The Encyclopedia of Islam]], Volume 6|year=1989|publisher=[[E. J. Brill]]|location=Leiden|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tPsUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA639 639]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=tPsUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA640 640]|chapter=al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik}}
*{{cite book|title=Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum (1927), vol 1: Viae Regnorum descriptio ditionis Moslemicae auctore Abu Ishák al-Fárisí al-Istakhrí|year=1927|publisher=E. J. Brill|location=Leden|url=https://archive.org/details/BibliothecaGeographorumArabicorum1927Vol1ViaeRegnorumDescriptio|editor=de Goeje, M.J.|language=ar}}
*{{cite book|title=The oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century|year=1800|location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/orientalgeograp00agoog|editor=Ouseley, William}} - {{resize|Note: in fact, it is a work by Istakhri}}
*{{citation| last=Al-Istakhri|first=Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad|editor1-last=[[Michael Jan de Goeje|Goeje]]|editor1-first=M. J. de|editor2-last=[[Theodore Noldeke|Noldeke]]|editor2-first=Theodore|title=Viae Regnorum descriptio ditionis Moslemicae auctore Abū Ishāk al-Fārisi al-Istakhri |journal=Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum|publisher=Brill publishers|place=Lugdunum Batavorum ([[Leiden]])|year=1927|volume=1| edition=2|language=ar, la|url=https://archive.org/details/BibliothecaGeographorumArabicorum1927Vol1ViaeRegnorumDescriptio}}
*{{citation|last=Ibn Haukal|editor-last=[[Michael Jan de Goeje|Goeje]]|editor-first=M. J. de|title=Viae et regna, descriptio ditionis moslemicae auctore Abu'l-Kasim Ibn Haukal|journal=Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum|publisher=[[Brill publishers]]|place=Lugdunum Batavorum ([[Leiden]])|year=1873| volume=2| language=ar, la|url=https://archive.org/details/viaeetregnadescr02ibnh/page/n426}}
*{{citation|editor-last=[[Michael Jan de Goeje|Goeje]]|editor-first=M. J. de|title=Indices, glossarium et addenda et emendanda ad Part I-III|journal=Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum|publisher=Brill|place=Lugdunum Batavorum ([[Leiden]])|year=1870| volume=4| language=ar, la|url=https://archive.org/details/bibliothecageogr04goejuoft/page/n5}}
*{{citation| translator-last=[[Andreas David Mordtmann|Mordtmann]] |translator-first=Andreas David |title=Das Buch der Länder von Schech Ebu Ishak el Farsi el Isztachri |publisher=Rauhen Hauses in Horn | place=Frankfurt/M.| orig-year=1845|year=1995 | url=https://archive.org/details/dasbuchderlnde00ista}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* [http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/211mono.html World Map of al-Istakhri] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514050413/http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/211mono.html |date=2011-05-14 }}

{{Islamic geography}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:950s deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death uncertain]]
[[Category:10th-century Iranian writers]]
[[Category:Balkhi school]]
[[Category:Istakhr]]
[[Category:10th-century Iranian geographers]]
[[Category:People associated with wind power]]
[[Category:Scholars under the Buyid dynasty]]
[[Category:Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world]]

Istakhri - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 17:49, 5 September 2023