Al-Hamdani's Geography of the Arabian Peninsula
Geografía de la península arábiga de al-Hamdani
- Date
- c. 940 · confidence medium
- Place
- Sana'a, Yemen
- Credited to
- Al-Hamdani
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Sifat Jazirat al-Arab is the first great geographical and ethnographic study of the Arabian Peninsula: it locates regions, tribes, routes, mines and plants from field knowledge. Its author also wrote on South Arabian genealogies and on precious metals.
Al-Hamdani's life (d. c. 945-946) is poorly known and the work cannot be dated precisely; the location in Sana'a reflects his origin and his main career.
What it led to
- a fundamental source for the historical geography of Arabia and Yemen
- study of inscriptions and traditions of the pre-Islamic South Arabian period
- a tradition of Arabic regional geography that culminates with al-Muqaddasi and Yaqut