EARLY ARAB GEOGRAPHERS.
II.
KITÁBU-L MASALIK WA-L MAMÁLIK
OF
IBN KHURDADBA.
Abú-l Kásim ’Ubaidu-llah bin ’Abdu-llah bin Khurdádba is better known as Ibn Khurdádba, a name derived from his grandfather, who was a fire worshipper, as the name shows, but who subsequently became a convert to the Muhammadan faith. Ibn Khurdádba attained high office under the Khalifs, and employed his leisure in topographical and geographical researches, the result of which was his “Book of Roads and Kingdoms.” He died in 300 A.H., or 912 A.D.[1] Up to a recent date the separate individuality of Ibn Khurdádba was disputed, and it was argued by some that he was the same person as Abú Is,hák Istakhrí, and the real author of the “Oriental Greography” translated by Sir W. Ouseley. This question was set at rest by the publication of Istakhrí's work, and by the extracts from Ibn Khurdádba, which appeared in Sir H. Elliot's first volume.
The text of Ibn Khurdádba has lately been published with a translation by M. Barbier de Meynard, in the Journal Asiatique (1865) from a copy of the MS. in the Bodleian Library, collated with another from Constantinople. Advantage has been taken of this publication to amend the translation which originally appeared in the original specimen of this work. The texts differ occasionally, and the leaves of one or both of the MSS. must have been
- ↑ [See Reinaud's Aboulfeda I., p. 57, and Journ. Asiatique, Jan., 1865.]
