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A traveller in thirteenth-century Arabia : Ibn al-Mujāwir's Tārīkh al-mustabṣir

Title: A traveller in thirteenth-century Arabia : Ibn al-Mujāwir's Tārīkh al-mustabṣir / translated from Oscar Löfgren's Arabic text and edited with revisions and annotations by G. Rex Smith.
Author: Ibn al-Mujāwir, Yūsuf ibn Yaʻqūb, 1204 or 1205-1291 or 1292.
Publication: Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, 2008.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	G161 .H2 ser.3 no.19	Off-site
Not available - Please for assistance.	Text	Use in library		Off-site

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Description

xix, 341 pages : illustrations, maps; 26 cm.

Summary

"This is the first English translation of the Tarikh al-Mustabsir, written in the early quarter of the thirteenth century by Ibn al-Mujawir. The text is a fascinating account of the western and southern areas of the Arabian peninsula by a man from the east of the Islamic world, probably from Khurasan in Iran." "Ibn al-Mujawir was a man who in all probability followed the age-old Islamic practice of making the pilgrimage to Mecca and thereafter travelling in the area to further his business interests. His route began in Mecca and essentially ran south through the Red Sea coastal plain, Tihamah, down into the Yemen and along the southern coast of the peninsula. He paused long in Aden, where he observed closely the activities of the port to report at some length on its administration, its taxes, its markets, its currency, its weights and measures, and the like. His route then continued along the southern coast of Arabia and into the Gulf, and he presumably returned home to the east via Iraq. The author is a wonderful observer of people: their buildings, their dress, their customs, their agriculture, their food and their history." "This book is a unique source for the social and economic history of thirteenth-century south Arabia, written with a humour and wit otherwise unknown in the writings of medieval Islam. The text is of major linguistic importance, too, written as it is in a far from classical Arabic. This translation is fully annotated with an introduction, appendices, glossary and full index, and contains maps and illustrations."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Works issued by the Hakluyt Society ; 3rd ser., no. 19

Uniform Title

Tārīkh al-muṣtabṣir. English
Works issued by the Hakluyt Society ; 3rd ser., no. 19.

Alternative Title

Tārīkh al-muṣtabṣir.

Subjects

Genre/Form

Early works.

Note

"Published by Ashgate for The Hakluyt Society, London."

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-324) and index.

Language (note)

Translated from the Arabic.

Contents

Contents -- Ibn al-Mujāwir's introduction -- Ibn al-Mujāwir's route descriptions -- -- Ibn al-Mujāwir's parasang -- Place names -- Agriculture, crops, fruits, vegetables and food -- dress and social customs -- Magic, the wondrous and the bizarre -- Hstory and buildings -- Maps and plans and diagrams in the text -- Trade and commerce -- Source of social and economic history of Arabia -- Assessment of the contents.

ISBN

9780904180916
0904180913

LCCN

2007017576

OCLC

ocn123912616
123912616
SCSB-5405255

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries