Al-Mas'udi

895-956

Arab Historian and Geographer

A pioneer of scientific geography, al-Mas'udi traveled throughout the Muslim world in the course of writing several books, the most notable of which is known as The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems. Admired as the "Herodotus of the Arabs," al-Mas'udi is generally considered the greatest Arab historian of the medieval period.

Born in Baghdad, now the capital of Iraq, al-Mas'udi descended from a close friend of the prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632). He set out on his travels at the age of 30, heading eastward through Persia and Khurasan (part of modern Afghanistan), and deep into the Deccan plateau of central India. Along the way, he took extensive notes regarding plant and animal life, and reported information from travelers he met who had been to China and Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka).

Al-Mas'udi moved westward in 916 or 917, sailing to Oman and then East Africa. His writing provides some of the first written accounts of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular the coastal trading cities in the area stretching from what is now Somalia to modern Mozambique.

Beginning in 918, al-Mas'udi spent a decade traveling around Iraq, Syria, the Arabian peninsula, and Palestine. During this time, he studied a number of different sects and ethnic groups. Between 932 and 941 he roamed throughout the Caucasus and the southwestern edge of Central Asia, traveling among the Khazars and other peoples. He also provided the first written description of the Aral Sea, and became the first geographer to correctly note that the fresh-water Caspian Sea is not connected to the Black Sea. In 941 al-Mas'udi made the hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims, then moved southward to what is now Yemen. By 942 he was in Egypt, where he spent time among the Coptic Christians.

Most of al-Mas'udi's books, of which there were 20 or more, have been lost. Contemporary scholars generally ignored his Akhbar az-zaman (History of time), a 30-volume work, and when another book met the same fate, he decided to compress his universal history into a single volume. Thus was born Meadows of Gold, or Muruj adh-dhahab wa ma'adin al-jawahir.

Meadows of Gold is a work that goes deep into the earliest recesses of recorded time, relying on religion and folklore for its account of Earth's origins. It is equally vast in its breadth, containing detailed observations on the plants and animals, as well as the cultures, customs, and nations, of the world. In this it resembles the History, by the man to whom al-Mas'udi has been compared, Herodotus (c.484-c.420 b.c.)

Among al-Mas'udi's achievements as a geographer was a map that depicted numerous significant features, many for the first time. These included the meeting of the Indian and Atlantic oceans at the southern tip of Africa; the correct position of the Nile valley; the locations of the Indus and Ganges rivers of India, with Sri Lanka at the subcontinent's southern tip; and the outlines of the Caspian and Aral seas.

Al-Mas'udi spent his last decade dividing his time between Egypt and Syria. He died in Egypt in about 956.

JUDSON KNIGHT