Book of Roads and Kingdoms



The Book of Roads and Kingdoms (كتاب المسالك والممالك, Kitāb al-Masālik waʿl-Mamālik ) is a group of Islamic manuscripts composed from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. They emerged from the administrative tradition of listing pilgrim and post stages. Their text covers the cities, roads, topography, and peoples of the Muslim world, interspersed with personal anecdotes. A theoretical explanation of the "Inhabited Quarter" of the world, comparable to the ecumene, frames the world with classical concepts like the seven climes.

The books include illustrations so geometric that they are barely recognizable as maps. These schematic maps do not attempt a mimetic depiction of physical boundaries. With little change in design, the treatises typically offer twenty regional maps and a disc-shaped map of the world surrounded by the Encircling Ocean. The maps have a flat quality, but the textual component implies a spherical Earth. Andalusi scholar Abi Bakr Zuhri explained, "Their objective is the depiction of the earth, even if it does not correspond to reality. Because the earth is spherical but the [map] is simple".

The first, incomplete Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik by Ja‘far ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi is now lost. The earliest surviving version was written by Ibn Khordadbeh circa 870 CE, during the reigns of Abbasid caliphs al-Wathiq and al-Mu'tamid. The earliest known version of the idiosyncratic cartography was composed by al-Istakhri circa 950 CE, although only copies by later artists survive. As he was a follower of Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, this style of map-making is often referred to as the "Balkhī school", or the "Classical School". Leiden University Libraries holds مختصر كتاب المسالك والممالك لابي اسحاق ابراهيم بن محمد الاصطخري / World map in a summary of Kitab al-masalik wa’l mamalik, MS Or. 3101, 1193. The maps are sometimes called the "Atlas of Islam", or abbreviated as KMMS maps. This tradition of mapping appears in related works including Ibn Hawqal's Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ (صورة الارض; "The face of the Earth").

Works

 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 9th century by Ibn Khordadbeh.
 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Istakhri), written in the early 10th century by Istakhri.
 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the mid 11th century by al-Bakri in Spain.
 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Ibn Hawqal), written in the 10th century by Ibn Hawqal.
 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms (al-Muhallabi), written in the 10th century by al-Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Muhallabi.
 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 10th century by Muhammad ibn Yūsuf al-Warrāq.
 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 9th century by Ahmad ibn al-Harith al-Kharraz (al-Khazzaz).
 * Book of Roads and Kingdoms, written in the 10th century by Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jayhani.