ابن خرداذبة (ت 208 :هـ/893 م) رائد البيانات الرقمية في الادب الجغرافي الإسلامي

Abstract

The book Al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik by Ibn Khordadbeh, who lived during the third century AH / ninth century CE, is considered one of the important works concerned with geography, or what is referred to in Islamic literature as the “Science of Countries” (ʿIlm al-Buldan), and is among its earliest examples. It is well known that geographical works differ from other historical sources in that they contain abundant information on various civilizational aspects such as urban development, routes, kingdoms, and economic data including agriculture, industry, trade, and markets. They also provide social information concerning races, peoples, religions, beliefs, populations, and many other diverse subjects. In addition to the above, Al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik by Ibn Khordadbeh possesses exceptional importance because it contains a large amount of numerical and statistical information that is particularly remarkable. Similar data are rarely found in Islamic geographical writings produced in later centuries, despite the relatively limited size of the book compared with most other geographical works. This is due to the loss of a substantial portion of the original text. Because of the significance of the book and the frequent occurrence of numbers and statistics within it, we chose it as the subject of this research paper. The paper consists of an introduction and three sections. The introduction discusses the importance of geographical and travel literature in historical and civilizational studies, with special focus on this book, which is regarded as the first work on Islamic administrative geography combining geographical description with digital and statistical data based on official records. The first section examines the numerical data related to postal stations, distances, and routes between Islamic regions and cities and their neighboring countries, using specific units of measurement such as farsakhs and stages, in addition to the commercial routes linking them. The second section deals with numerical data concerning economic conditions, especially revenues, land taxes, taxation, and other matters related to economic aspects. The third and final section discusses various numerical data concerning social life, public affairs, wonders and curiosities, and other matters observed by Ibn Khordadbeh, which he presented in a numbered and quantified manner. Finally, the study concludes with a summary of the most important findings presented in concise points.