Ibn al-Wardi

Abū Ḥafs Zayn al-Dīn ʻUmar ibn al-Muẓaffar Ibn al-Wardī (Arabic: عمر ابن مظفر ابن الوردي), known as Ibn al-Wardi, was an Arab historian AH 691 (1291/1292)-AH 749 (1348/1349), the author of Kharīdat al-ʿAjā'ib wa farīdat al-gha'rāib ("The Pearl of wonders and the Uniqueness of strange things"), a geographical treatise with sections on natural history.[1] He also wrote Tarikh Ibn al-Wardi ("The History by Ibn al-Wardi").

## Kharidat

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Ibn al-Wardi's atlas of the world, a manuscript copied in 17th century

The Kharīdat summed up the geographical knowledge of the Arabic world of the time, referring to climate, terrain, fauna and flora, population, way of living, existing states and their governments in individual regions of the world. The work was accompanied by a coloured world map and a picture of Ka'bah.

Although in the book al-Wardi credits al-Mas'udi, al-Tusi and several other sources, Mohamed Bencheneb claimed it was merely a plagiarism of a book by Egyptian writer Najm ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdān ibn Shabib al-Ḥanbali (ca. 1332), entitled Jāmi ʿal-Funūn wa-Salwat al-Maḥzūn.[2][1] As for the first chapter of the Kharidat, although it may have well come indirectly through al-Ḥanbali as Bencheneb suggests, it is in fact very nearly a copy from Yaqut's Mu'jam ul-Buldān, including similar phraseology.[3]

The author also speaks about Slavs and their lifestyle and mentions al-Mahdiyya as the residence of the Fatimid dynasty. Therefore, the book is older than the city of Kairo (founded in 969 C. E.).

## References

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Citations

1. ^ a b Bencheneb, Mohamed (1936), "Ibn al-Wardī", The Encyclopaedia of Islām, vol. III, E. J. Brill ltd., p. 428
2. ^ Jwaideh (1987), p. 19, note 4.
3. ^ Jwaideh (1987), p. 19, note 4.

Bibliography

* Jwaideh, Wadie, ed. (1987) [1959]. The Introductory Chapters of Yāqūt's Muʻjam Al-Buldān. Brill Archive.

## External links

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* http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17261&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

## See also

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* Ibn Al Ouardy

Authority control databases

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Geography and cartography in the medieval Islamic world

Geographers|

| 9th century|

* Al-Khwarizmi
* Abu Hanifa Dinawari
* Ya'qubi
* Sulaiman al-Tajir

|

10th century|

* Ibn Khordadbeh
* Ahmad ibn Rustah
* Ahmad ibn Fadlan
* Abu Zayd al-Balkhi
* Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani
* Al-Masudi
* Istakhri
* Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad
* Ibn Hawqal
* Ibn al-Faqih
* Al-Muqaddasi
* Al-Ramhormuzi
* Qudama ibn Ja'far

11th century|

* Al-Biruni
* Abu Saʿīd Gardēzī
* Al-Bakri
* Mahmud al-Kashgari
* Domiyat

12th century|

* al-Zuhri
* Muhammad al-Idrisi
* Abu'l Abbas al-Hijazi

13th century|

* Ibn Jubayr
* Saadi Shirazi
* Yaqut al-Hamawi
* Ibn Said al-Maghribi
* Ibn al-Nafis
* Ibn al-Mujawir

14th century|

* Al-Dimashqi
* Abu'l-Fida
* Ibn al-Wardi
* Hamdallah Mustawfi
* Ibn Battuta
* Lin Nu

15th century|

* Abd-al-Razzāq Samarqandī
* Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh
* Ahmad ibn Mājid
* Zheng He
* Ma Huan
* Fei Xin

16th century|

* Sulaiman Al Mahri
* Piri Reis
* Mir Ahmed Nasrallah Thattvi
* Amīn Rāzī

17th century|

* Evliya Çelebi

Works|

* Book of Roads and Kingdoms (al-Bakrī)
* Book of Roads and Kingdoms (ibn Khordadbeh)
* Tabula Rogeriana
* Kitab al-Rawd al-Mitar
* Mu'jam Al-Buldan
* Rihla
* The Meadows of Gold
* Piri Reis map
* Kitab al-Kharaj

Influences|

* Geography (Ptolemy)

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