Y
The basics
Quick facts
Intro
Early Muslim scholar
Gender:
Male
Places:
Work field:
Birth:
(Iraq)
Religions:
The details
Biography
Introduction
Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi (died 897/8), known as Ahmad al-Ya'qubi, or Ya'qubi, was a Muslim geographer and perhaps the first historian of world culture in the Abbasid Caliphate.
Biography
He was a great-grandson of Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Mansur. Until 873 he lived in Armenia and Khorasan, working under the patronage of the Iranian dynasty of the Tahirids; then he traveled to India, Egypt and the Maghreb, and died in Egypt. He died in AH 284 (897/8).
His Shia sympathies are found throughout his works.
In 872, he lists the kingdoms of Bilad el-Sudan, including Ghana, Gao, and Kanem.
Works
- Ta'rikh ibn Wadih (Chronicle of Ibn Wadih)
- Kitab al-Buldan (Book of the Countries) - geography, contains a description of the Maghreb, with a full account of the larger cities and much topographical and political information (ed. M. de Goeje, Leiden, 1892).