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The Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Arabic: كتاب المسالك والممالك, Kitāb al-Masālik waʿl-Mamālik^[1]) is a group of Islamic manuscripts composed from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.^[2] They emerged from the administrative tradition of listing pilgrim and post stages.^[3]^[4] Their text covers the cities, roads, topography, and peoples of the Muslim world, interspersed with personal anecdotes.^[5] A theoretical explanation of the "Inhabited Quarter" of the world, comparable to the ecumene, frames the world with classical concepts like the seven climes.^[6]^[3]

The books include illustrations so geometric that they are barely recognizable as maps.^[7] These schematic maps do not attempt a mimetic depiction of physical boundaries.^[8]^[9] 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.^[6] 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".^[10]

The first, incomplete Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik by Ja‘far ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi is now lost.^[11] The earliest surviving version was written by Ibn Khordadbeh circa 870 CE,^[11] during the reigns of Abbasid caliphs al-Wathiq and al-Mu'tamid.^[11] The earliest known version of the idiosyncratic cartography was composed by al-Istakhri circa 950 CE,^[12] although only copies by later artists survive.^[13] As he was a follower of Abu Zayd al-Balkhi,^[6] this style of map-making is often referred to as the "Balkhī school",^[14] 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. ^[15] The maps are sometimes called the "Atlas of Islam",^[6] or abbreviated as KMMS maps.^[9] This tradition of mapping appears in related works including Ibn Hawqal's Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ (صورة الارض; "The face of the Earth").^[16]

Drafting

move notes into prose for relevant section:

Ibn Khordadbeh compiles the manuscript in 870.^[17]

Thousands of travelogues were written by merchants, diplomats, and other writers during the Golden Age of Islam.^[18]

Sallam set out to locate the wall and gate separating civilization from the monster-inhabited lands of Gog and Magog.^[19]

Upon his return, Sallam dictated an account of his travels to Ibn Khordadbeh who included it in the Book of Roads and Kingdoms.^[19]

Copies of the book spread, and it furthered belief in an actual metal wall built somewhere far into the North during the time of Alexander the Great.^[19]

The maps are oriented with South at the top of the page.^[20]

Ibn Hawqal began work on a revised copy of the Book of Roads and Kingdoms, but shifted to creating his own geographical treatise that cover everything he knew of geography.^[21]

The treatise belongs to what Antrim calls the "discourse of place" a literary tradition that includes geographical works, travelogues, poetry, topographical works, and anthologies. Works from each genre pulled from the other genres focused on the importance of the land during the Islamic Golden Age.^[22] The works both described the significance of the land and imbued the land with literary and spiritual meaning.^[23]

Most surviving manuscripts are later copies; few texts from the ninth century survive and even fewer original texts.^[24]

Ibn Khordadbeh's text was the first to arrange the world according to the qibla. In Islam, the qibla is the direction to orient prayers in order to face towards the Kaaba in Mecca. This results in a circular world map with Mecca in the center and other locations arranged with radii extending outward.^[25]

The Book of Routes and Realms also describes the city of Baghdad as a central hub through which longer travels are routed.^[26]

Tradition includes: Ibn Khurradādhbih, al-Ya ʿ qūbī, al-Bakrī al-I s t akhrī Ibn H awqal al-Muqaddasī^[27]

There are unresolved questions about the authorship of the works of Ibn Hawqal, al-Istakhri, and al-Balkhi. Around 921, al-Istakhri likely used a series of annotated maps by al-Balkhi as the basis for an expanded commentary on those maps, or similar maps derived from them. According to Ibn Hawqal, he met al-Istakhri while traveling and began a revisions to his work, which he completed by 988. Manuscripts attributed to Ibn Hawqal contain much material from manuscripts attributed to al-Istakhri. It's unclear what material is coming from Ibn Hawqal, from al-Istakhri, and what if any is coming from al-Balkhi. This is compounded by additions and changes made by later, often anonymous, copyists.^[28]

Cartographic work by Ibn Hawqal, al-Istakhri, and al-Maqdisi all share an the same system of divisions for the known world and schematics.^[29]

Chapters open with an introduction that defines the limits and frontiers of the covered section.^[30]←resume here

History

The first, incomplete Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik by Ja‘far ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi is now lost.^[11] The earliest surviving version was written by Ibn Khordadbeh circa 870 CE,^[11] during the reigns of Abbasid caliphs al-Wathiq and al-Mu'tamid.^[11] Ibn Khordadbeh's text was the first to arrange the world according to the qibla. In Islam, the qibla is the direction to orient prayers in order to face towards the Kaaba in Mecca. This results in a circular world map with Mecca in the center and other locations arranged with radii extending outward.^[25]

The earliest known version of the idiosyncratic cartography was composed by al-Istakhri circa 950 CE,^[12] although only copies by later artists survive.^[13] As he was a follower of Abu Zayd al-Balkhi,^[6] this style of map-making is often referred to as the "Balkhī school",^[14] or the "Classical School".^[16] The maps are sometimes called the "Atlas of Islam",^[6] or abbreviated as KMMS maps.^[9] This tradition of mapping appears in related works including Ibn Hawqal's Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ (صورة الارض; "The face of the Earth").^[16]

Ibn Hawqal began work on a revised copy of the Book of Roads and Kingdoms, but shifted to creating his own geographical treatise that cover everything he knew of geography.^[21] The treatises belong to what historian Zayde Antrim calls the "discourse of place" a literary tradition that includes geographical works, travelogues, poetry, topographical works, and anthologies. Works from each genre pulled from the other genres focused on the importance of the land during the Islamic Golden Age.^[22] The works both describe the significance of the land and were written to give the land literary and spiritual meaning.^[23]

There are unresolved questions about the authorship of the works of Ibn Hawqal, al-Istakhri, and al-Balkhi. Around 921, al-Istakhri likely used a series of annotated maps by al-Balkhi as the basis for an expanded commentary on those maps, or similar maps derived from them. According to Ibn Hawqal, he met al-Istakhri while traveling and began a revisions to his work, which he completed by 988. Manuscripts attributed to Ibn Hawqal contain much material from manuscripts attributed to al-Istakhri. It's unclear what material is coming from Ibn Hawqal, from al-Istakhri, and what if any is coming from al-Balkhi. This is compounded by additions and changes made by later, often anonymous, copyists.^[28]

The Book of Routes and Realms also describes the city of Baghdad as a central hub through which longer travels are routed.^[26]

Tradition includes: Ibn Khurradādhbih, al-Ya ʿ qūbī, al-Bakrī al-I s t akhrī Ibn H awqal al-Muqaddasī^[27]

Most surviving manuscripts are later copies; few texts from the ninth century survive and even fewer original texts.^[24] 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.^[31]

Maps

The books include illustrations so geometric that they are barely recognizable as maps.^[7] These schematic maps do not attempt a mimetic depiction of physical boundaries.^[8]^[9] 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.^[6] 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".^[10] The maps are oriented with South at the top of the page.^[20]