8vo. xviii, 45 pp., title and introduction in German, 475 pp., of Arabic text, edited & introduced by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, later half-calf with marbled boards, title gilt and seal of the Duc de Luynes on raised spine, speckled outer edges, index, scattered foxing (mainly to end leaves), cover slightly rubbed, otherwise copy generally in good condition, Druck & Verlag der Dieterichsehen Buchhandlung, Göttingen, 1846.

Synopsis

Yaqut al-Hamawi (Yakut al-Hamawi, 1179–1229) was an Arab geographer and historian, originally from Syria. He travelled extensively in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Persia. His Mu’jam al-Buldan, a geographical dictionary that includes biographical, historical and cultural data, is a primary source in Arabic scholarship. Yaqut composed this work during the final decade of his life and it was later partially translated as The Introductory Chapters of Yaqut’s ‘Mu’jam al-Buldan; the Mu’jam al-udaba’ was translated as Yaqut’s Dictionary of Learned Men. The Kitab, the final draft of which he completed in 1228, is significant not only for its encyclopaedic quality, but also for its synthesis of Greek and Arab views on science and cosmology. In addition, Yaqut was one of the last scholars to gain access to the libraries east of the Caspian Sea, which today are the former Soviet republics of Central Asia – libraries that were, along with the lands and cities around them, devastated in the Mongol onslaught.
Bibliographic references: BNF, Bulac, Strasbourg.