by Alejandra Pizarro (See Chinese translation)
Yāqūt ibn ʻAbd Allāh al-Ḥamawī (alternative names) was an Arab biographer and geographer born in Constantinople around 1178-1179. He was captured in war and became a slave of an Iraqi trader who lived in Baghdad. He was taught accounting and trading and sent to trade on behalf of his master.
In 1194 he found himself in a disagreement with his master and had to find sustenance in copying. During that time he also studied under the grammarian Al-‘Ukbarî. Five years later he returned to his master and travelled for him to Kish again. After returning to Iraq and the death of his master, he became a bookseller and began to write.
Yāqūt was part of the last scholars who accessed the libraries east of the Caspian Sea before the Mongol invasion of Central Asia. For ten years afterwards he travelled in Persia, Syria, and Egypt, and visited the scholarly city of ancient Merv, where he spent two years in libraries. He escaped various Mongol invasions and in 1218, he moved on to Khiva and Balkh.
Around 1222 he settled in Mosul and worked on his encyclopaedias and finished the first draft in 1224. After a journey to Alexandria in 1227 he went to Aleppo, where he died in 1229.
Mu'jam al-buldan (Dictionary of Countries) is a "literary geography", covering the history, ethnography, and myths related to the places mentioned in the literature or the stories of the Arabs. It was written between 1224 and 1228 and covers nearly all medieval knowledge of the globe.Text available on the World Digital Library.
https://www.wdl.org/en/item/7444/
Yāqūt travelled through Persia, Arabia, Iraq and Egypt to obtain information, as well as included information from previous works, and collections of facts from other historians, geographers and travellers.
The places are written in alphabetical order, with the correct vocalization of the names, an indication whether they are Arabic or foreign and their locality. Their geographical positions, boundaries, mountains, and deserts, seas and islands are added as well. Their history is often outlined with a description of their conquest by Muslims and the name of the governor at the time is noted as well. Yāqūt also explains in detail the monuments they contain and the eminent natives who were born in them or had lived there, including anecdotes and interesting facts.
