Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Ibn Khordadbeh)

{{Short description|9th-century geography text by Ibn Khordadbeh}}

{{Infobox book

| name = Book of Roads and Kingdoms

| title_orig = كتاب المسالك والممالك

| translator =

| image = Radhanites.png

| caption = A map of the trade network of the Radhanites, as reported in the Book of Roads and Kingdoms.

| author = Ibn Khordadbeh

| country = Abbasid Caliphate (present-day Iran)

| language = Arabic

| subject = Geography

| genre = Non-fiction

| published = c. 870 CE

| media_type = Manuscript

| pages =

| isbn =

| oclc =

}}

The Book of Roads and Kingdoms ({{langx|ar|كِتَاب ٱلْمَسَالِك وَٱلْمَمَالِك|translit=Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik}}) is a 9th-century geography text written by the Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh. It maps and describes the major trade routes of the time within the Muslim world, and discusses distant trading regions such as Japan, Korea, and China.{{cite book|author=Isabella Bird|title=Korea and Her Neighbours.: A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country. With a Preface by Sir Walter C. Hillier.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHeKAgAAQBAJ|date=9 January 2014|publisher=Adegi Graphics LLC|isbn=978-0-543-01434-4|chapter=1}} It was written around 870 CE, during the reign of Al-Muʿtamid of the Abbasid Caliphate, while its author was Director of Posts and Police for the Abbasid province of Jibal in modern-day Iran.

The work uses much of the Persian administrative terms, gives considerable attention to pre-Islamic Iranian history, and uses the "native Iranian cosmological division system of the world". These all show "the existence of Iranian sources at the core of the work".{{cite book|title=Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia|first1=Josef W.|last1=Meri|first2=Jere|last2=Bacharach|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0-415-96690-6}} pp. 359–60.

The book is also referred to in English as The Book of Roads and Provinces.

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