Ya'qubi
{{Short description|9th-century Arab geographer and historian}}
{{for|the Syrian Islamic scholar|Muhammad al-Yaqoubi}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix =
| period = Islamic Golden Age
(Abbasid era)
| name = ʾAbū l-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī
| occupation = writer, traveller and historian
| birth_date =
| death_date = AH 284 (AD 897–898){{Cite web|url=http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history03/history337.html|title=Muhammad's successor|website=www.ismaili.net|access-date=2006-10-29|archive-date=2006-11-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061126215726/http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history03/history337.html|url-status=live}}{{Britannica|652001}}
| genre = History and geography
| notable_works = Ta'rikh ibn Wadih and Kitab al-Buldan
| module = {{Infobox Arabic name|embed=yes
|ism = ʾAḥmad
|ism-ar = أحمد
|nasab = bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ
|nasab-ar = بن أبي يعقوب بن جعفر بن وهب بن واضح
|kunya = ʾAbū l-ʿAbbās
|kunya-ar = أبو العباس
|nisba = al-Yaʿqūbī
|nisba-ar = اليعقوبي
}}
| birth_place = Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
}}
ʾAbū al-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī{{efn|{{langx|ar|أبو العباس أحمد بن أبي يعقوب بن جعفر بن وهب بن واضح اليعقوبي}}}} (died 897/8), commonly referred to simply by his nisba al-Yaʿqūbī, was an Arab{{Cite book|last=Zaman|first=Muhammad Qasim|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/399624|title=The encyclopaedia of Islam.|date=1960–2009|publisher=Brill|others=H. A. R. Gibb, P. J. Bearman|isbn=90-04-16121-X|edition=II.|location=Leiden|pages=257–258|oclc=399624|access-date=2021-10-08|archive-date=2019-09-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925063229/https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopaedia-of-islam/oclc/399624|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|title=Al-Yaʿqūbī | Arab historian and geographer|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-08-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827124024/https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/al-ya-qubi/|title=AL YA'QUBI|first=Encyclopædia|last=Universalis|website=Encyclopædia Universalis|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-05-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509085336/https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/al-ya-qubi/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/al-yaqubi|title=Al-Ya'qubi | Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624195941/https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/al-yaqubi|url-status=live}} Muslim geographer.{{sfn|Thatcher|1911}}
Life
Ya'qubi was born in Baghdad to a family of noble background, his great-grandfather was Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Al-Mansur and ruler of Egypt during the reign of al-Mahdi.{{Cite book |last=Daly |first=Okasha El |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdI96px90kUC |title=Egyptology: The Missing Millennium : Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-84472-063-7 |pages=166 |language=en}} Until 873, he lived in Armenia and Khorasan, working under the patronage of the Tahirid Governors; then he traveled to India, Egypt and the Maghreb.{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Ya'qūbī |volume=28 |page=904 |first=Griffithes Wheeler |last=Thatcher}} In 872, he listed the kingdoms of Bilād as-Sūdān, including Ghana, Gao, and Kanem.{{cite book|author-link=Nehemia Levtzion|last1=Levtzion|first1=Nehemia|title=Ancient Ghana and Mali|date=1973|publisher=Methuen & Co Ltd|location=New York|isbn=0841904316|page=3}}
His methodical approach to writing history includes personal observations and interviews to close relations on topics that Yaqubi could not encounter first-hand. He covered topics of natural, human and economic geography as well as noting down cultural, historical and topographic information.
His sympathies with Ahl al-BaytCamilla Adang, Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm, (E.J. Brill, 1996), 37. are found throughout his works.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|title=al-Yaʿqūbī | Arab historian and geographer | Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-08-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827124024/https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|url-status=live}}
He died in Egypt on AH 284 (897/8).
Works
- Ta'rikh ibn Wadih (Chronicle of Ibn Wadih)
- Kitab al-Buldan (Book of the Countries) - biology, 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).
=Editions=
- {{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Mathew S. and al. |title=The Works Of Ibn Wāḍiḥ Al Yaʿqūbī |date=2018 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004364165 |pages=Vol 1, 2, 3 |url=https://archive.org/details/the-works-of-ibn-wadih-al-yaqubi}}
- {{cite book |title= Kitab al-Buldan |author=Ya'qubi |author-link=Ya'qubi|url=https://archive.org/details/kitabalbuldan00yaquuoft |editor=A. W. T. Juynboll |publisher= BRILL|year=1861|language=ar}}
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{wikisourcelang|ar|مؤلف:اليعقوبي|Ya'qubi}}
{{wikisourcelang|ar|تاريخ اليعقوبي|Tarikh al-Yaqubi}}
{{Islamic geography}}
{{Historians of Islam}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaqubi}}
Category:9th-century Arabic-language writers
Category:9th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate
Category:9th-century geographers
Category:10th-century geographers
Category:Geographers from the Abbasid Caliphate