Hudud al-'Alam


The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam is a 10th-century geography book written in Persian by an anonymous author from Guzgan, possibly Šaʿyā bin Farīghūn. The title in full is حدود العالم من المشرق الی المغرب.
The sections of its geographical treatise which describes the margins of Islamic world, are of great historical importance, including early descriptions of the Turkic peoples in Central Asia. Also noteworthy is the archaic language and style of the Ḥudud, which makes it a valuable Persian linguistic document as well.

Contents

In regards to the title, Vladimir Minorsky commented on it in his 1937 translation as follows: "The word ḥudūd in our case evidently refers to the 'regions within definite boundaries' into which the world is divided in the Ḥ.-'Ā., the author indicating with special care the frontiers of each one of these areas, v.i., p. 30."
Finished in 982 CE, it was dedicated to Abu'l Haret Muhammad, the ruler of the Farighunids. Its author is unknown, but Vladimir Minorsky surmised that it might have been written by the enigmatic Šaʿyā bin Farīghūn. The available text of Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam is part of a larger manuscript which contains other works:
  1. A copy of the Jahān-Nāma by Muḥammad ibn Najīb Bakrān;
  2. A short passage about music;
  3. The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam;
  4. The Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi;
The Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam contains information about the known world at the time. The anonymous author reports about different countries, people, languages, clothing, food, religion, local products, towns and cities, rivers, seas, lakes, islands, the steppe, deserts, topography, politics and dynasties, as well as trade. The inhabited world is divided in Asia, Europe and "Libya". The author counts 45 countries north of the equator. Among other things, Hudud al-Alam appears to mention a Rus' Khaganate; it refers to the Rus' king as "Khāqān-i Rus".
The author never visited those countries personally, but rather compiled the book from earlier works and tales. He did not indicate his sources, but researchers deduced several 9th-century sources. Minorsky reconstructed them as follows:
  1. Non-literary sources, including yādhkird-i haklmān, akhbār, and dhikr. It is unclear whether or not these non-literary sources included the author's personal experiences, which were probably limited to his home region of Guzganan, and maybe Gilan.
  2. Books, called kitāb-hā-yipīshīnagān.

Chapters

  1. Preface
  2. The disposition of the Earth; the amount of cultivation and lack of cultivation and its countries
  3. The Seas
  4. The Islands
  5. The Mountains
  6. The Rivers
  7. The Deserts
  8. The countries of the World
  9. The country of Chīnistān
  10. The country of Hindūstān
  11. The country of Tibet
  12. The country of the Toghuzghuz and Tātār
  13. The country of the Yaghmā
  14. The country of the Khirkhīz
  15. The country of the Karluk
  16. The country of the Chigil
  17. The country of the Tukhs
  18. The country of the Kīmāk
  19. The country of the Ghūz
  20. The country of the Pechenegs
  21. The country of the Khifjākh
  22. The country of the Majgharī
  23. The country of Khurāsān
  24. The country of the Marches of Khurāsān
  25. The country of Transoxania
  26. The country of the Marches of Transoxania
  27. The country of Sind
  28. The country of Kirmān
  29. The country of Fārs
  30. The country of Khūzistān
  31. The country of Jibāl
  32. The country of Daylamān
  33. The country of 'Irāq
  34. The country of Jazīra
  35. The country of Ādharbādhagān
  36. The country of Armīniya and Arrān
  37. The country of the Arabs
  38. The country of Syria
  39. The country of Egypt
  40. The country of Maghrib
  41. The country of Spain
  42. The country of Byzantium
  43. The country of the Slavs
  44. The country of the Rūs
  45. The country of the Inner Bulghār
  46. The country of the Mirvāt
  47. The country of the Khazarian Pechenegs
  48. The country of the Alān
  49. The country of the Sarīr
  50. The country of the Khazar
  51. The country of the Burṭās
  52. The country of the Barādhās
  53. The country of the V.n.nd.r
  54. Southern Inhabited Lands
  55. The country of Zangistān
  56. The country of Zābaj
  57. The country of Abyssinia
  58. The country of Buja
  59. The country of Nubia
  60. The country of the Sūdān
  61. Epilogue of the book

Rediscovery and translation

The Orientalist scholar Alexander Tumansky found a manuscript with a copy of this text in 1892 in Bukhara. The copy from the original was made by the Persian chronographer Abu l-Mu'ayyad ʿAbd al-Qayyūm ibn al-Ḥusain ibn 'Alī al-Farīsī in 1258. The facsimile edition with introduction and index was published by Vasily Bartold in 1930; a thoroughly commented English translation was made by Vladmir Minorsky in 1937, and a printed Persian text by Manouchehr Sotudeh in 1962.

Literature

  • Bosworth, C. E. in: Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, s.v. ḤUDŪD AL-ʿĀLAM
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