EARLY ARAB GEOGRAPHERS.
III.
MURU′JU-L ZAHAB
OF
AL MAS’U′DI′.
Abú-l Hasan ’Abí, son of Husain, was a native of Baghdád, and received the surname of Al Mas’údí after an ancestor named Mas’úd, whose eldest son accompanied the prophet in his flight from Mecca to Medina.[1] The greater part of Mas’údí's life was spent in travelling, and his wanderings extended over nearly all the countries subject to Muhammadan sway, and others besides. He says of himself that he travelled so far to the west (Morocco and Spain) that he forgot the east, and so far to the east (China) that he forgot the west. He was an acute observer, and deservedly continues to he one of the most admired writers in the Arabic language. The fruits of his travels and observations were embodied in his work called “Murúju-l Zahab” (Meadows of Gold), of which Ibn Khaldún, as quoted by Sprenger, says, “Al Mas’údí in his book describes the state of the nations and countries of the east and west, as they were in his age — that is to say, in 330 (332) A.H. He gives an account of the genius and usages of the nations; a description of the countries, mountains, seas, kingdoms and dynasties; and he distinguishes the Arabian race from the barbarians. Al Mas’údí became, through this work, the prototype of all historians: to whom they refer, and on whose authority they rely in the critical estimate of many facts
- ↑ [See Reinaud’s Aboulfeda Introd. p. lxiv.]
