Ibn Khurdadhbih

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ibn Khurdadhbih (Arabic: ابن خرضضبي) (died 912) was a Muslim Arab explorer and geographer. He was the postmaster of the Caliph of Baghdad. He is known for the 846 seminal work, al-Masalik wal Mamalik (‘Book of Roads and Provinces’), which mapped the trade routes of the Muslim world in the 8th century. Along with maps, the book included descriptions of the land, people and culture of the Southern Asiatic coast as far as Brahamputra, The Andaman Islands, peninsular Malaysia and Java. The lands of Tang China, Unified Silla (Korea) and Japan are referenced within his work.