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Notes
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The tenth-century Persian geographer al-Istakhri was one of the most important figures in the evolution of Arab cartography. He travelled widely, but his account of Arabia (Hijaz, Yemen and the Gulf) is curiously sketchy, particularly given the importance of the Pilgrimage. This is partly because, as the title of this treatise, Kitab al-masalik wa'l-mamalik ('the book of postal routes and kingdoms'), suggests, it is based on lists of stations on the postal routes of the Abbasid heartlands and in Iran, which were not available for Arabia and Egypt. In its present state the manuscript is incomplete. It opens with a splendid page of illumination in gold and silver, and on the penultimate page (folio 120a) is a colophon with the date 706 AH, possibly a later addition.
Title
Kitab al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik of al-Istakhri
Date
706 AH (1306–1307)
Medium
ink, gold, silver & opaque watercolour on paper with contemporary leather binding
Accession number
586
Work type
Drawing