al-Amakin, ma Ittafaq Lafzuhu wa Iftaraq Musammahu
- Author died
- 584 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Yamāmah lil-Baḥth wal-Tarjamah wal-Nashr
al-Amakin, ma Ittafaq Lafzuhu wa Iftaraq Musammahu (The Places: Those Identical in Wording but Differing in What They Designate) is a geographical and onomastic dictionary by the hadith scholar and genealogist Abu Bakr al-Hazimi (d. 584 AH / 1188 CE), devoted to disambiguating homonymous and orthographically confusable toponyms.
Title and Scope
The work is recorded under several related titles in biographical and bibliographical literature, including Ma Ittafaq Lafzuhu wa Iftaraq Musammahu fi al-Amakin wa-l-Buldan al-Mushtabiha fi al-Khatt (What Is Identical in Wording and Distinct in Meaning Regarding Places and Countries of Ambiguous Script), al-Amakin aw Ma Ittafaq Lafzuhu wa Iftaraq Musammahu min al-Amkinah, and al-Mu'talif wa-l-Mukhtalif fi Asma' al-Amakin wa-l-Buldan (The Congruent and Incongruent in the Names of Places and Lands). It belongs to the tradition of onomastic differentiation (al-muttafiq wa-l-muftariq and al-mu'talif wa-l-mukhtalif), specifically addressing place names associated with prophetic reports, hadith transmitters, and Arabic historical events that share identical spoken forms or similar unpointed Arabic scripts.
Content and Method
The work is arranged alphabetically by letter into specialized chapters that group together identical or visually similar names—such as pairing 'Anah and Ghanah under the letter 'ayn. For each entry, al-Hazimi provides:
- The precise vocalization (dabṭ) and orthographic variants of the toponym.
- Geographical descriptions, boundaries, and measured distances between the site and major centers such as Mecca, Medina, or Damascus.
- Historical and legal contexts, such as mentions of the place in prophetic expeditions, division of spoils, tribal settlements, or hadith chains.
Reception and Critique
The book served as an authoritative reference for later legal, hadith, and geographical commentators. Ibn al-Mulaqqin highlighted al-Hazimi's compilation alongside Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri's Mu'jam ma Ista'jam (Dictionary of Obscure Toponyms) as reaching the pinnacle of the genre. Scholars such as al-Nawawi frequently cited it to establish correct readings of geographical terms occurring in canonical hadith collections and legal manuals.
In his introduction to Mu'jam al-Buldan (Dictionary of Countries), Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote that al-Hazimi had appropriated material from an earlier comprehensive work on homonymous places by the grammarian Abu al-Fath Nasr ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Iskandari, which had been abridged by Abu Musa al-Isfahani; Yaqut stated that he preferred to credit al-Iskandari directly. Modern scholar Hamad al-Jasir likewise examined and compared al-Hazimi's text with al-Iskandari's writings during his study of the work.
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscripts of the text are preserved in collections including the Laleli Library in Istanbul (MS 2140, dated 620 AH) and the National and University Library of Strasbourg (MS 4235). A facsimile edition was published in Frankfurt and in Riyadh in 1980, and a critical edition edited by Hamad ibn Muhammad al-Jasir was published by Dar al-Yamamah in 1415 AH.
Answer updated