Asma Jibal Tihama wa Sukkanuha - Dimna Nawaadir al-Makhtutat
- Author died
- 275 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat Maktabat wa-Maṭbaʿat Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlāduh bi-Miṣr
Asma Jibal Tihama wa Sukkanuha (Names of the Mountains of Tihama and Their Inhabitants) is a classical geographical treatise by the Bedouin scholar Iram ibn al-Asbagh al-Sulami (d. c. 275 AH / 888 CE) detailing the topography, settlements, vegetation, and water sources of western Arabia .
Scope and Contents
The full title of the work is Kitab Asma Jibal Tihama wa Sukkaniha wa-ma fiha min al-qura wa-ma yanbutu 'alayha min al-ashjar wa-ma fiha min al-miyah (Names of the Mountains of Tihama, Their Inhabitants, Their Villages, the Trees That Grow on Them, and Their Waters) . It records firsthand geographical and botanical data gathered by Iram during his travels across western Arabia .
The text opens in the north with Mount Radwa near Yanbu', located one day from Yanbu' and seven stages from Medina, and traces landmarks south toward al-Ta'if and its surrounding settlements . While the first three-fifths focus specifically on Tihamat al-Hijaz, the remaining portion covers the boundaries of the Hijaz and describes the mountains, villages, valleys, and water places around Medina . The closing line of the treatise designates it as Kitab Asma Jibal Makka wa-l-Madina wa-ma yattasilu biha (Book of the Names of the Mountains of Mecca, Medina, and What Connects to Them) .
Transmission and Classical Reception
The primary surviving chain of transmission runs from Iram ibn al-Asbagh to Abu al-Ash'ath Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Kindi, who dictated it to Ibn Abi Sa'd al-Warraq, and from him through Abu Muhammad 'Ubayd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sukkari to the grammarian Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi . Another classical transmission route ran through Abu 'Ubayd Allah 'Amr ibn Bishr al-Sakuni from Abu al-Ash'ath .
Major classical geographers utilized the work extensively. Abu 'Ubayd al-Bakri noted in the introduction to Mu'jam ma Ista'jam (Dictionary of What Has Been Deemed Obscure) that all his reports attributed to al-Sakuni derived from Iram's text via Abu al-Ash'ath . Yaqut al-Hamawi frequently cited Iram in Mu'jam al-Buldan (Dictionary of Countries), relying on his Bedouin authority for the identification of local flora and place-names .
Manuscript and Modern Editions
The text was preserved in a single manuscript held in the Sa'idiyya Library in Hyderabad, India, copied in 786 AH (1384 CE) as part of a collective volume of twenty-seven treatises, where it spans nine pages .
The scholar Abd al-'Aziz al-Maymani first prepared an edition of the treatise from this manuscript and published it in the Oriental College Magazine in Lahore . Copies made from al-Maymani's transcription reached the Hijaz through Ibrahim al-Kharbutli and Muhammad Husayn Nasif, where Sulayman al-Sani' collated the text against classical geographical dictionaries . Abd al-Salam Harun later edited the treatise and published it as an independent volume in Cairo in 1373 AH (1953 CE) funded by Muhammad Nasif and Yusuf Zaynal . Harun subsequently re-edited the work with additional corrections and notes from Hamad al-Jasir, publishing it within the eighth collection of his anthology Nawadir al-Makhtutat (Rare Manuscripts) .
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