Hudud al-Alam min al-Mashriq ila al-Maghrib

Hudud al-Alam min al-Mashriq ila al-Maghrib (The Limits of the World from the East to the West) is an anonymous geographical treatise written in Persian in 372 AH (982 CE), recognized as one of the earliest surviving geographical works in the Persian language Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1.

Composition and Patronage

The book was composed in the region of Guzgan (northern Afghanistan) under the patronage of the Farighunid ruler Abu al-Harith Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Farighun, who governed Guzgan and Balkh Hudud al-Alam min al-Mash…+1. Although the identity of the author remains unknown, the text itself was preserved in Persian, while some scholars have debated whether it was originally conceived in Persian or translated from an Arabic prototype Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1. The author leaves no indication of having traveled extensively, noting at the conclusion of his treatise that he reviewed all available books, excerpted their essential geographical data, and eliminated redundant material Hudud al-Alam min al-Mash….

Method and Sources

The work divides the inhabited world into overarching parts and distinct countries, demonstrating a drive toward precision, concise organization, and numerical data Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…. While adopting a systematic layout reminiscent of Ptolemaic geography, the text completely dispenses with specific coordinates of latitude and longitude Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al….

The only authority explicitly named in the body of the text is Aristotle through his Meteorology (al-Athar al-Ulwiyyah), though damaged passages near the end indicate reliance on Ptolemy as well Hudud al-Alam min al-Mash…+1. For its description of Islamic lands, the author drew heavily upon earlier Arabic geographical works associated with the school of Abu Zayd al-Balkhi and the redactions of al-Istakhri Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1. For non-Islamic regions—including the chapters devoted to China, India, and the Turkic peoples—the work shares substantial accounts with later writers such as Gardizi and al-Marwazi, which scholars trace to the lost geographical work of the Samanid vizier Abu Abd Allah al-Jayhani Hudud al-Alam min al-Mash…+1.

Modern Reception and Editions

The text was brought to modern scholarly attention by the Russian orientalist Vasily Barthold, who published a facsimile edition of the unique manuscript in Leningrad in 1930 accompanied by a detailed introductory study Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1. In 1937, Vladimir Minorsky published an English translation in London with an exhaustive historical and geographical commentary, which remains a landmark study on classical Islamic and Central Asian geography Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1.