Marasid al-Ittila al-Asma al-Amkina wal-Biqa
- Author died
- 739 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Jeel
Marasid al-Ittila al-Asma al-Amkina wal-Biqa (Observation Posts of Information on the Names of Places and Localities) is a concise geographical dictionary by the Hanbali jurist and scholar Safi al-Din Abd al-Mumin al-Baghdadi (658–739 AH / 1260–1338 CE), written as an abridgment of Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mu'jam al-Buldan.
Purpose and Method
The work opens with the doxology: الحمد لله على ما تواتر من آلائه وله الشكر على ما تظافر من نعمائه ("Praise be to God for His successive blessings, and thanks be to Him for His abundant bounties"). In his introduction, the author stated that the essential aim of a geographical work is to identify the names and locations of places in the inhabited world that occur in hadith reports, historical traditions, and Arabic poetry. Criticizing the digressive nature of earlier compilations, he pruned Yaqut's extensive lexical etymologies, astronomical longitudinal measurements that he considered largely unverified, and lengthy biographical entries of figures associated with various localities, arguing that biographical notices belong in dedicated biographical dictionaries (kutub al-rijal).
Retaining what is indispensable for understanding places mentioned in accounts of early military campaigns (maghazi) and religious traditions, the author added precise vocalizations for omitted names, clarified ambiguous locations, and corrected erroneous information transmitted from earlier sources.
Attribution and Structure
The book is arranged alphabetically according to the Arabic letters (huruf al-mu'jam). Some bibliographical confusion arose in later cataloging traditions: Katip Celebi in Kashf al-Zunun and other sources noted a mistaken attribution of the book or its introductory text to Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, who was thought to have commenced an abridgment that remained incomplete, but scholars clarified that the text was written in its entirety by Safi al-Din 'Abd al-Mu'min. While one report dates the author's death to Safar 738 AH (1338 CE) and another gives 735 AH (1339 CE), the standard biographical date is 739 AH (1338 CE).
Reception and Publication History
The orientalist Reinhart Dozy commended the work, noting that when searching for geographical names appearing in classical Arabic poetry, it stands above criticism compared to other geographies marred by contradictions. The lexicographer Murtada al-Zabidi frequently cited and relied upon it in his lexicon Taj al-Arus.
Manuscripts of the work are preserved in several collections, including Dar al-Kutub in Cairo (a copy transcribed in Bursa by 'Abd al-Hadi ibn 'Abd al-Baqi in 1108 AH), the Fatih and Istanbul University libraries in Istanbul, the British Museum in London, and the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris.
The text was edited in Europe by T. G. J. Juynboll and printed in Leiden between 1850 and 1864, with a volume published in Batavia in 1168 AH (1850 CE). A lithograph edition was produced in Tehran in 1315 AH (1897 CE). A modern Arabic critical edition was prepared by 'Ali Muhammad al-Bijawi and published in Cairo in 1373 AH (1954 CE) in three volumes, later reprinted in Beirut.
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