AN EXTREMELY RARE 14TH CENTURY MANUSCRIPT ON GEOGRAPHY

---

The manuscript comprises the following chapters:

1. World map (double-page)

2. Diyar ‘arab (Arabia)

3. Bahr fars (The Gulf and Indian Ocean)

4. Diyar al-mahgrib (North Africaand Iberian Peninsula)

5. Diyar masr (Egypt)

6. Diyar sham (Syria)

7. Bahr rum (The Mediterranean)

8. Diyar jazira (North and Central Mesopotamia)

9. Diyar khuzistan (Khuzistan)

10. Diyar Pars (Fars)

11. Diyar kirman (title cartouche only, no map)

12. Diyar sind (Sind and the Mouth of the Indus River)

13. Armenia wa adharbaijan (Armenia and Azerbaijan)

14. Diyar al-jibal (Moutains of Central Iran)

15. Diyar daylam wa tabaristan(Tabaristan and Daylam)

16. Bahr al-khazar (The Caspian Sea)

17. Diyar seistan (Sijistan)

18. Mafaza khurasan (Desert of Khurasan, title cartouche only, no map)

This treatise derives from Plato’s Politeia ( The Republic ) and is known by its Arabic title as the Kitab al-‘uhud al-yunaniyya al-mustakhraja min rumuz Kitab al-siyasa li Aflatun wa ma indafa ilayh ( Book of the Greek Covenant taken from Plato’s Politeia and what has been added to it ). The aim of the text is to show the superiority of the Greeks over the Persians in politics. This treatise was extensively used in the 14th century by the celebrated Nasrid historian Ibn al-Khatib in his Kirab al-ishara ila adab al-wizara

 (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, History of Islamic Philosophy , Part I, p.861). 

The author’s father, Yusuf Ibn al-Daya was foster-brother to the caliph al-Musta’sim in Baghdad. He served the ‘Abbasid prince and musician Ibn al-Mahdi as chancellor but had to leave Baghdad after his patron’s death and settled in Fustat, Egypt during the reign of the Tulunids (Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Ar abic Literature , Vol 1, p.321). Ahmad, the author of this treatise, was interested in astronomy and philosophy but only a few of his works survive. He translated works from Greek and Syriac into Arabic and wrote a glossary on the Pseudo-Ptolemaic Centiloquium , in his Kitab al-Thamara . He composed other scientific treatises which were translated into Latin by Gerardo da Cremona, including a book on Proportions. Ahmad became Chief Minister to Sultan Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad Ibn Tulun (d. 884) and composed his biography ( Sirat Ahmad bin Tulun wa ‘bnihi Khumarawayh ).  

This work is listed in Brockelman under Kitab al-siyasa li-Aflatun (GAL supp I, 229). See also Al A’lam 1/272; Mu’jam al-udaba’ 2/157; Tabaqat al-atibba’ wa al-hukama’ 1/160; Kashf al-zunun 1015