SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
What can a 13th-century geographical encyclopaedia tell us about the world today?
More than 800 years ago, Yaqut al-Hamawi documented thousands of places across the Islamic world. Where are they today?
A new six-volume scholarly edition of Mu'jam al-Buldan is providing answers, linking more than 15,000 historical locations to contemporary place names and coordinates.
The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi project aims to transform the 13th-century encyclopaedia into a modern research tool for scholars studying Arab-Islamic history, geography and archaeology.
Aletihad spoke to Abdallah Al Sareehi, Editor of Mu'jam al-Buldan and Researcher, DCT Abu Dhabi, about the edition, its value to modern research and the potential of technology to make Arab-Islamic geographical heritage more accessible.
Al Sareehi said the project reviewed and documented all 15,038 geographical entries.
“This six-volume scholarly edition of Mu'jam al-Buldan represents far more than a critical re-publication of a classical text,” he said.
The work preserves a geographical record of the Islamic world before major historical transformations, spanning from the Iberian Peninsula to the borders of China.
However, changing borders, place names and vanished settlements have made many locations difficult for modern researchers to identify.
“This edition addresses those challenges by verifying every geographical entry, identifying its modern equivalent wherever possible, documenting changes in names and locations, and linking each site to precise contemporary coordinates,” Al Sareehi said.
One of the most striking findings, he added, was the accuracy of Yaqut's work more than eight centuries later.
“Mu'jam al-Buldan is far more than a geographical dictionary. It is a comprehensive record of the intellectual, historical and cultural landscape of the medieval Islamic world,” he said.
Locations including Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Cordoba and Granada remain identifiable today.
The work also documents numerous sites that have disappeared or survive only in historical records, providing researchers with a resource for reconstructing cities, trade routes and cultural networks.
“In many instances, Mu'jam al-Buldan remains one of the few surviving sources documenting these places,” Al Sareehi said.
The edition will be available internationally through Amazon and the Tawzea Online Library, as well as bookstores in Abu Dhabi.
“Ensuring that this scholarly edition reaches the widest possible audience has been an integral part of the project from the outset,” he said.
The publication supports DCT Abu Dhabi’s efforts to preserve Arab-Islamic heritage while strengthening Abu Dhabi’s role in international scholarship.
Al Sareehi said the methodology developed for the project could also be adapted to other major Arab-Islamic geographical works by tracing historical place names and connecting them with modern locations.
Technology could further support such research.
“Artificial intelligence can assist in recognising historical place names, comparing manuscript variants, analysing large volumes of geographical data and connecting historical information with modern digital maps,” he said.
GIS and interactive mapping could also help visualise historical landscapes and trade networks, although Al Sareehi stressed that technology should support rather than replace specialist scholarship.
For scholars of the Middle East, the edition provides a detailed record of cities, villages, trade routes, regions, and cultural landscapes before major political and administrative transformations.
It also safeguards “one of the most important geographical sources of the medieval Islamic world.”
“Perhaps the greatest contribution of this edition lies in reconnecting Yaqut's geographical descriptions with the modern world,” Al Sareehi said.
Overall, by linking historical place names to contemporary locations and coordinates, the edition enables researchers to interpret the past “with far greater precision and confidence.”