View source for Ya'qubi

{{Short description|9th-century Arab geographer and historian}}
{{for|the Syrian Islamic scholar|Muhammad al-Yaqoubi}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix =
| period           = [[Islamic Golden Age]] <br /> ([[Abbasid dynasty|Abbasid era]])
| name             = '''ʾAbū l-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī'''
| occupation       = writer, traveller and historian
| language         = [[Arabic]]
| birth_date       =
| death_date       = AH 284 (AD 897–898)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history03/history337.html|title=Muhammad's successor|website=www.ismaili.net|access-date=2006-10-29|archive-date=2006-11-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061126215726/http://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history03/history337.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="EB">{{Britannica|652001}}</ref><!-- Although previous edits cite Encyclopaedia Britannica 11 for the death date, that work actually gives 891 -->
| genre            = History and geography
| notable_works    = [[Ta'rikh ibn Wadih]] and [[Kitab al-Buldan (Ya'qubi)|Kitab al-Buldan]]
<!-- Arabic name -->| module             = {{Infobox Arabic name|embed=yes
|ism       = ʾAḥmad
|ism-ar    = أحمد
|nasab     = bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ
|nasab-ar  = بن أبي يعقوب بن جعفر بن وهب بن واضح
|kunya     = ʾAbū l-ʿAbbās
|kunya-ar  = أبو العباس
|nisba     = al-Yaʿqūbī
|nisba-ar  = اليعقوبي
}}
| birth_place      = [[Baghdad]], Abbasid Caliphate
}}
'''ʾAbū al-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī'''{{efn|{{langx|ar|أبو العباس أحمد بن أبي يعقوب بن جعفر بن وهب بن واضح اليعقوبي}}}} (died 897/8), commonly referred to simply by his [[Nisba (onomastics)|nisba]] '''al-Yaʿqūbī''', was an Arab<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Zaman|first=Muhammad Qasim|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/399624|title=The encyclopaedia of Islam.|date=1960–2009|publisher=Brill|others=H. A. R. Gibb, P. J. Bearman|isbn=90-04-16121-X|edition=II.|location=Leiden|pages=257–258|oclc=399624|access-date=2021-10-08|archive-date=2019-09-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925063229/https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopaedia-of-islam/oclc/399624|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|title=Al-Yaʿqūbī &#124; Arab historian and geographer|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-08-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827124024/https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/al-ya-qubi/|title=AL YA'QUBI|first=Encyclopædia|last=Universalis|website=Encyclopædia Universalis|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-05-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509085336/https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/al-ya-qubi/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/al-yaqubi|title=Al-Ya'qubi &#124; Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624195941/https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/al-yaqubi|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Muslim historian|Muslim]] [[geographer]].{{sfn|Thatcher|1911}}
== Life ==
Ya'qubi was born in [[Baghdad]]<ref name=":0" /> to a family of noble background, his great-grandfather was [[Wadih (mawla)|Wadih]], the freedman of the [[caliph]] [[Al-Mansur]] and ruler of Egypt during the reign of [[al-Mahdi]].<ref name="EB1911" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Daly |first=Okasha El |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdI96px90kUC |title=Egyptology: The Missing Millennium : Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-84472-063-7 |pages=166 |language=en}}</ref> Until 873, he lived in [[Armenia]] and [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]], working under the patronage of the [[Tahirid]] Governors; then he traveled to India, Egypt and the [[Maghreb]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Ya'qūbī |volume=28 |page=904 |first=Griffithes Wheeler |last=Thatcher}}</ref> In 872, he listed the kingdoms of [[Bilad el-Sudan|Bilād as-Sūdān]], including [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]], [[Gao Empire|Gao]], and [[Kanem Empire|Kanem]].<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Nehemia Levtzion|last1=Levtzion|first1=Nehemia|title=Ancient Ghana and Mali|date=1973|publisher=Methuen & Co Ltd|location=New York|isbn=0841904316|page=3}}</ref>
His methodical approach to writing history includes personal observations and interviews to close relations on topics that Yaqubi could not encounter first-hand. He covered topics of natural, human and economic geography as well as noting down cultural, historical and topographic information.<ref name=":1" />
His sympathies with [[Ahl al-Bayt]]<ref>Camilla Adang, ''Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm'', (E.J. Brill, 1996), 37.</ref> are found throughout his works.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|title=al-Yaʿqūbī &#124; Arab historian and geographer &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|access-date=2021-06-17|archive-date=2021-08-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827124024/https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Yaqubi|url-status=live}}</ref>
He died in Egypt on [[Anno Hegirae|AH]] 284 (897/8).<ref name="EB" />
== Works ==
* ''[[Tarikh al-Yaqubi|Ta'rikh ibn Wadih]]'' (''Chronicle of Ibn Wadih'')
* ''[[Kitab al-Buldan (Ya'qubi)|Kitab al-Buldan]]'' (''Book of the Countries'') - biology, contains a description of the [[Maghreb]], with a full account of the larger cities and much topographical and political information (ed. [[Michael Jan de Goeje|M. de Goeje]], Leiden, 1892).<ref name="EB1911"/>
===Editions===
*{{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Mathew S. and al. |title=The Works Of Ibn Wāḍiḥ Al Yaʿqūbī |date=2018 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004364165 |pages=Vol 1, 2, 3 |url=https://archive.org/details/the-works-of-ibn-wadih-al-yaqubi}}
*{{cite book |title= Kitab al-Buldan |author=Ya'qubi |author-link=Ya'qubi|url=https://archive.org/details/kitabalbuldan00yaquuoft |editor=A. W. T. Juynboll |publisher= BRILL|year=1861|language=ar}}
== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
{{wikisourcelang|ar|مؤلف:اليعقوبي|Ya'qubi}}
{{wikisourcelang|ar|تاريخ اليعقوبي|Tarikh al-Yaqubi}}
{{Islamic geography}}
{{Historians of Islam}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yaqubi}}
[[Category:9th-century births]]
[[Category:897 deaths]]
[[Category:Iraqi Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:9th-century Arabic-language writers]]
[[Category:9th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:9th-century geographers]]
[[Category:10th-century geographers]]
[[Category:Geographers from the Abbasid Caliphate]]
[[Category:Explorers of India]]
[[Category:Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world]]