Abu Zayd al-Balkhi
Abu Zaid Ahmad ibn Sahl al - Balchi (Arabic أبو زيد أحمد بن سهل البلخي, DMG Abū Zayd al - Aḥmad ibn Sahl Balḫī; . Abu Zayd al - Balkhi often; * 849 or 850 in Schamistiyan near Balkh in Khorasan, † October 31 934) was an Islamic polymath. He gained in the disciplines of philosophy and Islamic scholarship are particularly well known. Today, he is primarily known as a geographer. He was especially a name in the Qur'an exegesis. His most famous work of this branch of science is the often quoted, but lost Nazm al -Quran. He wrote more than 60 books in Arabic. The preserved only the " relatively minor " medical treatise Kitāb al - Maṣāliḥ abdication wal- Anfus.
Life
Al - Balchi was born around the year 849 in the village Schamistiyan. He worked as a teacher like his father before. At a young age he confessed to the Imami Islam. Later he turned to Orthodoxy. He joined a caravan of pilgrims and traveled with her to Baghdad. There he studied under the celebrated philosopher al -Kindi. Other areas of study were the Islamic scholarship, medicine, natural sciences and astronomy. The astrology he despised. After his studies, he returned to the province of Balkh. An offer of the ruler of Balkh, Ahmad ibn Sahl ibn Hashim al - Marwazi to become vizier, rejected al - Balchi. Instead, his friend Abu 'l- Qasim Ahmad ibn Mahmud al - Ka'bi was appointed vizier. al - Balchi his part, entered a job as a secretary, which earned him 500 dirhams annually. His friend al - Ka'bi kicked him from 100 dirhams from its own reward. Pearls worth 30,000 dirhams, which gave him the ruler and al - Ka'bi, staggered al - Balchi in a position to acquired an estate in his native village. It remained until the destruction of Balkh in the possession of his descendants. al - Balchi received an invitation from the Samanid ruler to come to Bukhara to enter into his service. He went on his way, but turned around when he saw the Oxus. The prince, he wrote that his mind kept him from this river to cross, where he had been appointed but because his mind to Bukhara.
Al - Balchi was of medium stature. He is described as skinny, pale, pockmarked, taciturn and serious
Creation
Abu Zaid al - Balchi is regarded as the founder of the classical school of Arab Geography. His reputation as a geographer is based on a work that has not been preserved as such. It is known under various names: Suwar al - Aqālīm ( " pictures of the Regions " ), Taqwīm al - Buldan ( " Calendar of the countries " ), Aschkul al - Bilād ( "Forms of countries" ) and al - Maṣālik wa'l Mamālik ( "Ways and kingdoms" ). After a detailed study of de Goeje al - Balchi has just created the basis of this work, that was then successively expanded by al- Istachri and Ibn Hauqal. This whole passages have been rewritten and replaced. al - Muqaddasi judged in his book Ahsan al - ma ʿ rifat Taqasim fi al - Aqālīm ( "the best division in the science of regions " ) the work to be insufficient. The description may be too short and incomplete. Muqaddasi wrote:
"As for Abu Zayd al - Balkhi, the main purpose of his work, cards was to give. He divided the earth into twenty parts, and added a short description of each card. But many important things he left unsaid and many useful circumstances he neglected even will not find more illustrious cities in vain with him "
In the preface to his edition of the Hudud al - Alam suspected Barthold that al- Balchi may have simply added explanations of maps of Abu Dascha ʿ far al - Chazin. It is clear that the work, based on his reputation as a geographer, a work that al- Balchi wrote only a small part. About the traveling al - Balchis conflicting reports exist. al - Muqadassi writes in his biographical dictionary, that al - Balchi did not take any trips. as- Safadi reports, however, of scientific travel al - Balchis.