al-Muqaddasi

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al - Muqaddasi (Arabic شمس الدين محمد بن أحمد المقدسي, Shams ad - Dīn Muḥammad DMG b Aḥmad al - Muqaddasi, more rarely, al - Maqdisi and el- Mukaddasi; . * 945 in Jerusalem; † after 1000 ) was an Arab geographer and together with al - Istachri and Ibn Hauqal a representative of the descriptive school. Main places of his work were Aleppo and Shiraz.

Al- Muqaddasi had received an excellent education and devoted himself after his pilgrimage to Mecca to the study of geography. For his 985/988 authored major work Ahsan at- fi ma ` rifat il Taqasim - aqalim ( The most beautiful layout, acting on knowledge of the countries) he traveled the entire Islamic world. It is characterized by unbiased observations about the geography and beyond releases on manners, customs, religions, economy, culture and idiosyncrasies of the inhabitants of the countries visited, as well as by his prosaic style of literature.