Episode 9 – The Arab Herodotus: Al-Masudi

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

Al-Masudi was a 10th century traveler and historian like the Greek “father of history” Herodotus, who wrote the first comprehensive accounts of Western history in the 5th century BC.

Al-Masudi’s travel writings concerned

• Persia
• Azerberjan
• Armenia
• Sri Lanka
• Sumatra
• Egypt
• India
• Madagascar
• Arabian peninsula
• China
• Madagascar

Three hundred years later the Islamic Marco Pollo Ibn Battuta would follow al-Masudi’ example. See Ibn Battuta: The Islamic Marco Polo

Comprehensive geographically based histories such as al-Masudi’s performed three important functions: 1) providing accurate information to Abbasid merchants and traders about distant lands they sought to trade with, 2) providing an accurate history of Muhammad’s life and the growth of Islam and 3) providing a detailed account (ie full of heroic deeds) of tribal genealogy.

Born in Baghdad 896 AD, al-Masudi began his 20-year travels in 916. By that point, the Abbasid caliphate had lost control over Spain, North Africa and parts of Persia and Mesopotamia, and Baghdad’s House of Wisdom faced growing competition with comparable intellectual centers in Cairo and Cordoba.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757005