[books 2010] Early medieval travel book
Oct. 3rd, 2010 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro62. from The Meadows of Gold by Mas'udi
Another one of the little volumes from Penguin's Great Journeys series. It was written by a native of Baghdad in the 940s. From other manuscript sources it is known that he wrote over 40 books, of which two survive, and that he travelled to what are now Syria, Iraq Palestine, Egypt, the Arabia Peninsula, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the west coast of India.
The extracts here are from a book describing the known (Arab) world of Mas'udi's day, including world religions.
Everybody now knows that in the tenth century the West was a backwater compared to the Arab world, but the level of learning here brings it home just how great the difference was. Mas'udi knows about not only China, but Japan, Korea and Cambodia. He has an astonishingly good grasp of world religion. He's fascinated by the Vikings and his account of those who made it through the Volga to the Black Sea is, from what I can recall, pretty accurate.
A real eye-opener!
September reading
Books: 7 (seems to be the average)
Non-fiction: 3 (makes up for August)
Books bought/borrowed: 1 (Bibliogoths book)
Now, if only I hadn't had that major accident in the library last week (kind of like compulsive shopping, but without spending money).
Another one of the little volumes from Penguin's Great Journeys series. It was written by a native of Baghdad in the 940s. From other manuscript sources it is known that he wrote over 40 books, of which two survive, and that he travelled to what are now Syria, Iraq Palestine, Egypt, the Arabia Peninsula, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the west coast of India.
The extracts here are from a book describing the known (Arab) world of Mas'udi's day, including world religions.
Everybody now knows that in the tenth century the West was a backwater compared to the Arab world, but the level of learning here brings it home just how great the difference was. Mas'udi knows about not only China, but Japan, Korea and Cambodia. He has an astonishingly good grasp of world religion. He's fascinated by the Vikings and his account of those who made it through the Volga to the Black Sea is, from what I can recall, pretty accurate.
A real eye-opener!
September reading
Books: 7 (seems to be the average)
Non-fiction: 3 (makes up for August)
Books bought/borrowed: 1 (Bibliogoths book)
Now, if only I hadn't had that major accident in the library last week (kind of like compulsive shopping, but without spending money).
