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Ibn Khordadbeh

Abu'l Qasim ibn Ubaid'Allah Khordadbeh (in Persian : ) (circa 820 - 912 ) is a bureaucrat and Muslim geographer ^ninth century.

Ibn Khordadbeh is the son of a wealthy Persian family northern Iran. He was named Director of Posts and Police "in the province of Jibal northwest of Iran under the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutammid (serving between 869 and 885 ). Under this heading, ibn Khordadbeh served as chief of posts and spy chief caliph.

Around 870 , Ibn al-Khordadbeh wrote Kitab al Masalik w'al Mamalik ( Book of Roads and Kingdoms ). In this book, Ibn Khordadbeh described the various peoples and provinces of the Caliphate Abbasid. This is one of the only sources that describes the activity of Radhanites , Jewish merchants.

Sources

Ibn Khurradadhbeh (820-911), The Book of Roads and Kingdoms (al-Kitab wa l-Mamalik Masalik), ed. and trans. by Michael French Johan de Goeje, Leiden, 1889, repr. Frankfurt am Main, 1992.
Adler, Elkan. Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages. New York: Dover Publications, 1987.
Bendiner, Elmer. The Rise and Fall of Paradise. New York: Putnam Books, 1983.
Bereket, Elinoar. "Rdhnites. in Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Norman Roth, ed. Routledge, 2002. pp 558-561.
Fossier, Robert, ed. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages, vol. 1: 350-950. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Gil, Moshe. "The Radhanite Merchants and the Land of Radhan." in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 17:3 (1976). 299-328.