| Ṣifāt Jazīrat al-'Arab | |
| Author: | Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani |
| Title Orig: | صفة جزيرة العرب |
| Country: | Leiden |
| Language: | Arabic |
| Genre: | Geography, Travel |
| Publisher: | Brill Publishers |
Ṣifāt Jazīrat al-'Arab (Arabic: صفة جزيرة العرب, Characteristics Of The Arabian Peninsula) is a book written by the 10th-century chemist, geographer and historian, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani. The book describes the state of the Arabian Peninsula during the life of al-Hamdani, including detailed descriptions of various flora and fauna and tribes present in the peninsula.
After the discovery of its manuscripts, the Ṣifāt Jazīrat al-'Arab was reprinted and then published in Leiden in the year 1884 by Brill Publishers with editing and annotations by orientalist scholar David Heinrich Müller.[1] It was later reprinted in Cairo in 1953 before the historian Ismail bin Ali al-Akwa further edited and annotated the work in 1974, publishing the revised version in 1990.[2] Dar Al Afaq Al Arabiya published another version of the 1990 edition in 2000.[3]
The Ṣifāt Jazīrat al-'Arab is also regarded as one of al-Hamdani's most referenced works.[4]
The book provides detailed descriptions of the Arabian Peninsula in the 10th century.[5] In the book, al-Hamdani also quotes from prior geographers like Claudius Ptolemy as well as the Kitāb Hirmis al-ḥakīm (The Book of Hermes the Wise). Flora and fauna of the Arabian Peninsula are described in great detail, while the tribes al-Hamdani interacted with are also listed down. Towards the end of the book, there are poems as well as supplications (du'a).
Sites described by al-Hamdani in the book include the historical and archeological site of Thaj, now in present-day Saudi Arabia.[6] He also describes where gold and silver can be found in the Arabian Peninsula.[7]
According to al-Akwa, editor of the 1990 version, there were several discrepancies in the original forms of the manuscripts. For example, al-Hamdani did not describe the Abyan Governorate despite explicitly saying that he had already described it. He also did not describe Oman, instead giving a few lines of commentary on it, which was unusual as his main aim of writing the book was to describe every region of the Arabian Peninsula with adequate detail.