Jakut Ibn Abdallah al-Hamawi

Ibn Abdallah al-Hamawi (born 1179 in Anatolia, died 1229 in Aleppo) is an Arabic geographer and writer.

He came from a Greek family from Anatolia and for unknown reasons was sold as a slave. In Baghdad, he purchased a Syrian merchant from Hama, who had educated him and hired him as his secretary, and then liberated him. However, since Jakut did not have his own property, after an unsuccessful attempt to live independently he hired his ex-boss, for whom he worked until his death. Initially in the service of his master, for commercial purposes, and then in search of books, Jakut visited much of the then Islamic world, especially the East. He kept on searching and copying the manuscripts he was selling and selling books. The Mongol invasion exonerated him. Jakak moved to Aleppo, where he found his patron. He also died there.

Three of Jakut's works survived. Dictionary of countries (Mu'dżam al-Buldan), containing alphabetical names and a collection of news in the fields of history, topography, literature, folklore and biographies of famous people. The Guide to the Intelligent Man, or Writer's Note (Irshad al-arib fi ma'rifat al-adib), also known as the Dictionary of Writers (Mu'dżam al-udab), contains biographical information about writers and scholars and quotes from poetry and prose. His third work is a collection of various places of the same name (Mustuszarik).

These books provided him with fame, and the quotations included in them are often the only surviving fragments of works that were otherwise destroyed. Bibliography Authoritative control (person):

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