The Lost Historical and Geographical Sources Cited by al-Masʿūdī in His Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems

Abstract

Islamic civilization witnessed considerable flourishing in many fields, particularly in classification and authorship, where books and compilations addressing the various branches of knowledge and the sciences current in the medieval period became widely circulated. However, much of this heritage was lost because of the wars and calamities to which the Islamic lands were subjected, including the burning and destruction of libraries and books over the passage of time and the succession of ages. Fortunately, however, much of this lost heritage was mentioned in the sources that have reached us, as many authors transmitted texts from books about which we know nothing except through these quotations. Among the sources that mention many lost books is Meadows of Gold by ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Masʿūdī. In the introduction to his book, the author listed a long catalog of the sources he relied on in composing it. He also referred, within the body of his work, to numerous sources from which he quoted and which have become lost down to the present day. In this study, we have sought to encompass the lost sources mentioned by al-Masʿūdī in his book Meadows of Gold.