Short Description
Al Masudi was a descendant of Abdullah Ibn Masud, a companion of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). He was born and educated in Baghdad during the reign of Caliph Al Mu’tadid
The historian and geographer, Abul Hasan Ali Ibn Hussain Ibn Ali Al Masudi (895-957 CE) was a scion of an age when Islamic scholarship had overcome the challenge of Greek rationalism, and having thrown off the yoke of deductive absurdity, found its own expression in the inductive empiricism of the Qur’an. The history of this challenge and the aftermath of ensuing battles have defined the intellectual landscape of Islam until modern times.
Al Masudi was a descendent of Abdullah Ibn Masud, a companion of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). He was born and educated in Baghdad during the reign of Caliph Al Mu’tadid (892-904 CE). An understanding of the political, economic and intellectual milieu surrounding him is helpful in appreciating his time and his work. At the turn of the ninth century, the Islamic world extended from Spainto the borders of India, but it was like a giant banyan tree decaying from within. The Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad had lost their hold on vast territories. The Aghlabids in Tripoli were independent all but in name. The Fatimids, after establishing themselves in North Africa, were advancing towards Egypt. Far away Spain enjoyed the zenith of its power under Abdur Rahman III, who had declared his own claim to the Caliphate. Closer to home, the Shia Buyids ruled in Southern Iraq and for a while occupied Baghdad itself (945CE). The Sassanids had established themselves in Bokhara and competed with the Abbasids in establishing centers of learning and culture in their realm. The nomadic Turks, facing drought in their Central Asian homelands, were on the move, crossing Amu Darya in large numbers into Farghana and Northeastern Persia.
The breakup of centralized power in Baghdad fostered intense competition among the regional powers to attract scholars to their courts and establish centers of learning. Scholarship thrived. It was the age of intellectual giants. The physician Al Razi ( d.925), the commentator Abu Tabari (d. 923), the theologian al Ashari (d. 936), the Persian mystic Mansur al Hallaj (922) and the Sufi Shaikh al Farabi (d. 950) were all compatriots of Al Masudi. It was a period when empirical science as well as spiritual quests reached their heights and paved the way for Al Gazzali and Ibn Sina in the following century.
While political affairs in the great landmass of Afro-Eurasia were unsettled, the littoral states of the Indian Ocean enjoyed peace and prosperity. Trade and travel had forged commercial links between these peoples transcending the barriers of region, religion, race and ethnicity. Prosperous cities dotted the shores of East Africa, South Asia and the Western Pacific. Dar es Salaam, Shofala, Kilwa, Mobasa, Pemba Malindi, Mogadishu in East Africa; Aden, Hormuz, Basrah, Surat and Cochin in the Arabian Sea; Sri Lanka and Malacca in the Indian Ocean; Canton in the Western Pacific were thriving trade centers. The energy for this growth came from the zeal and drive of the Muslims who traveled throughout Asia and Africa searching for trading opportunities. Large colonies of Arabs and Persians grew up on distant shores which made it easier for restless globe trotters like Al Masudi to travel, trade, observe and learn.
Al Masudi was a young man of twenty when he traveled to Persia which was at the time a hotbed of Buyid political intrigue. Returning to Baghdad the following year, he proceeded to Mansura and Multan (today’s Pakistan). Mansura was the capital of the province of Sind which marked the limit of Islamic domains. Situated in the delta of the great river, it was a prosperous region that excited the imagination of many a youth. From Mansura, Al Masudi traveled to Surat in Gujarat. Here the young traveler had first hand contact with the Hindu civilization which had given the works of Aryabhatta to Islamic astronomy. Traveling further South, Al Masudi landed in Malabar on the Western coast of India, visited Sri Lanka and sailed from there to Sumatra in Indonesia and Malacca in modern Malaysia. Then as now, the Straits of Malacca were the conduit for ships from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea. There was brisk trade between the eastern seaboard of India and Malacca. From here, Al Masudi moved north to Cantonin China. Although the city had been sacked in the anti-foreigner riots of 865CE, the trading post had recovered some of its trade by the year 920 when Al Masudi visited it.
To be continued.........
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