Introduction and Dating of the Manuscript of the Geographical Book of Abū ‘Abdallah Muhammad Mqdisī: Al-Aqālim or Al-Masafāt wa Al-Wilāyāt

There are two manuscripts of the Maqdisī's geographical work known as Ahsan al-Taqāsīm fi Mairafah al- Aqālim. One is the Berlin manuscript, which was written in 375 AH. and the other is the Istanbul manuscript, whose authorship date is unknown. We know that there were different manuscripts of the Maqdisī’s book prepared by the author himself, and these manuscripts may be different in terms of the time of production, and detail. We also know that these manuscripts had different names. In his edition, which is the only edited version of the book, de Goeje used the Berlin manuscript as the basis; But the dating of the Istanbul manuscript can cause this decision to be reconsidered. Most of the researchers who have previously commented on the dating of the Istanbul manuscript believed that the date of composition of the Istanbul manuscript is before the Berlin version. The Istanbul manuscript has 232 pages and is written in Naskh handwriting and is kept under the number "2971" in the Hagia Sophia collection of Sulaymaniyah library in Istanbul. The name of this manuscript is al-Aqālim or al-Masāfāt wa al-Wilāyāt and it was dedicated to a person named Abul Hasan Ali bin Hasan who was one of the officials of the Samanid dynasty. The historical evidence in the Istanbul manuscript shows that this version was written between Rabi al-Thānī and Dhu Hajjah in 378 A.H. and could the same manuscript that was with Yāqūt Himavī; Because the only one who mentioned the year 378 A.H. as the year of writing Maqdisī’s book is Yāqūt Himavī.