Misplaced Pages

Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī (full name Abū Zayd Ḥasan ibn Zayd al-Sīrāfī, أبو زيد حسن بن زيد السيرافي) was a 10th-century geographer and traveller from the Persian Gulf port of Siraf. He is well known as the author of a collection of travels and fantastic stories from the Indian Ocean, a riḥla or travelogue known in Arabic simply as Riḥlat al-Sīrāfī (al-Sīrāfī’s Travelogue), and often associated with the writings of Sulayman al-Tajir and the Akhbār al-Ṣīn wa’l-Hind (Accounts of China and India). He should not be confused with another travel writer from Siraf, Abū ‘Imrān Mūsā ibn Rabāḥ al-Awsī al-Sīrāfī, author of the Ṣaḥīḥ min akhbār al-biḥār wa-‘ajā‘ibihā (True Stories of the Seas and Their Wonders).

References

1. Cf. the bilingual edition of Accounts of China and India, ed. by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, NYU Press, 2017.
2. See the article “Une nouvelle source arabe sur l’océan Indien au Xe siècle : le Ṣaḥīḥ min aḫbār al-biḥār wa-‘aǧā‘ibihā d’Abū ‘Imrān Mūsā ibn Rabāḥ al-Awsī al-Sīrāfī” by Ducene.

• 10th-century historians from the Abbasid Caliphate
• 10th-century Arabic-language writers
• 10th-century Arab people
• 10th-century geographers
• Geographers from the Abbasid Caliphate
• Explorers of India
• Travel writers