Yaqut al-Hamawi
c. 1179 CE–c. 1229 CE · Baghdad
Yaqut al-Hamawi (c. 1179-1229 CE / c. 574-626 AH) was one of the great geographers and literary biographers of the medieval Islamic world. He was born to Byzantine-Greek (Rumi) parents — sources do not agree on the exact place, naming Constantinople or somewhere in Anatolia — and as a young child was captured and enslaved, then carried to Baghdad. There he was bought by a merchant from the Syrian city of Hama named Askar al-Hamawi, from whom Yaqut took the byname (nisba) "al-Hamawi." His master had him educated and used him as a commercial agent on trading voyages to the Persian Gulf, Kish island, Oman, and Syria. After he was freed, Yaqut settled in Baghdad as a copyist and bookseller, work that fed a lifelong passion for collecting knowledge. Around 1215 a public dispute in Damascus — reported to have involved remarks favorable to the caliph Muawiya and hostile to Ali, though the details are uncertain — made the city unwelcome to him, and he moved east. He spent productive years among the rich libraries of Marw (Merv) and in Khwarazm. The Mongol invasion of 1219-1220 forced him to flee westward, losing his possessions; he reached safety by way of Mosul. He completed his monumental geographical dictionary, the Mu'jam al-buldan, in the 1220s and died at Aleppo in 1229.
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BaghdadIraq
What they did here
Taken as an enslaved child to Baghdad and bought by Askar al-Hamawi, a merchant associated with Hama, who had him educated and employed him as a commercial agent on trading voyages (Persian Gulf, Kish, Oman, Syria). After manumission he established himself in Baghdad as a copyist and bookseller. Datings of his early life are traditional estimates drawn largely from his own and later biographers' accounts.
About Baghdad
Major Mizrahi center; home of Yosef Hayyim (Ben Ish Chai).
Across the traditions, in Baghdad at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Yaqut al-Hamawi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Yaqut al-Hamawi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Islamic world
- Al-Jazari· 1136 CE–1206 CE
- Nizami Ganjavi· 1141 CE–1209 CE
- Mu'in al-Din Chishti· 1142 CE–1236 CE
- al-Shatibi (al-Qasim ibn Firruh)· 1144 CE–1194 CE
- Abu Hafs Umar al-Suhrawardi· 1145 CE–1234 CE
- Shihab al-Din Umar al-Suhrawardi· 1145 CE–1234 CE
- Attar of Nishapur· 1145 CE–1221 CE
- Najm al-Din Kubra· 1145 CE–1221 CE
- Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi· 1146 CE–1203 CE
- Ibn Qudama· 1147 CE–1223 CE
- Fakhr al-Din al-Razi· 1149 CE–1210 CE
- al-Suhrawardi al-Maqtul· 1154 CE–1191 CE
- al-Amidi· 1156 CE–1233 CE
- Sayf al-Din al-Amidi· 1156 CE–1233 CE
- Ibn al-Athir· 1160 CE–1233 CE
- Ibn Arabi· 1165 CE–1240 CE
- Ibn al-Farid· 1181 CE–1235 CE
- Ibn al-Salah al-Shahrazuri· 1181 CE–1245 CE
- al-Mundhiri· 1185 CE–1258 CE
- Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili· 1196 CE–1258 CE
- Ibn al-Baytar· 1197 CE–1248 CE
- Nasir al-Din al-Tusi· 1201 CE–1274 CE
- Jalal al-Din Rumi· 1207 CE–1273 CE
- al-Qurtubi· –1273 CE
Christian world
Jewish world
Buddhist world
Scientists
Rulers world
- Razia Sultana· –1240 CE
- Al-Mu'azzam Isa· 1176 CE–1227 CE
- Iltutmish· –1236 CE
- Al-Kamil· 1177 CE–1238 CE
- Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din· 1169 CE–1225 CE
- Ala ad-Din Kayqubad I· 1188 CE–1237 CE
- Genghis Khan· 1162 CE–1227 CE
- Ögedei Khan· 1186 CE–1241 CE
- Sundiata Keita· –1255 CE
- Frederick II (Holy Roman Emperor)· 1194 CE–1250 CE
- Dunama II Dibalemi (Mai Dunama Dabbalemi)· –1259 CE
- Isaac II Angelos· 1156 CE–1204 CE
- Prithviraj Chauhan· 1166 CE–1192 CE
- Muhammad of Ghor· 1144 CE–1206 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.