Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah, commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of thirty years from 1325 to 1354, Ibn Battuta visited most of North Africa, the Middle East, East Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, the Iberian Peninsula, and West Africa. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, but commonly known as The Rihla.
Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Rāšid ibn Ḥammād, (Arabic: أحمد بن فضلان بن العباس بن راشد بن حماد; commonly known as Ahmad ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century Muslim traveler, famous for his account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid caliph, al-Muqtadir of Baghdad, to the king of the Volga Bulgars, known as his risāla.
Johann LudwigBurckhardt was a Swiss traveller, geographer and Orientalist. Burckhardt assumed the alias Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah during his travels in Arabia. He wrote his letters in French and signed Louis. He is best known for rediscovering two of the world's most famous examples of rock-cut architecture – the ruins of the ancient Nabataean city of Petra in Jordan and the temples of Abu Simbel in Egypt.
The Hejaz is a region which includes the majority of the west of Saudi Arabia, which includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Baljurashi. It is thus known as the "Western Province", and is bordered in the west by the Red Sea, in the north by Jordan, in the east by the Najd, and in the south by the Region of 'Asir. It is the most cosmopolitan region in the Arabian Peninsula. Its largest city is Jeddah, which is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia, with Mecca and Medina respectively being the fourth and fifth largest cities in the country.
Taif is a city and governorate in the Makkah Region of Saudi Arabia. Located at an elevation of 1,879 m (6,165 ft) in the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains, which themselves are part of the Sarat Mountains, the city has a 2020 estimated population of 688,693 people, making it the 6th most populous city in the kingdom.
The Ottoman/Egyptian-Wahhabi War also known as the Ottoman/Egyptian-Saudi War (1811–1818) was fought from early 1811 to 1818, between the Ottoman Empire and the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State, resulting in the destruction of the latter.
Suakin or Sawakin is a port city in northeastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea. It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about 50 kilometres (30 mi) north.
Tayma or Tema (Hebrew: תֵּימָן Tēmān is a large oasis with a long history of settlement, located in northwestern Saudi Arabia at the point where the trade route between Medina and Dumah begins to cross the Nafud desert. Tayma is located 264 km southeast of the city of Tabuk, and about 400 km north of Medina. It is located in the western part of al-Nafud.
Qatif or Al-Qatif is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the west. This region has its own municipality and includes the Qatif downtown, Safwa, Saihat, Tarout Island, and many other smaller cities and towns.
The Braničevci were a South Slavic tribe that inhabited the region of Braničevo, in what is today Serbia, during the Middle Ages.
al-Masʿūdī, c. 896–956, was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history, geography, natural science and philosophy, his celebrated magnum opus The Meadows of Gold combines universal history with scientific geography, social commentary and biography.
Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems is a book of history in Arabic of the beginning of the world starting with Adam and Eve up to and through the late Abbasid Caliphate by medieval Baghdadi historian Al-Masudi.
ʿAydhab was an important medieval port on the west coast of the Red Sea. The abandoned site of the town is located in the Halaib Triangle, a territory disputed between Egypt and the Sudan.
Doudleby is a municipality and village in České Budějovice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 500 inhabitants.
Saudi Arabian oil was first discovered by the Americans in commercial quantities at Dammam oil well No. 7 in 1938 in what is now modern day Dhahran.
Bariq is a tribe from Bareq in south-west Saudi Arabia. It belongs to the ancient Al-Azd tribe which has many clans linked to it. As far as ancestry goes, Aws, Khazraj, Ghassān and Banu Khuza'a, and others all belong to Al-Azd. They were one of the tribes of Arabia during Muhammad's era.
Al-Malik al-Aziz Sayf al-Islam Tughtakin Ahmad ibn Ayyub was the second Ayyubid emir (prince) of Yemen and Arabia between 1182 and 1197.
Al-Zarah was an ancient and medieval settlement of Eastern Arabia. Although no longer extant, it is believed to have been situated near the modern city of al-Qatif.
Rayṭa bint al-Saffāḥ was an Abbasid princess, daughter of first Abbasid caliph al-Saffah, niece of second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur and the first wife of third Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi.
Abu al-Fath Jamal al-Din Yusuf bin Yaqoub bin Muhammad, better known as Ibn al-Mujawir (1205–1292) was a traveller and businessman of uncertain origin, perhaps from Khurasan. He is known for his travelogue Tarikh al-Mustabsir or Tarikh al-Mustansir, a travel chronicle describing cities, commerce, local dynasties and social mores of the southern Arabian Peninsula. The chronicle is an important source for the economic history and popular life of the southern areas of the Arabian Peninsula and the isle of Socotra in the early 13th century.
