Yakoot al-Hamawi's Approach in his Two Books, " Mu'jam al-Udaba'" (Book of Literary Men) and "Mu'jam al-Buldan"(Book of Countries)-A Comparative Study

Abstract

Yakoot al-Hamawi is considered one of the great scholars in Arab Islamic history for what he had left to us of books that attract the historians' and researchers' attention to him in old and recent times. Numerous studies passed through his life, upbringing, attributes, and his age, teachers and works. These studies described al-Hamawi as a man of letters and geography but skipped over the fact that he is a historian. Hence, we have been urged to present this study which illustrates this point through a comparison between his approaches in his major books which are "The Book of Literary Men" and "The Book of Countries" which contain important political, economic, social, cultural, and literary information, not to mention the historical content because he depended in writing them on historical sources. Although "The Book of Countries" is a gazetteer, it contains historical information so it is considered a link between history and geography