This paper introduces an interpretation of medieval Islamic regional maps from the book al-masalik wal-mamalik (Routes and realms) by al-Istakhri, a well-known geographer of the late tenth century. In this book, al-Istakhri first describes the world and suggests a division of the world in twenty regions in a short introduction. This book accompanied by maps. The introduction includes a world map and each regional chapter has its own regional map. This study considers the regional chapters, including texts and maps. To interpret these maps, a combination of textual analysis will be done to identify the structure of the text and also to draw new diagrams based on the geographical data in the text. Afterward, the structure of the maps will be studied in comparison with the information of the texts. As the conclusion, it will be argued that how this set of maps can be interpret. Unlike the orientalist perception of these maps, this study criticizes some earlier works on medieval Islamic geography and suggests an alternative interpretation of these materials. In this study, I argue that al-Istakhri's geographical information - in the book al-Masalik wal-mamalik - represents two type of networks: “nodal” and “linear.” A nodal network represents a major city as the focal point and smaller towns, villages and other settlements as the other nods connected to the major city like branches. This type of network is shaped by the bilateral dependency of the central city on one side and its surrounding settlements on the other side. As the second network type, a linear network represents the connection between major cities, how to travel between them and probably how to get access to adjacent regions. In other words, this type of network shows from which settlements or crucial places one should pass to reach to the next major city through a chain of in-between places, regardless of the importance or extent of the place or settlement. In contrast with radial nodal network, linear network is basically linear-oriented. These networks represent connection and relation of these cities and not the geographical location of them.

The National Library of Israel (NLI) in Jerusalem holds a folio (Ap., Ar. 158) listed as "Majmu’ fi mas’alat al-sama wa’l-malāhī" (A collection of treatises concerning music and musical instruments) that contains ten treatises, eight of which are concerned with sama‘, or listening to music. With the exception of an overview by musicologist Amnon Shiloah and mention by select specialists in medieval Arabic literature, this potentially rich source for medieval Islamicate music has yet to be studied in detail. The NLI collection is in the hand of Ibn Burayd Burhan al-Din Ibrahim al-Qadiri (1413-1475) and contains treatises dated from the 9th to the 15th century. Among them is a copy of the "Dhamm al-Malāhī" (Censure of Instruments of Diversion), believed to be the first anti- sama‘ treatise, by the 9th century religious scholar Ibn Abi’l Dūnya. It is nearly twice as long as the copy in Landberg 1019 at the Staatsbibliotek in Berlin and that held at the Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi in Istanbul. In addition to the Censure, the collection includes anti- sama‘ treatises by al-Khallal (848-923), al-Adjurri (d. 971CE), al-Tabari (959/60-1058), al-Maqdisi (1173-1245), al-Wassiti (1259-1311), and Ibn Jama’a (1325-1388). My initial interest in the NLI collection has been to examine references to music and musicians in order to track shifts in music terminology between the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries. During the 8th century, terms such as malāhī, ‘alat al-lahw, and ‘alat al-tarab, as found in early treatises such as the "Kitāb al-lahw wa’l malāhī" (Book of Play and Musical Instruments) by Ibn Khurdadhbih (c.820-912) and the "Kitāb al-malāhī" (Book of Musical Instruments) by Ibn Salama (c.830), were generic references to music and musical instruments. As sama‘ debates progressed in the 9th and 10th centuries, these terms came to be invested with moral undertones, and the language used to describe different sound genres, musicians and performance became more complex. This paper considers such changes through a comparison of references to music in early 9th century music treatises to those found in the 9th and 10th century anti- sama‘ treatises in the NLI collection. I begin with a brief overview of the contents of the NLI collection, followed by a look at terms for music and musicians, and conclude with an outline of terms which experienced a shift in or expansion of meaning.

This paper explores the authorial presence, and the construction of the audience as a public, in the Khaṭāynāmah, a description of China written in 1516 by `Ali Akbar Khaṭāyī, an otherwise unknown Transoxanian merchant, and dedicated to the Ottoman Emperor, Selim I. The Khaṭāynāmah was, until the late-16th century, the most substantial and comprehensive work on China in any West-Eurasian language, covering topics such as Chinese religions, methods of warfare, governance, agriculture, prisons, brothels and red-light districts, and celebration of the Chinese New Year. It was also framed by its author, and received by its Ottoman readers as a work on comparative politics. The book is a record of the abundant commercial and cultural contact between China and Central Asia that took place during the 15th century. By looking at how the author of the Khaṭāynāmah represents himself and his aims as a writer, and how he addresses his audience, we can gain some insight into the significance that these interactions held for people in Central Asia and the Middle East. I thus turn to an easily-overlooked feature of the Khaṭāynāmah, the many citations of poetry that appear throughout the book, including lengthy citations from Maḥmūd-i Shabistarī (mostly from a work erroneously or disingenuously attributed to him--the Kanz al-Ḥaqā'iq, written by the “wrestler-saint,” Pahlavān Maḥmūd Pūryā-yi Valī) and from `Aṭṭār. It is especially through these citations that the personality, attitudes, and intellectual influences of the author are made visible to readers. Lengthy verse citations are used at key points in the text, including the invocation and preface, in a way that identifies the goals and significance of the Khaṭāynāmah with those of its Sufistic intertexts, using these intertexts to construct the author's authority and to frame the description of China. Another group of verse citations appears to be taken from inscriptions on the ruins of Persepolis, while other verses are the author's own compositions. Along with statements in the text that explicitly compare attitudes or practices of the Chinese to those of Muslims, the verse citations portray the author as a representative urban, Muslim, Ottoman subject. By identifying the author's project with the Kanz al-Ḥaqā'iq, a text associated with futuvvat, and referring to Ottoman political questions, these verse citations and statements address the readers as a public, collectively capable and responsible with regard to the fate of their community.

ʿAql-i Surkh “The illuminated intellect” / “The crimson Archangel” is one of the Suhrawardi’s mystical and philosophical treatises, composed in Persian language. The treatise contains a dialogue between the narrator and a sage. Throughout the story, it reveals that the sage is the celestial angelic self of the narrator and guides him to better understanding of the self and, thus, the universe and the creator. The tale is about the crucial role of wisdom in spiritual development of a disciple (مرید). The present study focuses on the concept of wisdom (Arabic: عقل, New Persian: خرد) in general, and two kinds of wisdom (innate and acquired) in particular. Both these wisdom are explained very prominently in the extant Avestan and Middle Persian literature. Beside the title of the treatise, several characters in the tale are related to the concept of wisdom/intellect, namely: the character of the sage, the Simorgh and the Gazelle. My intention in the present paper is to demonstrate that the Simorgh and the Gazelle in the ʿAql-i Surkh symbolize two kinds of wisdom. Simorgh’s character can be identified as the acquired wisdom and the character of the Gazelle can be identified as the innate wisdom. Additionally, the sage (پیر/خضر), as the most complicated character of the tale, represents many characteristics of the Mazdean archangel of wisdom, Vohumanah, although there are significant differences between the two. Throughout the present study, I shall analyze the tale and extract the features of the above mentioned characters and compare them to the relevant Avestan and Middle Persian material that we have in hand.