1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hamdānī
HAMDĀNĪ, in full Abū Maḥommed ul-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Ya‘qūb ul-Hamdānī (d. 945), Arabian geographer, also known as Ibn ul-Ḥā‘ik. Little is known of him except that he belonged to a family of Yemen, was held in repute as a grammarian in his own country, wrote much poetry, compiled astronomical tables, devoted most of his life to the study of the ancient history and geography of Arabia, and died in prison at San‘a in 945. His Geography of the Arabian Peninsula (Kitāb Jazīrat ul-‘Arab) is by far the most important work on the subject. After being used in manuscript by A. Sprenger in his Post- und Reiserouten des Orients (Leipzig, 1864) and further in his Alte Geographie Arabiens (Bern, 1875), it was edited by D. H. Müller (Leiden, 1884; cf. A. Sprenger's criticism in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. 45, pp. 361-394). Much has also been written on this work by E. Glaser in his various publications on ancient Arabia. The other great work of Hamdānī is the Iklīl (Crown) concerning the genealogies of the Himyarites and the wars of their kings in ten volumes. Of this, part 8, on the citadels and castles of south Arabia, has been edited and annotated by D. H. Müller in Die Burgen und Schlösser Südarabiens (Vienna, 1879-1881).
For other works said to have been written by Hamdānī cf. G. Flügel's Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber (Leipzig, 1862), pp. 220-221. (G. W. T.)