The fourteen regions of al-Muqaddasi

In his Ahsan al-taqasim, al-Muqaddasi divided the realm of Islam into fourteen regions, separating the non-Arab regions from the Arab ones, then detailed the districts of each region, set out its amsar, named its chief towns and ordered its towns and provinces after drawing its borders and lines. ¹

The Arab regions for him are six: Jazirat al-Arab, then Iraq, Aqur, Sham, Misr and the Maghrib. The non-Arab regions are eight: al-Mashriq, then al-Daylam, al-Rihab, al-Jibal, Khuzistan, Fars, Kirman and al-Sind. ^{1 2} Between the Arab regions lies a steppe and in the midst of the non-Arab regions a desert, which he describes separately because of the need for them and the many roads through them, and he gives the seas and rivers a chapter of their own. ² He did not describe the realms of non-Muslims, he says, because he had not entered them and saw no use in it, except for Muslim communities there. ¹

Al-Muqaddasi says the realm of Islam is not regular, so it cannot be described as a square or by length and breadth; it branches: the Maghrib stretches from the borders of Egypt to the Encircling Ocean "like a ribbon" between the Mediterranean and the lands of the Sudan; Sham runs north from the borders of Egypt to Byzantine territory between the Mediterranean and the Arabian steppe; Iraq adjoins the steppe; and Aqur, on Iraq's northern borders, reaches Byzantine territory with the Euphrates curving round it. ^{3 4} Khuzistan and al-Jibal lie on Iraq's eastern borders, al-Rihab on Aqur's eastern borders, Fars, Kirman and Sind behind Khuzistan in a single row with the sea to the south and the desert and Khurasan to the north, and al-Daylam between al-Rihab, al-Jibal, the desert and Khurasan. ⁴

He drew a map of each region, with the known roads in red, golden sands in yellow, salt seas in green, known rivers in blue and the famous mountains in dun, "to bring the description closer to understanding". ¹ See also his ranking of settlements.