Abu Hamid al-Gharnati

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry gives his full name as Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahim b. Sulayman al-Mazini al-Qaysi, an Andalusian traveller and collector of curiosities at the beginning of the sixth/twelfth century. The article reports that he was born in Granada in 473/1080 and studied there, and that at about thirty he left his homeland never to return. He went to Ifriqiya and in 511/1117-8 to Alexandria, lived in Cairo until 515/1123, then visited Damascus and spent four years in Baghdad. In 524/1130 he was in Abhar in Persia. Most of his biographical dates come from his own works. ¹