-Masʿūdī, in full Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Masʿūdī (born before 893, Baghdad, Iraq—died September 956, Al-Fusṭāṭ, Egypt [now part of Cairo]), historian and traveler, known as the “Herodotus of the Arabs.” He was the first Arab to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, Murūj al-dhahab wa maʿādin al-jawāhir (“The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems”), a world history.
As a child, al-Masʿūdī showed an extraordinary love of learning, an excellent memory, a capacity to write quickly, and a boundless curiosity that led him to study a wide variety of subjects, ranging from history ... (100 of 833 words)