Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Masudi of Baghdad, called…

Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Masudi of Baghdad, called Herodotus of the Arabs, has journeyed north to the Caspian Sea, south to Madagascar, and east into India, Sri Lanka, and the China Sea.

He has compiled much of the knowledge that he acquires in his most famous work, the encyclopedic “Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems.” Rather than follow the traditional, more random annalistic form consistent with Arab tradition, al-Masudi has organizes his material in topics.

The extant version is only an earlier draft from 947, not the revised 956 edition.

One example of Al-Masudi's influence on Muslim knowledge of the Byzantine world is that we can trace the use of the name Istanbul (in place of Constantinople) to his writings of the year 947, centuries before the eventual Ottoman use of this term.

He writes that the Greeks (i.e., the Byzantines of the tenth century) call it "the City" (bulin in the Arabic script, which lacks the letter p: so Greek polin); "and when they wish to express that it is the capital of the Empire because of its greatness they say Istan Bulin. They do not call it Constantinople. It is only Arabs who so designate it".

A present day analogy would be the use of the phrases "I am going Downtown" or "I am going into the City" by those who live near, say, Chicago or London respectively.