HAMDANI

hamdani, in full abu mahommed ul-hasan ibn ahmad ibn ya'qub ul-hamdani (d. 945), arabian geographer, also known as ibn ul-ha'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_ (_kitab jazirat 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. muller (leiden, 1884; cf. a. sprenger's criticism in _zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen 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 hamdani is the _iklil_ (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. muller in _die burgen und schlosser sudarabiens_ (vienna, 1879-1881). for other works said to have been written by hamdani cf. g. flugel's _die grammatischen schulen der araber_ (leipzig, 1862), pp. 220-221. (g. w. t.)