Yakut el-Hamevî

Yakut el-Hamevî (d. 626/1229) is a geographer and scholar known as the author of the geographical dictionary Muʿcemü'l-büldan, one of the most comprehensive works in medieval Islamic geographical literature. His work, with its detailed information about the cities, villages, castles, and regions inhabited by Kurds, is among the important sources of Kurdish history (Vol. 2, p. 26).

Life and Works

Yâkut el-Hamevî was born in Anatolia in 574 (1178) or 575 (1179) as the child of a family of Rum origin. At the age of five or six, he was enslaved and taken to Baghdad (Vol. 2, p. 26). Throughout his life, he traveled across a wide geography; he took lessons from many teachers, especially Ebü'l-Müreccâ Sâlim b. Ahmed et-Temîmî el-Bağdâdî and İbnü'n-Neccâr el-Bağdâdî, and visited centers such as Âmid, Suriye, Tebriz, Bağdat, Halep, Mısır, Musul, Horasan, Nişabur, Belh, Merverrûz, Nesâ. During these journeys, he also visited libraries in various regions and benefited from the rich collections there; among these are İbnü'l-Kıftî's library in Halep and the libraries in Merv, where he stayed for three years (Vol. 2, p. 26).

He completed the first draft of his most important work, Muʿcemü'l-büldan, in Halep in 621 (1224), and gave it its final form in 625 (1228). This work is considered the largest geographical encyclopedia written by Islamic scholars and preserved to this day (Vol. 2, p. 26). In addition to this, Hamevî authored many other works, most notably Muʿcemü'l-üdebâ (Vol. 2, p. 26).

Information on Kurds

In his work, while providing information about regions and cities, Hamevî also extensively covered the socio-cultural and economic situation of the Kurds. According to him, the regions densely populated by Kurds are Cezîre, Cibal, Ermeniyye, and Azerbaycan; furthermore, from the information he provided, it is understood that Kurds also lived in places such as Fars, Kirman, Horasan, and Hûzistan. Hamevî, who presents data indicating that Kurds generally engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, also touched upon their scholarly activities (Vol. 2, p. 26). The author, mentioning a market established at certain times in a settlement he described and the Kurds who came there, speaks of a Kurdish village named Hadran and the mountain at its foot in the section where he discusses the cities in the Cebel region; he also mentions a Kurdish castle named Fevk (Fuk) (Vol. 2, p. 26).

In the administrative-geographical division, Hamevî divided Cezîre into two regions: Diyar-ı Bekr and Diyar-ı Mudar (Vol. 2, p. 62). He lists Zencan, Erzen, Bitlis, Ahlat, and Hirtbirt among the important cities of Ermenistan (Vol. 2, p. 60). He states that the word Kuhistan was rendered as Cibal when it passed into Arabic, and its meaning is "mountain region" or "mountainous area" (Vol. 2, p. 55). While speaking of the city of Meyyafarikin and its ancient history, he recounted that a leader named Liyota married the daughter of a mountain chief, and noted that Kurds were living on that mountain at the time (Vol. 2, p. 73). He mentions Sisar as the most important Kurdish pasture in the Cibal region (Vol. 2, p. 93) and speaks of a castle named Şermah, used by Kurds, near Nihavend (Vol. 2, p. 91).

Influence and Source Value

The information provided by Hamevî also served as a reference for subsequent authors; indeed, İbn Şeddad confirmed the information given by el-Hamevî when explaining how Hısnu Keyfâ acquired the name "Hısnü'l-Ekrad" (Vol. 2, p. 73).