Balkhi school

10th century Arab writer and geographer

thumb|right|upright|Istakhri's map, from the Book of Roads and Kingdoms thumb|right|upright|Map of Fars province|Fars thumb|right|upright|A map of the Persian Gulf by Istakhri

Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the nisba al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī,, meaning Jerusalemite, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions and Description of Syria (Including Palestine).

Persian polymath

Medieval muslim traveller