Hitit İlahiyat Dergisi

Öz

When writing their works, Muslim historians have tended to start from the beginning of history, that is, from creation. In this way, the history of the universe was taken as the beginning of the history of humanity and connected to Islamic history together with the history of the prophets. Al-Mas'ūdī, on the other hand, in the IV/Xth century, introduced the geography of the world with its land, seas, and waters, and produced a text that deals with history almost simultaneously with the ground on which it took place. This feature made the author's name mentioned among Islamic historians as well as geographers. However, al-Mas'ūdī's approach to geography is quite different from that of a geographer. The author evaluated historical geography together with geographical history. He carefully recorded how the earth with its fauna and flora affected human history, how it shaped societies, and how societies in turn affected their environment. Carrying his research beyond the information he received from written sources, the scholar carefully examined and conveyed these features during his travels; he tried to enlighten the issues he was curious about or doubted by discussing them with locals, merchants and sailors. In this way, the information he obtained through observations and inquiries sometimes surpassed the written sources. In this way, he created a human-centered historiography by studying human geography. This article aims to classify the effects that emerged as a result of man's relationship with the geography of the earth based on al-Mas'ūdī's narrative in his extant works al-Murūj al-zeheb and al-Tanbīh wa'l-ishrāf. Thus, the cultural differences of societies in terms of basic needs such as nutrition and shelter, as well as the effects of activities such as the domestication of animals and acclimatization of plants on human history will be identified in the author's historiography. In this way, the contributions of treating geography as an element of historical narrative to the field of historiography will be indicated, and it will be seen that al-Mas'ūdī's pioneering approach allows us to look at history from a different perspective. For this purpose, first of all, the description of the earth's position in the universe as conveyed in the author's works will be explained. For al-Mas'ūdī stated that the earth was composed of four elements, which are fire, air, water, and earth, in accordance with the prevailing scientific approach of his time, but he also pointed to the distance of celestial spheroids from these lowly materials of the sublunar realm. He is also aware that the celestial bodies are the main factor in the formation of the seasons on earth. When it comes to the author's description of the earth, it is seen that he relies on the Iranian kishvar system. Accordingly, the center of the earth is the climate of Babylon/Iraq, the region where al-Mas'ūdī was born and spent the first years of his life. The settled geography of the world is depicted with six climates surrounding this climate. The fact that al-Mas'ūdī is not satisfied with these descriptions and distinguished himself by applying the theoretical knowledge to all living things on earth, humans, animals and plants, is seen in the information he gives about the effect of geography on living life. The author's geographical determinism explains precisely how each climatic region affects the life on it with its unique characteristics. This effect manifests itself not only physically, such as the change in the color of people's skin, but also in the change of their mental state or the emergence of diseases. Therefore, according to the author, understanding the characteristics of a region also provides enough information to explain many of the material and spiritual conditions of the people of that climate. Although al-Mas'ūdī compiled these explanations mainly from written sources, he used both his own observations and the information he acquired through his investigations to substantiate them. Therefore, as seen in the centrality of the Babylonian climate, he considered his own region and society as the main one, and explained this with reasons that he found quite justifiable. The author's reference point is the most moderate region and the most moderate society, namely the Iraqi region and its people. Therefore, al-Mas'ūdī is placed at the center of his narrative not only as the author but also because he originated in the most moderate point of the world. The elements briefly mentioned here show that al-Mas'ūdī's contributions to Islamic historiography as a historian are linked to his evaluation of geography as an essential element of history. This article aims to prove the effect of geography on the shaping of societies and thus history through al-Mas'ūdī's narrative.