Kitāb al-Safar

Abstract

The sixth sultan of Rasulid Yemen, al-Malik al-Afḍal al-ʿAbbās, wrote the Kitāb al-Safar wa-mā yakūn fīhi min al-tadbīr in the mid-fourteenth century as a guide to the best ways to manage travel at that time, whether on land or by sea. In this unique work, the sultan describes common problems encountered by travelers due to weather, fatigue, illness, hunger, and thirst. He recommends food, drinks, and medicinal plants to treat different conditions and includes advice from earlier physicians, such as Ibn Sīnā. This short text can be found in a mixed manuscript of writings by and for the sultan, which has been published previously in facsimile. Here, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Jāzim, a Yemeni historian of the Rasulid era, provides an Arabic critical edition of the Kitāb al-Safar with extensive notes on Yemeni dialect usage. The foreword in English is by Daniel Martin Varisco.