| Biographical detail : | Merchant, traveller, bookseller and writer.
The author of the first geographical dictionary. He also wrote ‘Mu’ajam al-shu’ara’ and ‘Mu’ajam al-udaba’. His ‘Mu`ajam al-Buldan’ was a veritable encyclopaedia containing information on geography, history, ethnography and natural science.
He belonged to Byzantine but was known as Hamwi because a trader bought him as a slave from Hamah. |
