COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION IN SUBH AL-ASHA AND OTHER SOURCES OF THE ERA

A critical written source in the context of geographical and historical data is the encyclopedias of researchers who lived during the time of the Arab Caliphate, which existed before the capture of the Mamluk Sultanate by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. During the existence of the Arab Caliphate as the first Muslim state, outstanding researchers and scientists such as Al-Qalkashandi, Ibn Khordadbeg and Ibn Khaldun worked. The current article aims to conduct a comparative analysis of geographical information in the encyclopedias «The Dawn for the Blind in the Art of Writing» (Al-Qalkashandi), «The Book of Roads and Kingdoms» (Ibn Khordadbeg) and «Book of Lessons, Record of Beginnings and Events in the History of the Arabs and the Berbers and Their Powerful Contemporaries» (Ibn Khaldun). Data monitoring, comparison, historical-critical approach, and specification were chosen as the research methods. As a DOIresult of the comparative analysis, it was found that the authors almost do not contradict each other, supplementing the data given in their encyclopedias. This indicates that they often used the same sources, which is a consequence of the compiler nature of encyclopedias. The analysis results also revealed that Al-Qalqashandi and Ibn Khaldun used historical geography methods more actively than Ibn Khordadbeg. This indicates that the foundations of historical geography as a science in the Arab world were laid only in the fourteenth century. The prospect of further research is to compare the geographical information given in the works of Al-Qalqashandi, Ibn Khordadbeg and Ibn Khaldun and their colleagues from Europe of that time to identify the influence of the environment and place of residence of the researchers on the peculiarities of their worldview, which were reflected in their works.