Talk:Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Wasiti

Name

For those who might want to shorten the name: careful, there are lots of al-Wasitis, at least two also sharing most other names with our man, such as a 10th-century Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Musa al-Wasiti, and a late-9th-century Tulunid general by the name of Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Wasiti, all variably written with b., ibn, or bin (and, I can imagine, with other variations making them sound even more similar to our man). So I guess we're stuck with this long, long name. Arminden (talk) 16:22, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

Geographer?

@BrownHairedGirl: hi BHG. Thanks for fixing "Category:1th-century geographers" - it was obviously a typo.

Since I'm here already, I would like to ask for your advice, and maybe also call up our friend Al Ameer son: Was al-Wasiti a geographer? I've used Maqdisi's page as a base and template for this and left the geography-related categories in, but not being sure I was doing the right thing. I haven't read any translated text of Wasiti's, I'm just coming across his name a lot and wanted to have at least a stub to link to and wait for others, who have read more, to add material. He was a religious man, who apparently wrote about Jerusalem strictly from a theological point of view. To make him a geographer, it would imply that sufficient geographical and objective descriptions and details are contained in his work as to make it useful to modern scholars from fields at least related to geography. Otherwise we can call him a historian for addressing the construction of the Dome of the Rock. I also don't know if he did describe anything from his own time, which would at least give him the benefit of being an eyewitness, not just a story(re)teller. So I don't know. Right now it looks a bit like listing the Bible as a history and geography book because, isn't it so, it does contain a lot of related info. But I wouldn't, it's a matter of definition. Any idea? If leaving the "geographer" categories in was wrong, it's totally my mistake and I'd like to know that it's been fixed. Thanks, Arminden (talk) 22:53, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

@Arminden: Important figure for the Muslim history of Jerusalem, in particular for the building works on the Temple Mount, though I’m not sure if he was a “historian”. I would not categorize him as a geographer. He was a Jerusalemite Muslim preacher of whom we know little. The works he wrote may qualify him for Category:11th-century Muslim scholars of Islam. Al Ameer (talk) 17:35, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

@Al Ameer son: thank you! I'll amend it accordingly. Didn't know about the category - good to have you around. Arminden (talk) 18:25, 21 March 2021 (UTC)