Les prairies d'or

Abu al-Hasan al-Mas'udi (c. 896–956) was born in Baghdad and spent much of his life travelling: through Persia, India, the coasts of East Africa and the lands around the Caspian Sea, before settling in Egypt, where he died. He was curious about everything, peoples, religions, kings, geography and wonders.

His most famous work, The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, is a world history that begins with creation and runs through the histories of many nations to the caliphs of his own day, written with a storyteller's gift. European scholars have called him the Herodotus of the Arabs; see Herodotus.