A Forgotten Geography School: The Balkhi School Of Geography

Human has tried to understand, picture and depict natural-human place from his/her existing to today. Ever-getting rich from Sumerians to Egyptians, and Phoenicians to Greeks, the process for geographical accumulation of knowledge progressed further with Strabon. Alexandrian School of Geography which was built upon this accumulation of knowledge raised important geographers like Ptolemy. This school was moved from Alexandria to Antioch after Muslims had conquered Egypt. Upon closing the Eskul School in Antioch, some religious men and scholars of the said school came to Harran. By translations which had been made from cultures of Greek, Persia and India in Harran School, Islamic World started to take a close interest in geography. With starting to lose significance of Harran School, the descriptive “Iraqi School of Geography” appeared in the middle of 10th century in Iraq. As for Andalusian School of Geography which was a follow-up of this process started to develop in the same period of time with Balkhi School of Geography, and was in interaction with it. Both schools made significant contributions to the golden age of Islamic-World Science. After Iraqi School of Geography, a regional school of geography was established by Balkhi (850-934 AD) in the first half of 10th century in Balkhi city within which is the boundaries of Afghanistan at the present time. Balkhi School which had

Keywords

Balkhī School of Geography, Balkhī Geographers, Regional Geography, Universal Human Geography.