Al-Maqdisi is one of the earliest known historical figures to self-identify as a Palestinian, having done so during one of his travels in Persia.
10 Facts About Al-Maqdisi
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Al-Maqdisi was born in Jerusalem in c and belonged to a middle-class family whose roots in the city's environs dated from the period approximate to the 7th-century Muslim conquest.
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Al-Maqdisi or alternatively al-Muqaddasi was a nisba indicating that he was from "Bayt al-Maqdis" or "Bayt al-Muqaddas", the Muslim names for Jerusalem.
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Al-Maqdisi's maternal grandfather, Abu Tayyib al-Shawwa, moved to Jerusalem from Biyar in Khurasan and was an architect.
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Al-Maqdisi refers to this world as al-mamlaka or al-Islam, a unique concept in which all of the lands of Islam constituted a single domain.
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Al-Maqdisi devoted a section of his book to Bilad al-Sham with a particular focus on Palestine.
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Al-Maqdisi paid special attention to Jerusalem, detailing its layout, walls, streets, markets, public structures and landmarks, particularly the Haram ash-Sharif and the latter's Dome of the Rock and Jami Al-Aqsa.
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Al-Maqdisi described the city's people and customs, focusing on its Muslims, but its Christian and Jewish communities, whose significant presence he lamented.
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Al-Maqdisi gave extensive overviews of Ramla and Tiberias, the capitals of the Palestine and Jordan districts, respectively.
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Al-Maqdisi mentioned regions in Eastern Arabia which form parts of what are now Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman.