Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī, ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad b. Ayyūb b. ʿAmr, was the greatest Arab geographer from al-Andalus and a man of letters of the 5th/11th century. There are different views about his date of birth: some believe that he was born in 401/1010 (Vernet, 1/413) or 405/1014 (Ḥamīda, 356; Sūsa, 2/344), while others consider the correct date to be 432/1041 (González Palencia, 309). There is little information about Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī's life. His nisba is attributed to the tribe of al-Bakr b. Wāʾil (Farrūkh, 4/702). His f…