Ibn al-Balkhī (fl. sixth/twelfth century) is the author of the Fārsnāma (“Book of Fārs”), a Persian-language local history and geography about the author’s native province of Fārs, commissioned by the Seljuk (Saljūq) sultan Abū Shujāʿ Muḥammad b. Malikshāh (r. 498–511/1105–18). Ibn al-Balkhī is otherwise unknown. The only details about him that survive are those included in his Fārsnāma. As his name suggests, Ibn al-Balkhī’s ancestors hailed from Balkh.

Ibn al-Balkhī gained his knowledge of Fārs by accompanying his grandfather, who was appointed mustawfī (“tax comptroller”) f…