Unutulmuş Bir Coğrafya Ekolü: Belh Coğrafya Okulu

Human has tried to understand, picture and depict naturalhuman 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 Balkhī School of Geography, and was in interaction with it. Both schools made significant contributions to the golden age of IslamicWorld Science. After Iraqi School of Geography, a regional school of geography was established by Balkhī (850-934 AD) in the first half of 10th century in Balkhī city within which is the boundaries of Afghanistan at the present time. Balkhī School which had divided Islamic countries into climatic zones steered human geography in a new direction as well, and laid the foundations of understanding of universal human geography. Addition to this, Balkhī geographers explained the geographical facts with concepts in the Koran and Hadith. The first representative of this school was Istahrî (10th century) who was student of Balkhī, and he possessed a special place amongst other Islamic geographers, by mapping climate maps of Islamic countries for the first time. Ibn Hawkal (d.977), second important person of Balkhī School of Geography, associated spatial contexts to temporal progresses in his own unique way. The most glorious geographer of Balkhī School of Geography was al-Maqdisī (d. 1000), and contrary to Balkhī geographers, he based the whole of what he wrote on his own experiences and was described as “the greatest geographer who ever lived” by Alois Sprenger. Balkhī School of Geography lost its former significance after occupations which had been experienced in the first quarter of 8th century. Geographical accumulation of knowledge that Europeans obtained from Muslims through Andalusian and Balkhī schools of geography had indirectly influence on developing the continental Europe and occurring Geographical Explorations. Our wish is that a school with such these important features is remembered Unutulmuş Bir Coğrafya Ekolü: Belh Coğrafya Okulu 235