Abu Tahir as-Silafi on Islamic culture and adab in Bab al-Abwab Shirwan and Arran

The biographical dictionary by Abu Tahir as-Silafi under the title “Mu`jam as-safar” (Dictionary of the travels) has been introduced by the Ukrainian Arabic scholar of Daghestani origin Ziya Saidov. The rich and hitherto underexplored data on the history of the Northern Caucasus was used in his PhD Thesis, however not extensively. Then only the first volume of the biographical work of As-Silafi was available to him. Some information used by Dr Saidov originate from the works of later Muslim authors, in the first instance al-’Askalani, Ibn al-Sabuni, Ibn al-Fuvati and al-Zahabi. The present article mostly provides additional information to the broad picture of the Islamic religious life in the Eastern Caucasus in the 11 th - 12 th centuries, to which mostly contributed Professor Amri R. Shikhsaidov, Dr Z. Saidov and the present writer.