Three works in one volume: an abridgement on Mukhtasar dar Usul Ma’rifat Taqwim (on the calendar, planets, constellations and signs of the zodiac), Abu-l Hasan Jurjani (a treatise on regions, countries and cities), Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Istakhri, Masalik al-Mamalik ('the Book of Postal Routes and Kingdoms'), Persia, 18th century

Persian manuscript on paper, 96 leaves plus 2 flyleaves, 24 lines to the page written in black nasta'liq script, keywords underlined in red, catchwords, 16 large illustrated and illuminated maps with annotations, later red leather binding

In good overall condition, a few minor stains, nibbles to leaf edges, pages generally clean, as viewed.
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An early Arabic copy of Masalik al-Mamalik, dated to the early thirteenth century, and illustrated with twenty maps in colours is in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (see A.J. Arberry, A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts, volume I, Dublin, 1955, pp.2-3, no.3007). See also Brockelmann, GAL, i. 229, Suppl. i. 408. A further early Illustrated Persian copy of the work is in the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London.

According to Michael Rogers, “The 10^th – century Persian geographer al-Istakhri was one of the most important figures in the evolution of Arab cartography. He travelled widely, but his account of Arabia (Hijaz, Yemen and the Gulf) is curiously sketchy, especially given the importance of the Pilgrimage. This is partly because, as the title of this treatise suggests, it is based on lists of stations on the postal routes of the Abbasid heartlands and in Iran, which were not available in Arabia and Egypt”. Rogers goes on to describe some of the maps and the colours used and concludes that “such decorative details parallel medieval Byzantine world maps and may derive from them. The maps formed the basis of Istakhri’s descriptive geography of Iran and the central Islamic lands: their purpose  was not to help the travellers find their way  but to enable them to commit the lists to memory. Istakhri had no interest in a consistent projection, and although he included a world map, the regional maps had no relation to it. It goes without saying that these early medieval postal routes bear no relation to modern roads, so they are quite difficult for us to read”, see J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Treasures from the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, Abu Dhabi, 2008, pp.166-167, cat. no.198, with two plates of coloured maps.