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Nasir Khusraw Safarnama
Nasir Khusraw was born in 1004 AD, in Qubadiyan (Persia), then Greater Khorasan. Until A.H. 437 (1046 AD), he worked as financial secretary and revenue collector for the Seljuk sultan Toghrul Beg, or rather of his brother Jaghir Beg, the emir of Khorasan, who had conquered Merv in 1037. About this time, inspired by a heavenly voice in a dream, he abjured all the luxuries of life, and resolved upon a pilgrimage to the holy shrines of Mecca and Medina, hoping to find there the solution to his spiritual crisis. The graphic description of this journey is contained in the Safarnama, which possesses a special value among books of travel, since it contains the most authentic account of the state of the Muslim world in the middle of the 11th century. The minute sketches of Jerusalem and its environs are even today of practical value. During the seven years of his 19,000-kilometre journey (1046–1052), Nasir visited Mecca four times, and performed all the rites and observances of a zealous pilgrim; but he was far more attracted by Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and the residence of the Fatimid caliph-imam Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_Khusraw). (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_Khusraw)
Safarnama (The Book of Travels) is his most famous work. He visited tens of cities in about seven years (1046, March 6 – 1052, October 23) and wrote comprehensively about them: colleges, caravanserais, mosques, area, population, scientists, kings, usual people and his interesting memories. After 1000 years, his Safarnama is still readable for Persian-speaking people.
This map visulizes all the places that he has visited during his long jurney
