Al-Dimashqi

Sheikh Shams al-Din al-Ansari al-Dimashqi or simply al-Dimashqi (شمس الدين الأنصاري الدمشقي) (1256-1327) was a medieval Arab geographer, completing his main work in 1300. Born in Damascus—as his name "Dimashqi" implies—he mostly wrote of his native land, the Greater Syria (Bilad ash-Sham), upon the complete withdrawal of the Crusaders. He became a contemporary of the Mamluk sultan Baibars, the general who led the Muslims in war against the Crusaders. His work is of value in connection with the Crusader Chronicles. He died while in Safad, in 1327.

Al-Dimaski's writings on Syria were published in St. Petersburg in 1886 by M.A.F Mehren, and this edition was later used for the English translation by Guy le Strange in 1890.