Özet:

Madhāhib or sects are not just about the founders and the opinions expressed by them; they are also bases of socio-cultural belonging. This situation brought with it sects to be the subject of versatile literature directly or indirectly. One of the most striking of this is human geography works. These works, which contain important information about the cultural, social, economic, and religious structures of the period they were written, provide rich information for researchers in the field of History of Islamic sects that they can’t be indifferent to. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAḥmad Al-Maqdisī (ca.390/1000), who wrote Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm, one of the most successful works of this literature in the 4th/10th century, put a separate chapter about sects at the beginning of his work. He provided brief but remarkable information about the sects of his time using what he read, personally experienced and heard. On the other hand, by sharing his observations about the sectarian situation in different parts of the Islamic world and making evaluations, al-Maqdisī made an important contribution to understanding the general structure of the 4th/10th century. In this study, the Madhāhib section in Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm has been handled and analyzed how al-Maqdisī sees and presents sects as an observer and geographer.

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