About the Author

Basil Anthony Collins is Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo, in the United States. He graduated with First Class Honours in Semitic languages from the National University of Ireland. He later entered the Department of Foreign Affairs, of Ireland and served in New York and Washington DC. He received the degree of Master of Arts in Education (Administration) from the University of Michigan and continued there with his Arabic studies, gaining a Doctorate of Philosophy in Geography. His dissertation, Al-Muqaddasi: the man and his work, was published by the Department of Geography at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1974. The University of Toledo conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts in Classics (Latin).