The Muslim geographer and traveler Abu Abdullah al-Muqaddasi was a keen observer of human activity and its relationship to the physical environment. In 985 he outlined his broad view of the scope of geography, stating that it "is an account of a region—comprising a description of its deserts and seas, the lakes and rivers that it contains, its famous cities and noted towns, the resting places on its roads and its highways of commerce, the places of growth and production, its exports, and staple commodities, an account of the inhabitants of the different countries, of the diversity of language and manner of speech; of their dialects and complexion, and their religious tenets; of their measures and weights, their coins, with information about their food and drink, a description of their hills, plains and mountains, thick and thin soils, their fertile or infertile lands, unirrigatcd...