Al-Masudi or Abu-Alhasan Ali bin al-Husain. Born and raised in the city of Baghdad. Spent most of his life travelling in the Asia and the Middle East. Wrote 10s of books about his travels. Most significant book of those is Moroj Al-Thahab , which writes the history since the beginning of humankind, until the year 947. He died in Egypt in the year 958.