High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Abu Zaid Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi (850-934) was a Persian Muslim polymath: a geographer, mathematician, physician, psychologist and scientist. Born in Shamistiyan, in the Persian province of Balkh (now in Afghanistan), he was a disciple of al-Kindi. He was also the founder the "Balkh school" of terrestrial mapping in Baghdad. Of the many books ascribed to him in the al- Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim, one can note the excellency of mathematics; on certitude in astrology. His Figures of the Climates (Suwar al-aqalim) consisted chiefly of geographical maps. He also wrote the medical and psychological work, Masalih al-Abdan wa al-Anfus (Sustenance for Body and Soul)