[7] Ya'qubi was born in Baghdad[3] to a family of noble background, his great-grandfather was Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Al-Mansur and ruler of Egypt during the reign of al-Mahdi.
[8][9] Until 873, he lived in Armenia and Khorasan, working under the patronage of the Tahirid Governors; then he traveled to India, Egypt and the Maghreb.
[8] In 872, he listed the kingdoms of Bilād as-Sūdān, including Ghana, Gao, and Kanem.
[10] His methodical approach to writing history includes personal observations and interviews to close relations on topics that Yaqubi could not encounter first-hand.
He covered topics of natural, human and economic geography as well as noting down cultural, historical and topographic information.