The Burṭās were a people, or more probably a confederation of peoples and a territory or country, noted by Muslim geographers of the fourth/tenth-century (Ibn Ḥawqal, 333-4) and later in a number of contradictory notices probably reflecting different eras of their history. Their name appears as Burṭās (as in, for example, al-Masʿūdī, al-Tanbīh , 62, al-Iṣṭakhrī, 227); Burdās, in the Jayhānī tradition (works based on the now lost Kitâb al-Masâlik wa'l-Mamâlik by the 10 th century Sâmânid servitor, Abu 'Abdallâh Muḥammad b.