Explore the Medieval World Map of Muhammad al-Idrisi

A 1920s facsimile of the environment map from the Library of Congress collections. (Image: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.)

Cartographers—or map makers—shape how we understand our world. Most folks are not fortuitous ample to travel each and every continent and notice just about every sea. Even those fortunate vacationers who control to achieve such a feat will obtain their viewpoint confined by remaining Earth-certain, only equipped to see the horizon in front of them. For generations in advance of GPS and air vacation, just before state-of-the-art cartographic methods and easy journey, map makers had to do their finest with the constraints of their time. Even so, there is one scholar who managed to surpass his predecessors and develop an impressively correct rendition of the earth as he knew it—Muhammad al-Idrisi. A 12th-century Islamic scholar and intrepid traveler from Northern Africa, al-Idrisi acted on fee of the King of Sicily to make a outstanding engraved silver map (now lost) and printed will work which remained the most accurate reference details for 3 centuries.

Al-Idrisi was born around the year 1100 in Sabtah, a medieval city which is now the autonomous Spanish town of Ceuta in Northern Africa, future to Morocco. He was educated at Cordoba, a city in Andalusia, in mainland Spain. Throughout his adulthood, he traveled significantly far more greatly than lots of medieval nobles, venturing into Asia, visiting Hungary, York in England, and elements of France. His know-how in the techniques of the globe encouraged the Norman King Roger II of Sicily to commission a work at his court docket. There, al-Idrisi labored alongside other scholars and the king to compile a map of the globe.

After 15 yrs of get the job done, the closing undertaking was completed—a map engraved on a 6-toes large silver disk. Al-Idrisi also compiled a book with textual content and maps to go alongside with it, recognised as Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaqI in Arabic, which around interprets to “the guide of enjoyable journeys into faraway lands.” The map drew on historic Greek and Roman understanding which experienced been preserved for the duration of the Islamic Golden Age, and it particularly turned down the fantastical creatures and locations often identified on other medieval maps these types of as the Mappa Mundi.

Al-Idrisi’s map, also recognized as Tabula Rogeriana in Latin, shows the earth flipped compared to our fashionable editions. In this circumstance, south points up which is very similar to other Islamic maps of the time period. Despite the fact that the silver disk map and the unique paper do the job in Latin have been shed for generations, the Arabic variation survived prolonged ample to be copied during the medieval interval. Currently, the historic piece survives as ten manuscripts scattered in collections around the globe. These maps are partial, depicting the Balkans or Sicily for example. It was not right until the 1920s that a German historian called Konrad Miller reconstructed the parts to develop the full map as it may perhaps have appeared on the silver disk.

Whilst the geographic formations are not fully accurate—like most historical maps—al-Idrisi’s operate remained authoritative through the medieval time period. It does not include southern Africa, nor the Americas, but it was a considerably broader, more precise perspective of Europe and Asia than most students would have observed at the time. It was also a huge phase in the historical past of scientific mapmaking, demonstrating the skill of Golden Age Islamic scholars.

The medieval Islamic cartographer and scholar Muhammad al-Idrisi produced a earth map in the 12th century which remained the most precise for 3 hundreds of years.

A circular map located in later on editions of al-Idrisi’s work, this from ‘Alî ibn Hasan al-Hûfî al-Qâsimî’s 1456 duplicate. (Picture: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

The map was initially engraved on a silver disk and a paper compendium accompanied it.

The Balkans as depicted by al-Idrisi. (Image: Wikimedia Commons, General public Area)

h/t: [Open Culture, Library of Congress]

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