Al Idrisi World Map

Photograph by buyenlarge getty images.

Al idrisi world map. The inconsistency of measures utilised in the text cannot have allowed al idrisi to proportion the world map with any accuracy. This is of course nonsense and if konrad miller s map is studied it is obvious it is half length of the oikoumene and therefore half the map length. That however may not have been his primary northern latitude. The entertainment for he who longs to travel the world was an arabic geographical book written in sicily in 1154 by the muslim scholar al sharif al idrisi.

By jerry brotton nov. The original text dates to 1154. Al idrisi incorporated the knowledge of africa the indian ocean and the far east gathered by islamic merchants and explorers and recorded on islamic maps with the information brought by the norman voyagers to create the most accurate map of the world in pre modern times which served as a concrete illustration of his kitab nuzhat al mushtaq latin. Arab geographer al idrisi oversaw the creation of more than 70 maps.

According to the french national library ten copies of the kitab rujar or tabula rogeriana exist worldwide today. Map of al idrisi entertainment for he who longs to travel the world in 1154 the muslim scholar al sharīf al idrīsī compiled a geographical compendium for the norman ruler of sicily king roger ii entitled the entertainment for he who longs to travel the world nuzhat al mushtāq fi khtirāq al āfāq. It is oriented with the south toward the top. The entertainment contained seventy regional maps of the known world as well as a world map that represented the most technically sophisticated mapmaking of its time.

Al idrisi s world map from alî ibn hasan al hûfî al qâsimî s 1456 copy. The map god and magog in the south east corner of the map enclosed within dark mountains in the. World and global history. Research and teaching edited by seija jalagin susanna tavera and andrew dilley pisa 2011.

Of these ten six contain at the start of the work a circular map of the world which is not mentioned in the text of al idris. Opus geographicum which may be translated a diversion for the man longing to travel to far off places. The distance measures from the mouth of the red sea to the farthest east of 4500 parasanges which is an equatorial distance measure and hence the 25 parasanges per degree indicates a world length of only 180 degrees. Al idrisi uses the northern latitude of the oikoumene which he states as 64 0 n and simply divides it into 7 equal parts.

The book contained seventy regional maps and began. It was commissioned by the island s norman ruler king roger ii and drew on greek islamic and christian knowledge in creating one of the greatest medieval compendiums of geographical knowledge. Working for eighteen years under the patronage of the norman king roger ii guiscard of sicily who gathered scholars from many regions at his court in palermo the moroccan geographer al idrīsī in 1154 completed a description and an atlas of maps of the known world. Al idrisi and his world map 1154 by gerhard dohrn van rossum.

Note that south is at the top of the map. The map of roger in latin is a description of the world and world map created by the arab geographer muhammad al idrisi in 1154. The circular map contained in the text of al idrisi is as been shown and explained a simple geometric construct for which the arabic world is famous.