Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; la, Dreses; 1100 – 1165), was a
Muslim geographer,
cartographer and
Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...
who for some time lived in
Palermo,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
at the court of King
Roger II
Roger II ( it, Ruggero II; 22 December 1095 – 26 February 1154) was King of Sicily and Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in ...
. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in
Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
then belonging to the
Almoravids. He created the
Tabula Rogeriana
The ''Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq'' ( ar, نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق, lit. "The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands"), commonly known in the West as the ''Tabula Rogeriana'' (lit. "''The Book of ...
, one of the most advanced
medieval world maps.
Early life
Al-Idrisi was born into the
Hammudid
The Hammudid dynasty () was a Berberized Arab Muslim family that briefly ruled the Caliphate of CórdobaLane-Poole (1894), p.21 and the taifas of Málaga and Algeciras and nominal control in Ceuta.
The dynasty
The dynasty is named after their ...
family of
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
and
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
.
Al-Idrisi was born in the city of
Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
, at the time controlled by the Almoravids but now a part of Spain, where his great-grandfather had been forced to settle after the fall of
Hammudid
The Hammudid dynasty () was a Berberized Arab Muslim family that briefly ruled the Caliphate of CórdobaLane-Poole (1894), p.21 and the taifas of Málaga and Algeciras and nominal control in Ceuta.
The dynasty
The dynasty is named after their ...
Málaga to the
Zirids
The Zirid dynasty ( ar, الزيريون, translit=az-zīriyyūn), Banu Ziri ( ar, بنو زيري, translit=banū zīrī), or the Zirid state ( ar, الدولة الزيرية, translit=ad-dawla az-zīriyya) was a Sanhaja Berber dynasty from ...
of
Granada.
He spent much of his early life travelling through North Africa and Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain of the times) and seems to have acquired detailed information on both regions. He visited
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
when he was barely 16. He studied in
Córdoba.
His travels took him to many parts of Europe including
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
, the French Atlantic coast,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
, and
Jórvík
Scandinavian York ( non, Jórvík) Viking Yorkshire or Norwegian York is a term used by historians for the south of Northumbria (modern-day Yorkshire) during the period of the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was do ...
(now known as
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
).
Tabula Rogeriana
![TabulaRogeriana upside-down](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/TabulaRogeriana_upside-down.jpg)
Because of conflict and instability in
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
al-Idrisi joined contemporaries such as
Abu al-Salt
Abū aṣ‐Ṣalt Umayya ibn ʿAbd al‐ʿAzīz ibn Abī aṣ‐Ṣalt ad‐Dānī al‐Andalusī () (October 23, 1134), known in Latin as Albuzale, was an Andalusian-Arab polymath who wrote about pharmacology, geometry, Aristotelian physics, a ...
in Sicily, where the
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
s had overthrown Arabs formerly loyal to the
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...
s.
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: ''Opus Geographicum''), which may be translated ''A Diversion for the Man Longing to Travel to Far-Off Places''.
The ]Tabula Rogeriana
The ''Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq'' ( ar, نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق, lit. "The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands"), commonly known in the West as the ''Tabula Rogeriana'' (lit. "''The Book of ...
was drawn by al-Idrisi in 1154 for the Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
King Roger II of Sicily, after a stay of eighteen years at his court, where he worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map. The map, with legends written in Arabic, while showing the Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
n continent in its entirety, only shows the northern part of the African continent and lacks details of the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia.
For Roger it was inscribed on a massive disc of solid silver, two metres in diameter.
On the geographical work of al-Idrisi, S.P. Scott wrote in 1904:
Al-Idrisi's work influenced a number of Islamic scholars including Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, Hafiz-i Abru
Hafez-e AbruMaria Eva Subtelny and Charles Melville, ( fa, حافظ ابرو; died June 1430) was a Persian historian working at the courts of Timurid rulers of Central Asia. His full name is
ʿAbdallah (or Nur-Allah) Ebn Lotf-Allah Ebn 'Abd-al ...
, and Ibn Khaldun but his work was unknown in Western Europe and had little influence on the development of Renaissance cartography.
Description of islands in the North Sea
Al-Idrisi in his famous ''Tabula Rogeriana
The ''Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq'' ( ar, نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق, lit. "The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands"), commonly known in the West as the ''Tabula Rogeriana'' (lit. "''The Book of ...
'' mentioned ''Irlandah-al-Kabirah'' (Great Ireland
Great Ireland ( Old Norse: ''Írland hit mikla'' or ''Írland it mikla''), also known as White Men's Land (''Hvítramannaland''), and in Latin similarly as ''Hibernia Major'' and ''Albania'', was a land said by various Norsemen to be located n ...
). According to him, "from the extremity of Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
to that of Great Ireland," the sailing time was "one day." Although historians note that both al-Idrisi and the Norse tend to understate distances, the only location this reference is thought to have possibly pointed to, must likely have been in Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
.
Description of Chinese trade
Al-Idrisi mentioned that Chinese junks carried leather, swords, iron and silk. He mentions the glassware of the city of Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...
and labels Quanzhou's silk as the best.
In his records of Chinese trade, al-Idrisi also wrote about the Silla Dynasty
Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of Ko ...
(one of Korea's historical Dynasties, and a major trade partner to China at the time), and was one of the first Arabs to do so.
Nuzhat al-Mushtaq
As well as the maps, al-Idrisi produced a compendium of geographical information with the title ''Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi'khtiraq al-'afaq''. The title has been translated as ''The book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands'' or ''The pleasure of him who longs to cross the horizons''. It has been preserved in nine manuscripts, seven of which contain maps.
The translated title of this work (in the "pleasure of him ..." form) attracted favourable comment from the team selecting lists of names for features expected to be discovered by the New Horizons probe reconnoitring the Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...
system. The Al-Idrisi Montes is a geographical feature in that system named after him.
In the introduction, al-Idrisi mentions two sources for geographical coordinates
The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the vario ...
: Claudius Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importa ...
and "an astronomer" that must be Ishaq ibn al-Hasan al-Zayyat; and states that he has cross-checked oral reports from different informers to see if geographical coordinates were consistent.
Publication and translation
An abridged version of the Arabic text was published in Rome in 1592 with title: ''De geographia universali or Kitāb Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī dhikr al-amṣār wa-al-aqṭār wa-al-buldān wa-al-juzur wa-al-madā’ in wa-al-āfāq'' which in English would be ''Recreation of the desirer in the account of cities, regions, countries, islands, towns, and distant lands''. This was one of the first Arabic books ever printed.[ The first translation from the original Arabic was into Latin. The ]Maronites
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larg ...
Gabriel Sionita and Joannes Hesronita translated an abridged version of the text which was published in Paris in 1619 with the title of ''Geographia nubiensis''. Not until the middle of the 19th century was a complete translation of the Arabic text published. This was a translation into French by Pierre Amédée Jaubert
Pierre Amédée Emilien Probe Jaubert (3 June 1779 – 28 January 1847) was a French diplomat, academic, orientalist, translator, politician, and traveler. He was Napoleon's "favourite orientalist adviser and dragoman".
Biography
Born in Aix ...
. More recently sections of the text have been translated for particular regions. Beginning in 1970 a critical edition of the complete Arabic text was published.
Andalusian-American contact
Al-Idrisi's geographical text, ''Nuzhat al-Mushtaq'', is often cited by proponents of pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories. In this text, al-Idrisi wrote the following on the Atlantic Ocean:
This translation by Professor Muhammad Hamidullah
Muhammad Hamidullah ( ur, محمد حمیداللہ, translit=Muḥammad Ḥamīdullāh; 19 February 1908 – 17 December 2002) was a scholar of hadiths (''muhaddith)'' and Islamic law ( faqih) and a prolific academic author. A polymath with com ...
is however questionable, since it reports, after having reached an area of "sticky and stinking waters", the ''Mugharrarin'' (also translated as "the adventurers") moved back and first reached an uninhabited island where they found "a huge quantity of sheep the meat of which was bitter and uneatable" and, then, "continued southward" and reached the above reported island where they were soon surrounded by barques and brought to "a village whose inhabitants were often fair-haired with long and flaxen hair and the women of a rare beauty". Among the villagers, one spoke Arabic and asked them where they came from. Then the king of the village ordered them to bring them back to the continent where they were surprised to be welcomed by Berbers.
Apart from the marvellous and fanciful reports of this history, the most probable interpretation is that the ''Mugharrarin'' reached the Sargasso Sea, a part of the ocean covered by seaweed, which is very close to Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = "Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, es ...
yet one thousand miles away from the American mainland. Then while coming back, they may have landed either on the Azores
)
, motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace")
, anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores")
, image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg
, map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union
, map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
, or on Madeira or even on the westernmost Canary Island
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocco ...
, El Hierro
El Hierro, nicknamed ''Isla del Meridiano'' (the "Meridian Island"), is the second-smallest and farthest-south and -west of the Canary Islands (an autonomous community of Spain), in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, with a populatio ...
(because of the sheep). Last, the story with the inhabited island might have occurred either on Tenerife
Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...
or on Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that ...
, where the ''Mugharrarin'' presumably met members of the Guanche Guanche may refer to:
*Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canary Islands
*Guanche language, an extinct Berber language, spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century
*''Conus guanche
''Conus guanche'' is a species of sea snail, a ma ...
tribe. This would explain why some of them could speak Arabic (some sporadic contacts had been maintained between the Canary Islands and Morocco) and why they were quickly deported to Morocco where they were welcomed by Berbers. Yet, the story reported by Idrisi is an indisputable account of a certain knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean by Andalusians and Moroccans.
Furthermore, al-Idrisi writes an account of eight ''Mugharrarin'' all from the same family who set sail from Lisbon (''Lashbuna'') in the first half of that century and navigated in the seaweed rich seas beyond the Azores.
Idrisi describes an island of cormorants with which has been tentatively identified as Corvo, Cape Verde
Corvo is a settlement in the northeastern part of the island of Fogo, Cape Verde. It is situated near the coast, 5 km southeast of Mosteiros.
See also
*List of villages and settlements in Cape Verde
This is a list of villages and smalle ...
but on weak grounds.
Medical dictionary
Among the lesser known works of al-Idrisi is a medical dictionary that he compiled in which he brings down a list of simple
Simple or SIMPLE may refer to:
*Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple
Arts and entertainment
* ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track
* "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018
* "Simple", a song by Johnn ...
drugs and plants and their curative effects, used by physicians, apothecaries
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
and merchants in his day. The list is unique, as it includes the names of drugs in as many as 12 languages (among which are Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, Berber, Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
), including some sixty Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
terms transliterated into Arabic and which are thought to have been passed down to him by Andalusian Jewish informants. At the end of the section on medicinal herbs which are described under each letter of the alphabet, he gives an index of their entries. One of the books of herbal medicine frequently cited by al-Idrisi is Marwan ibn Ganah's ''Kitāb al-Talḫīṣ'', who in turn had been influenced by the Andalusian Arab physician Ibn Juljul
Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn Hassan Ibn Juljul ( ar, سليمان بن حسان ابن جلجل) (c. 944 Córdoba – c. 994) was an influential Andalusian Arab physician and pharmacologist of perhaps Spanish extraction. He wrote an important book on ...
.
In popular culture
* Al-Idrisi was the main character in Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...
's book entitled ''A Sultan in Palermo''.
* Al-Idrisi is a major character in Karol Szymanowski's 1926 opera King Roger
King Roger (Polish: , Op. 46) is an opera in three acts by Karol Szymanowski to a Polish libretto by the composer himself and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, the composer's cousin. The score was finished in 1924. The opera received its world premiere on ...
.
* Al-Idrisi's ideas on ''Mare Tenebrarum'' (Sea of Darkness) are alluded to in Pascal Mercier's book entitled ''Night Train to Lisbon''.
* The popular IDRISI
TerrSet (formerly IDRISI) is an integrated geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing software developed by Clark Labs at Clark University for the analysis and display of digital geospatial information. TerrSet is a PC grid-based syste ...
GIS system, developed by Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...
, is named after Muhammad al-Idrisi
* Al-Idrisi is a supporting character in Zeyn Joukhadar's novel ''The Map of Salt and Stars''
*In 2019, Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation
A brief (Old French from Latin "''brevis''", short) is a written legal document used in various legal adversarial systems that is presented to a court arguing why one party to a particular case should prevail.
In England and Wales (and other Com ...
created an interpretation of Al-Idrisi's world map, a silver disk 2m in diameter based on the maps contained in the Bodleian Library's copy of the ''Nuzhat al-Mushtaq''.
Gallery
File:Carte générale du globe tirée de la géographie d'El-Edrisi, milieu du XIIe s. de l'ère vulgaire - btv1b100601717.jpg , Another version, huge resolution
File:12th-century map of the Indian Ocean by Al-Idrisi.jpg, Al-Idrisi's map of the Indian Ocean.
File:Al-Idrisi-Azerbaijan.JPG, Al-Idrisi's map of North West Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
what is modern day Iranian Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
.
File:Muhammad al-Idrisi - Oxford transcript of V-4.jpg, Al-Idrisi's map of the northern shoreline of Marmara Region
The Marmara Region ( Turkish: ''Marmara Bölgesi'') is a geographical region of Turkey.
Located in northwestern Turkey, it is bordered by Greece and the Aegean Sea to the west, Bulgaria and the Black Sea to the north, the Black Sea Region to th ...
.
File:Muhammad al-Idrisi - Oxford transcript of VI-4.jpg, Al-Idrisi's map of the Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
.
File:Muhammad al-Idrisi - Saint Petersburg transcript of VI-5.jpg, Al-Idrisi's map of the Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
.
File:1154 Tabula Rogeriana noroeste Peninsula Iberica Al Idrisi copia mas antigua.jpg, Al-Idrisi's map of the Iberian peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
.
File:1154 Tabula Rogeriana Al Idrisi transcripcion de Konrad Miller 1928 detalle.jpg, Al-Idrisi's map of the Iberian peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
.
File:Al-Idrisi Finland.jpg, Al-Idrisi's description of Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
File:Senegal River according to al-Idrisi.jpg, Map of the Senegal River according to al-Idrisi.
See also
*Al-Bakri
Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī ( ar, أبو عبيد عبد الله بن عبد العزيز بن محمد بن أيوب بن عمرو البكري), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1 ...
*Ibn Jubayr
Ibn Jubayr (1 September 1145 – 29 November 1217; ar, ابن جبير), also written Ibn Jubair, Ibn Jobair, and Ibn Djubayr, was an Arab geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus. His travel chronicle describes the pilgrimage he made to M ...
*Abu al-Salt
Abū aṣ‐Ṣalt Umayya ibn ʿAbd al‐ʿAzīz ibn Abī aṣ‐Ṣalt ad‐Dānī al‐Andalusī () (October 23, 1134), known in Latin as Albuzale, was an Andalusian-Arab polymath who wrote about pharmacology, geometry, Aristotelian physics, a ...
*History of cartography
The history of cartography refers to the development and consequences of cartography, or mapmaking technology, throughout human history. Maps have been one of the most important human inventions for millennia, allowing humans to explain and navi ...
*Islamic geography
Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of geography and cartography in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age (variously dated between the 8th century and 16th century). Muslim scholars made advances to the map-maki ...
* List of Arab scientists
Notes
References
Bibliography
*.
*.
*.
*. A critical edition of the Arabic text.
* Al-Idrîsî (1995), ''Kitâb al-Jâmi' li- sifât ashtât al-nabât wa-durûb anwâ' al-mufradât / Compendium of the Properties of Diverse Plants and Various Kinds of Simple Drugs'', vols. I-III, Fuat Sezgin
Fuat Sezgin (24 October 1924 – 30 June 2018) was a Turkish orientalist who specialized in the history of Arabic-Islamic science. He was ''professor emeritus'' of the History of Natural Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankf ...
(ed). ()
*
*
*Ferrer-Gallardo, X. and Kramsch, O. T. (2016), Revisiting Al-Idrissi: The EU and the (Euro)Mediterranean Archipelago Frontier. ''Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie'', 107: 162–176. doi:10.1111/tesg.12177 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tesg.12177/abstract
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*. Volume 1
Gallica
Internet Archive
Volume 2
Gallica
Internet Archive
Complete translation of ''Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq'' into French.
*. First published in 1981. Section on the Maghrib and Sudan from ''Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq''.
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Further reading
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External links
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Britannica
Bibliothèque nationale de France (French)
Idrisi's world map
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
. Konrad Miller's 1927 consolidation and transliteration, with high-resolution zoom browser.
Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
High resolution images of works by al-Idrisi in .jpg and .tiff format.
IDRISI GIS home page
"Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa: Containing a Description of the Several Nations for the Space of Six Hundred Miles up the River Gambia"
features English translations of work by al-Idrisi. The manuscript dates from 1738.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Idrisi, Muhammad
Geographers of the medieval Islamic world
People from Ceuta
Hammudid dynasty
1100 births
1160s deaths
Holy Land travellers
Travel writers of the medieval Islamic world
Kingdom of Sicily people
Almoravid writers
12th-century Arabs
12th-century travelers
12th-century geographers