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Muhammad al-Idrisi
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Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti or simply El Idrisi (; ) (1100 – 1165 or 1166) was an Arab geographer, cartographer and traveller who lived in Sicily, at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in the North African city of Ceuta then belonging to the Almoravid Empire (nowadays Ceuta, Spain) and died in Sicily, or maybe in Sabtah.
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Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti or simply El Idrisi (; ) (1100 – 1165 or 1166) was an Arab geographer, cartographer and traveller who lived in Sicily, at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in the North African city of Ceuta then belonging to the Almoravid Empire (nowadays Ceuta, Spain) and died in Sicily, or maybe in Sabtah. The airport of the Moroccan city Al Hoceima is named after Al Idrisi. Al Idrisi was a descendent of the Idrisid rulers of Morocco, who in turn were descendants of Hasan ibn Ali, the son of Ali and the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Tabula Rogeriana
Al-Idrisi incorporated the knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Far East gathered by Arab merchants and explorers with the information inherited from the classical geographers to create the most accurate map of the world in pre-modern times.
The Tabula Rogeriana was drawn by Al-Idrisi in 1154 for the Norman 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, written in Arabic, shows the Eurasian continent in its entirety, but only shows the northern part of the African continent.
On the work of al-Idrisi, S. P. Scott commented:
The compilation of Edrisi marks an era in the history of science. Not only is its historical information most interesting and valuable, but its descriptions of many parts of the earth are still authoritative. For three centuries geographers copied his maps without alteration. The relative position of the lakes which form the Nile, as delineated in his work, does not differ greatly from that established by Baker and Stanley more than seven hundred years afterwards, and their number is the same. The mechanical genius of the author was not inferior to his erudition. The celestial and terrestrial planisphere of silver which he constructed for his royal patron was nearly six feet in diameter, and weighed four hundred and fifty pounds; upon the one side the zodiac and the constellations, upon the other-divided for convenience into segments-the bodies of land and water, with the respective situations of the various countries, were engraved.
Nuzhatul Mushtaq
Al-Idrisi wrote another geographical text entitled Nuzhatul Mushtaq, which 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 Dr Professor Muhammad Hamidullah his however questionable, since it tells us that, 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 fancying 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 yet one thousand miles away from the American mainland. Then while coming back, they may have landed either on the Azores, or on Madeira or even on the westernmost Canary island, Hiero (because of the sheep). Last, the story with the inhabited island might have occurred either on Tenerife or on Gran Canaria, where the Mugharrarin presumably met some Guanche 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 undisputable account of a certain knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean by the Arabs and by their Andalusian and Moroccan vassals.
See also
External links
- BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) type "Arabe 2221" in the box "Cote", then hit "chercher", then "Images" for images of the manuscript of al-Idrisi
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- , Bibliothèque nationale de France (french)
- , Library of Congress. Konrad Miller's 1927 consolidation and transliteration, with high-resolution zoom browser.
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