Geography and cartography in the medieval Islamic world

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Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of

mathematical geography.[1] Islamic geography reached its apex with Muhammad al-Idrisi
in the 12th century.

History

8th and 9th century

Islamic geography began in the 8th century, influenced by Hellenistic geography,

Abu Rayhan Biruni and Muhammad al-Idrisi
.

Islamic geography was patronized by the

circumference of the Earth. Al-Mamun also commanded the production of a large map of the world, which has not survived,[4]: 61–63  though it is known that its map projection type was based on Marinus of Tyre rather than Ptolemy.[2]
: 193 

Islamic cartographers inherited Ptolemy's

Prime Meridian
several degrees eastward, and modifying many of Ptolemy's geographical coordinates.

Having received Greek writings directly and without Latin intermediation, Arabian and Persian geographers made no use of

T-O maps.[5]

In the 9th century, the

Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī (973–1048) later developed ideas which are seen as an anticipation of the polar coordinate system.[7] Around 1025, he describes a polar equi-azimuthal equidistant projection of the celestial sphere.[8]: 153  However, this type of projection had been used in ancient Egyptian star-maps and was not to be fully developed until the 15 and 16th centuries.[9]

Khordadbeh–Jayhani tradition

The works of Ibn Khordadbeh (c. 870) and Jayhani (c. 910s) were at the basis of a new Perso-Arab tradition in Persia and Central Asia.[10] The exact relationship between the books of Khordadbeh and Jayhani is unknown, because the two books had the same title, have often been mixed up, and Jayhani's book has been lost, so that it can only be approximately reconstructed from the works of other authors (mostly from the eastern parts of the Islamic world[11]) who seem to have reused some of its contents.[10][12] According to Vasily Bartold, Jayhani based his book primarily on the data he had collected himself, but also reused Khordadbeh's work to a considerable extent.[10] Unlike the Balkhi school, geographers of the Khordadbeh–Jayhani tradition sought to describe the whole world as they knew it, including the lands, societies and cultures of non-Muslims.[13] As vizier of the Samanid Empire, Jayhani's diplomatic correspondence allowed him to collect much valuable information from people in faraway lands.[14] Nevertheless, Al-Masudi criticised Jayhani for overemphasising geological features of landscapes, stars and geometry, taxation systems, trade roads and stations allegedly few people used, while ignoring major population centres, provinces and military roads and forces.[15]

Balkhi school

The Balkhī school of terrestrial mapping, originated by

Arabia, and ignored the non-Islamic world.[13] This distinguished them from earlier geographers such as Ibn Khordadbeh and Al-Masudi, who described the whole world as they knew it.[13]
The geographers of this school, such as
al-Muqaddasi and Ibn Hawqal, wrote extensively of the peoples, products, and customs of areas in the Muslim world, with little interest in the non-Muslim realms,[4] and produced world atlases, each one featuring a world map and twenty regional maps.[2]
: 194 

Regional cartography

Fars from the Kitab al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik (Book of postal routes and kingdoms) of al-Istakhri

Islamic regional cartography is usually categorized into three groups: that produced by the "

Book of curiosities.[4]

The maps by the Balkhī schools were defined by political, not longitudinal boundaries and covered only the Muslim world. In these maps the distances between various "stops" (cities or rivers) were equalized. The only shapes used in designs were verticals, horizontals, 90-degree angles, and arcs of circles; unnecessary geographical details were eliminated. This approach is similar to that used in

Harry Beck.[4]
: 85–87 

Al-Idrīsī defined his maps differently. He considered the extent of the known world to be 160° and had to symbolize 50 dogs in longitude and divided the region into ten parts, each 16° wide. In terms of latitude, he portioned the known world into seven 'climes', determined by the length of the longest day. In his maps, many dominant geographical features can be found.[4]

Book on the appearance of the Earth

Geography, consisting of a list of 2402 coordinates of cities and other geographical features following a general introduction.[16]

Al-Khwārizmī,

Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī and Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi at Ujjain, a centre of Indian astronomy, and by another anonymous writer at Basra.[2]
: 189 

Al-Biruni

Diagram illustrating a method proposed and used by Al-Biruni to estimate the radius and circumference of the Earth in the 11th century.

cubits, so the accuracy of his estimate compared to the modern value depends on what conversion is used for cubits. The exact length of a cubit is not clear; with an 18 inch cubit his estimate would be 3,600 miles, whereas with a 22 inch cubit his estimate would be 4,200 miles.[20] One significant problem with this approach is that Al-Biruni was not aware of atmospheric refraction and made no allowance for it. He used a dip angle of 34 arc minutes in his calculations, but refraction can typically alter the measured dip angle by about 1/6, making his calculation only accurate to within about 20% of the true value.[21]

In his Codex Masudicus (1037), Al-Biruni theorized the existence of a landmass along the vast ocean between Asia and Europe, or what is today known as the Americas. He argued for its existence on the basis of his accurate estimations of the Earth's circumference and Afro-Eurasia's size, which he found spanned only two-fifths of the Earth's circumference, reasoning that the geological processes that gave rise to Eurasia must surely have given rise to lands in the vast ocean between Asia and Europe. He also theorized that at least some of the unknown landmass would lie within the known latitudes which humans could inhabit, and therefore would be inhabited.[22]

Tabula Rogeriana

Main article: Tabula Rogeriana

The Arab geographer

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.[23] With funding from Roger II of Sicily (1097–1154), al-Idrisi drew on the knowledge collected at the University of Cordoba and paid draftsmen to make journeys and map their routes. The book describes the Earth as a sphere with a circumference of 22,900 miles (36,900 km) but maps it in 70 rectangular sections. Notable features include the correct dual sources of the Nile, the coast of Ghana and mentions of Norway. Climate zones were a chief organizational principle. A second and shortened copy from 1192 called Garden of Joys is known by scholars as the Little Idrisi.[24]

On the work of al-Idrisi, S. P. Scott commented:[23]

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.

— S. P. Scott, History of the Moorish Empire in Europe

Al-Idrisi's atlas, originally called the Nuzhat in Arabic, served as a major tool for Italian, Dutch and French mapmakers from the 16th century to the 18th century.[25]

Piri Reis map

Main article: Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Approximately one third of the map survives; it shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accuracy. Various Atlantic islands, including the Azores and Canary Islands, are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia and possibly Japan.

Others

Suhrāb, a late 10th-century Muslim geographer, accompanied a book of geographical

Southwest Asia and Central Asia. The earliest surviving world maps based on a rectangular coordinate grid are attributed to al-Mustawfi in the 14th or 15th century (who used invervals of ten degrees for the lines), and to Hafiz-i Abru (died 1430).[2]
: 200–01 

In the 11th century, the Karakhanid Turkic scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari was the first to draw a unique Islamic world map,[26] where he illuminated the cities and places of the Turkic peoples of Central and Inner Asia. He showed the lake Issyk-Kul (in nowadays Kyrgyzstan) as the centre of the world.

Ibn Battuta (1304–1368?) wrote "Rihlah" (Travels) based on three decades of journeys, covering more than 120,000 km through northern Africa, southern Europe, and much of Asia.

Muslim astronomers and geographers were aware of magnetic declination by the 15th century, when the Egyptian astronomer 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Wafa'i (d. 1469/1471) measured it as 7 degrees from Cairo.[27]

Instruments

Astrolabe from 9th century North Africa

Muslim scholars invented and refined a number of scientific instruments in mathematical geography and cartography. These included the astrolabe, quadrant, gnomon, celestial sphere, sundial, and compass.[1]

Astrolabe

Muhammad al-Fazari is the first person credited with building the astrolabe in the Islamic world.[30]

The mathematical background was established by Muslim astronomer

Salat, Qibla, etc.[31][32]

Compass

See also: History of the compass
Al-Ashraf's diagram of the compass and Qibla. From MS Cairo TR 105, copied in Yemen, 1293.[33]

The earliest reference to a

Arabic reference to a compass, in the form of magnetic needle in a bowl of water, comes from a work by Baylak al-Qibjāqī, written in 1282 while in Cairo.[34][38] Al-Qibjāqī described a needle-and-bowl compass used for navigation on a voyage he took from Syria to Alexandria in 1242.[34] Since the author describes having witnessed the use of a compass on a ship trip some forty years earlier, some scholars are inclined to antedate its first appearance in the Arab world accordingly.[34] Al-Qibjāqī also reports that sailors in the Indian Ocean used iron fish instead of needles.[39]

Late in the 13th century, the

sundials, al-Ashraf includes several paragraphs on the construction of a compass bowl (ṭāsa). He then uses the compass to determine the north point, the meridian (khaṭṭ niṣf al-nahār), and the Qibla. This is the first mention of a compass in a medieval Islamic scientific text and its earliest known use as a Qibla indicator, although al-Ashraf did not claim to be the first to use it for this purpose.[33][41]

In 1300, an Arabic treatise written by the

Arab navigators also introduced the 32-point compass rose during this time.[43] In 1399, an Egyptian reports two different kinds of magnetic compass. One instrument is a “fish” made of willow wood or pumpkin, into which a magnetic needle is inserted and sealed with tar or wax to prevent the penetration of water. The other instrument is a dry compass.[39]

In the 15th century, the description given by

Ibn Majid while aligning the compass with the pole star indicates that he was aware of magnetic declination. An explicit value for the declination is given by ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Wafāʾī (fl. 1450s in Cairo).[36]

Premodern Arabic sources refer to the compass using the term ṭāsa (lit. "bowl") for the floating compass, or ālat al-qiblah ("qibla instrument") for a device used for orienting towards Mecca.[36]

Friedrich Hirth suggested that Arab and Persian traders, who learned about the polarity of the magnetic needle from the Chinese, applied the compass for navigation before the Chinese did.[44] However, Needham described this theory as "erroneous" and "it originates because of a mistranslation" of the term chia-ling found in Zhu Yu's book Pingchow Table Talks.[45]

Notable geographers

Khordadbeh–Jayhani tradition geographers

Balkhi school geographers

  • Abu Zayd al-Balkhi (850–934): Suwar al-aqālīm ("Images of the Climes")[11] or al-Amthila wa-suwar al-ard ("Similitudes and Images of the Earth"), written in 920 or after[11]

Others

Gallery

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-94-007-3934-5
    . A prominent feature of the achievement of Muslim scholars in mathematical geography and cartography was the invention of scientific instruments of measurement. Among these were the astrolab (astrolabe), the ruba (quadrant), the gnomon, the celestial sphere, the sundial, and the compass.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-12410-2
    .
  3. ISBN 0-226-31635-1
  4. ^ a b c d e f Edson and Savage-Smith (2004)[full citation needed]
  5. ^ a b Edson & Savage-Smith 2004, pp. 61–63.
  6. ISBN 978-0-444-50328-2
    .
  7. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Abu Arrayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  8. ^ King, David A. (1996). "Astronomy and Islamic society: Qibla, gnomics and timekeeping". In Rashed, Roshdi (ed.). Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. 1. London, UK and New York, USA: Routledge. pp. 128–184.
  9. ^ Rankin, Bill (2006). "Projection Reference". Radical Cartography.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth & Asimov 2003, p. 217–218.
  11. ^ a b c d Bosworth & Asimov 2003, p. 218.
  12. ^ Minorsky 1937, p. xvi–xvii.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bosworth & Asimov 2003, p. 219.
  14. ^ a b c d e Minorsky 1937, p. xvii.
  15. ^ Minorsky 1937, p. xviii.
  16. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Cartography", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  17. S2CID 145173935. Archived from the original
    on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
  18. ^ Pingree 2010b.
  19. S2CID 119230163
    .
  20. ^ Douglas (1973, p.211)
  21. ISBN 9780674072824
    .
  22. ^ Starr, S. Frederick (12 December 2013). "So, Who Did Discover America? | History Today". www.historytoday.com. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  23. ^ a b Scott, S. P. (1904). History of the Moorish Empire in Europe. Harvard University Press. pp. 461–2.
  24. ^ "Slide #219: World Maps of al-Idrisi". Henry Davis Consulting.
  25. ISBN 9781135459321
    .
  26. ^ Hermann A. Die älteste türkische Weltkarte (1076 η. Ch.) // Imago Mundi: Jahrbuch der Alten Kartographie. — Berlin, 1935. — Bd.l. — S. 21—28.
  27. S2CID 161732080
  28. ISSN 1475-4878
    .
  29. ISBN 978-0-691-11485-9
  30. Richard Nelson Frye
    : Golden Age of Persia. p. 163
  31. ^ Dr. Emily Winterburn (National Maritime Museum), Using an Astrolabe, Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation, 2005.
  32. ISBN 978-0-521-80040-2
    .
  33. ^
    doi:10.5617/jais.4547. http://www.uib.no/jais/v001ht/01-081-132schmidl1.htm#_ftn4 Archived 2014-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
  34. ^
    JSTOR 3102323
  35. ^ Jawāmeʿ al-ḥekāyāt wa-lawāmeʿ al-rewāyāt by Muhammad al-ʿAwfī
  36. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-981257-8
    .
  37. ^ Needham p. 12-13 "...that the floating fish-shaped iron leaf spread outside China as a technique, we know from the description of Muhammad al' Awfi just two hundred years later"
  38. ^ Kitāb Kanz al-tujjār fī maʿrifat al-aḥjār
  39. ^ a b "Early Arabic Sources on the Magnetic Compass" (PDF). Lancaster.ac.uk. Retrieved 2016-08-02.
  40. S2CID 33884974
    .
  41. ISBN 9780387310220. (PDF version
    )
  42. ^ (King 1983, pp. 547–8)
  43. S2CID 120284234
    .
  44. ^ Hirth, Friedrich (1908). Ancient history of China to the end of the Chóu dynasty. New York, The Columbia university press. p. 134.
  45. ISBN 978-0-521-05802-5
    .
  46. ^ a b Minorsky 1937, p. xix.
  47. ^ Bosworth & Asimov 2003, p. 218–219.
  48. ^ Minorsky 1937, p. xviii–xix, 5.
  49. ^ a b Minorsky 1937, p. xviii–xix.

Sources

External links
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