Geography and cartography in medieval Islam

Geography and cartography in medieval Islam refers to the advancement of geography, cartography and the earth sciences in the medieval Islamic civilization.

After its beginnings in the 8th century based on Hellenistic geography,[1] Islamic geography was patronized by the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. Various Islamic scholars contributed to its development, and the most notable include Al-Khwārizmī, Abū Zayd al-Balkhī (founder of the 'Balkhī school') and Abu Rayhan Biruni. Muslim geography reached its apex with Muhammad al-Idrisi in the 12th century. Later developments took place under Turks, particularly under the Ottoman Empire, with notable scholars such as Mahmud al-Kashgari and Piri Reis.

Contents

Impetus

Previous learning

Islamic cartographers inherited Ptolemy's Almagest and Geographia in the 9th century which is said to have stimulated an interest in geography and map-making, however, they made almost no direct use of the latter in map-making.[2] The way in which earlier knowledge reached Muslim scholars is crucial. For example, since Muslims inherited Greek writings directly without the influence of the Latin west, T-O maps play no role in Islamic cartography though popular in the European counterpart.[2] Muslim scientists then made many of their own contributions to geography and the earth sciences.

See also

Notes and references

Notes
Citations
  1. ^ Gerald R. Tibbetts, The Beginnings of a Cartographic Tradition, in: John Brian Harley, David Woodward: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, Chicago, 1992, pp. 90-107 (97-100), ISBN 0-226-31635-1
  2. ^ a b Edson & Savage-Smith 2004, pp. 61–63.
Bibliography
  • Alavi, S. M. Ziauddin (1965), Arab geography in the ninth and tenth centuries, Aligarh: Aligarh University Press
  • Edson, Evelyn; Savage-Smith, Emilie (2004). Savage-Smith, Emilie. ed. Medieval Views of the Cosmos. Oxford: Bodleian Library. ISBN 9781851241842. 
  • King, David A. (1983), "The Astronomy of the Mamluks", Isis 74 (4): 531–555, doi:10.1086/353360 
  • King, David A. (2002), "A Vetustissimus Arabic Text on the Quadrans Vetus", Journal for the History of Astronomy 33: 237–255 
  • King, David A. (December 2003), "14th-Century England or 9th-Century Baghdad? New Insights on the Elusive Astronomical Instrument Called Navicula de Venetiis", Centaurus 45 (1-4): 204–226, doi:10.1111/j.1600-0498.2003.450117.x 
  • King, David A. (2005), In Synchrony with the Heavens, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization: Instruments of Mass Calculation, Brill Publishers, ISBN 900414188X 
  • McGrail, Sean (2004), Boats of the World, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199271860 
  • Mott, Lawrence V. (May 1991), The Development of the Rudder, A.D. 100-1337: A Technological Tale, Thesis, Texas A&M University
  • Rashed, Roshdi; Morelon, Régis (1996), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, 1 & 3, Routledge, ISBN 0415124107 
  • Sezgin, Fuat (2000) (in German), Geschichte Des Arabischen Schrifttums X–XII: Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im Islam und ihr Fortleben im Abendland, Historische Darstellung, Teil 1–3, Frankfurt am Main 

External links

Geography and cartography in medieval Islam
Geographers
9th century
10th century
11th century
12th century
13th century
14th century
15th century
16th century
Works
Schools

Balkhi school • Iraqi school
Influences