Muhammad al-Idrisi: Encyclopedia - Muhammad al-Idrisi

Muhammad al-Idrisi

Al-Idrisi (b.1100-d.1165 or 1166) full name Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi was an Arab cartographer, geographer and traveller who lived in Sicily, at the court of King Roger II. Muhammad al-Idrisi was born in Sabtah, then belonging to the Almoravid Empire (nowadays Ceuta, Spain) and died in Sicily, or maybe in Sabtah.

In 1154 al-Idrisi made a large, south-oriented mappa mundi known as the Tabula Rogeriana and an accompanying book, named Geography. Taken together, they were named Nuzhat al-Mushtak by Roger, but Kitab Rudjar ("Roger's Book") by al-Idrisi.

A second, expanded edition was produced in 1161 with the remarkable title The Gardens of Humanity and the Amusement of the Soul, but all copies of it have been lost. An abridged version of this edition, named Garden of Joys -- but usually referred to as the Little Idrisi -- was published in 1192.

The book is not a perfect historical source, as al-Idrisi (as was common then and for many more centuries) relied on other sources for it. For example, when writing about Poland he has conflated it with the land that is the modern-day Czech Republic, because he wrote about "a country surrounded by mountains".

Categories: Articles lacking sources | 1100s births | 1160s deaths | Arab geographers

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Muhammad al-Idrisi", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki