![]() ![]() Some of the greatest traveler-geographers were Ibn Hawqal, who traveled for over 30 years and wrote about the places and people he saw, and the famous al-Mas’udi. Al-Kindi, the philosopher, wrote an account of the inhabited parts of earth as known then. The earliest geographic works by Muslims are from the 9th and 10th centuries, and the work continued on into Ottoman times in the 16th century and beyond.Īmong the earliest Muslim geographers were al-Khwarizmi, the mathematician, who participated in a project to draw a map of the known earth in the early 9th century CE. ![]() They soon overtook the limited knowledge of their predecessors, however, both because of the huge Muslim territory and expanding trade networks, and because of technical advances in mathematics and astronomy that allowed more accurate surveying on land and at sea. Muslim geographers began their work on the basis of Greek and Roman traditions of geographic writing, especially Ptolemy’s Geographia. Map of the Ummayad Caliphate in 750 CE (Hisham10000 on Wikimedia). Among these travelers - which included scientists in mathematics, astronomy, and other fields - were those who compiled geographic works full of information about other places, people, and technologies. A great collection of ideas and knowledge was the result. Among the earliest forms of scholarship were the accounts of travelers and diplomats describing the places where they traveled. These lands included a variety of peoples, landscapes, climates, and customs. Another passage states: “And of His signs is this: He sends herald winds to make you taste His mercy, and that the ships may sail at His command, and that you may seek His favor, and that you may be thankful” (Qur’an 30:46).īy the 8th century CE, Muslim lands stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders of China, and from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. This is a copy by Konrad Miller with Latinicized names.įor example, one passage reads: “Have they not traveled in the land, and have they hearts wherewith to feel and ears wherewith to hear?” (Qur’an 22:46). In 1154 CE, al-Idrisi created the “Tabula Rogeriana” for King Roger II of Sicily. ![]()
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