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Geography and cartography in medieval Islam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geography and cartography in medieval Islam refers to the advancement of geography, cartography and the earth sciences in the medieval Islamic civilization. During the Middle Ages, Islamic geography was driven by a number of factors: the Islamic Golden Age, parallel development of Islamic astronomy and Islamic mathematics, translation of ancient texts (particularly Hellenistic ones) into Arabic, increased travel due to commerce and Hajj (the Islamic pilgrimage), and the "Muslim age of discovery" and "Muslim Agricultural Revolution".
After its beginning in the 8th century, 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'), Abu Rayhan Biruni and Avicenna. 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.
Impetus
Islamic golden age
When the capital of the Muslim world moved to Baghdad in 750, the city became the center study and translation of scientific writings, attracting scholars of all sorts. Learned men enjoyed caliphal patronage, especially of Harun al-Rashid and Al-Mamun. This learning was undertaken by both Muslims and non-Muslims and by those who spoke Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Persian and Syriac; although Arabic remained the lingua franca and Islam the dominant faith.[1]
Islamic astronomy
Muslim Arabs, for various reasons, were interested in astronomy: Bedouin land caravans and sea merchants used them for navigation during the night, and the encouragement given by certain verses of the Qur'an. Interest in astronomy directly led to the belief that earth was a globe.[2] Technologies used for the furtherance of astronomy had immediate applications in geography as well. For example, the astrolabe used in astronomy was also used for celestial navigation and land surveying.[3]
Previous learning
Both the Greeks and Romans were known to have made maps and written geographical works. In the case of the Romans this was a natural outcome of the expansion of their empire. Many of these works were studied and translated by Muslims.[4]
Travels
Long distance travel created a need for mapping, and travelers often provided the information to achieve the task. While such travel during the medieval period was hazardous, Muslims nonetheless undertook long journeys. One motive for these was the Hajj or the Muslim pilgrimage. Annually, Muslims came to Mecca in Arabia from Africa, Islamic Iberia, Persia and India. Another motive for travels was commerce. Muslims were involved in trade with Europeans, Indians and the Chinese, and Muslim merchants travelled long distances to conduct commercial activities.[5]
Age of discovery
During the Muslim conquests of the seventh and early eighth centuries, Arab armies established the Islamic Arab Empire, reaching from Central Asia to the Iberian Peninsula. An early form of globalization began emerging during the Islamic Golden Age, when the knowledge, trade and economies from many previously isolated regions and civilizations began integrating due to contacts with Muslim explorers, sailors, scholars, traders, and travelers. Subhi Y. Labib has called this period the Pax Islamica, and John M. Hobson has called it the Afro-Asiatic age of discovery, in reference to the Muslim Southwest Asian and North African traders and explorers who travelled most of the Old World, and established an early global economy[6] across most of Asia, Africa, and Europe, with their trade networks extending from the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Indian Ocean and China Seas in the east,[7] and even as far as Japan, Korea[8] and the Bering Strait.[9] Arabic silver dirham coins were also being circulated throughout the Afro-Eurasian landmass, as far as sub-Saharan Africa in the south and northern Europe in the north, often in exchange for goods and slaves.[10] In England, for example, the Anglo-Saxon king Offa of Mercia (r. 757-796) had coins minted with the Shahadah in Arabic.[11] These factors helped establish the Arab Empire (including the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates) as the world's leading extensive economic power throughout the 7th–13th centuries.[6]
Apart from the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, navigable rivers in the Islamic regions were uncommon, so transport by sea was very important. Navigational sciences were highly developed, making use of a magnetic compass and a rudimentary instrument known as a kamal, used for celestial navigation and for measuring the altitudes and latitudes of the stars. When combined with detailed maps of the period, sailors were able to sail across oceans rather than skirt along the coast. According to the political scientist Hobson, the origins of the caravel ship, used for long-distance travel by the Spanish and Portuguese since the 15th century, date back to the qarib used by Andalusian explorers by the 13th century.[12]
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368) was a traveler and explorer, whose account documents his travels and excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 73,000 miles (117,000 km). These journeys covered most of the known Old World, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the west, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the east, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo.
History and topics
Muslims translated many of the Hellenistic documents. 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.[13] Some of the important Greek writings include the Almagest and the Geographia. Muslim scientists then made many of their own contributions to geography and the earth sciences.
Many Islamic scholars declared a mutual agreement (Ijma) that celestial bodies are round, among them Ibn Hazm (d. 1069), Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1200), and Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328).[14] Ibn Taymiya said, "Celestial bodies are round—as it is the statement of astronomers and mathematicians—it is likewise the statement of the scholars of Islam". Abul-Hasan ibn al-Manaadi, Abu Muhammad Ibn Hazm, and Abul-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi have said that the Muslim scholars are in agreement that all celestial bodies are round. Ibn Taymiyah also remarked that Allah has said, "And He (Allah) it is Who created the night and the day, the sun and the moon. They float, each in a Falak." Ibn Abbas says, "A Falaka like that of a spinning wheel." The word 'Falak' (in the Arabic language) means "that which is round."[14][15] Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), in his Muqaddimah, also identified the world as spherical.