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WonderMedieval cartography fact

The geographer al-Idrisi completed the Tabula Rogeriana, a world atlas made for King Roger II of Sicily, in 1154. He spent some fifteen years comparing earlier written geography with accounts collected from travellers.

Tabula Rogeriana

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The story behind the card

Al-Idrisi was born around 1100, probably in Ceuta, and studied in Córdoba before Roger II invited him to his court in Palermo, where Arabic, Greek and Latin learning met. The book's Arabic title, Nuzhat al-mushtaq, means roughly 'the journey of one eager to cross distant horizons'. It divides the known world into seven climate zones from south to north, each cut into ten sections, giving seventy regional maps with descriptions of roads, ports, distances and trade. As in much Islamic mapmaking of the time, south is at the top. Al-Idrisi also engraved a world map on a large silver disc, now lost. Roger II died only weeks after the work was finished.

Türkçe oku
Coğrafyacı İdrîsî, Sicilya Kralı II. Roger için hazırladığı Tabula Rogeriana adlı dünya atlasını 1154'te tamamladı. On beş yıl kadar, eski coğrafya kitaplarında yazanları gezginlerden derlediği anlatılarla karşılaştırdı.

İdrîsî 1100 dolaylarında, büyük olasılıkla Septe'de (bugünkü Ceuta) doğdu ve Kurtuba'da okudu. Ardından II. Roger onu, Arap, Yunan ve Latin bilgisinin buluştuğu Palermo'daki sarayına çağırdı. Eserin Arapça adı Nüzhetü'l-Müştâk, kabaca “uzak ufukları aşmaya hevesli olanın gezisi” anlamına gelir. Kitap bilinen dünyayı güneyden kuzeye yedi iklim kuşağına, her kuşağı da on bölüme ayırır; böylece yollar, limanlar, mesafeler ve ticaret üzerine açıklamalarla birlikte yetmiş bölge haritası ortaya çıkar. Dönemin birçok İslam haritasında olduğu gibi güney yukarıdadır. İdrîsî ayrıca büyük bir gümüş levhaya bir dünya haritası kazıdı; bu levha bugün kayıptır. II. Roger, eserin tamamlanmasından yalnızca birkaç hafta sonra öldü.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Tabula Rogeriana
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