Mapping a lost map

February 24, 2025 7:27 PM

The lost map of Al-idrisi The 12th-century Islamic cartographer al-Idrisi for created this world map in 1154 for Roger II of Sicily. It was a masterpiece of mapping which remained the most technically sophisticated world-map for three centuries after its production. Drawing on several centuries of Islamic cartographic research, al-Idrisi produced both a single, round map engraved onto a silver disk and set into a wooden table, with Mecca at its centre and a detailed book titled the Nuzhat al-mushtāq fi'khtirāq al-āfāq, or the Entertainment for those wanting to discover the world. Factum Foundation has re-created al-Idrisi’s fabled map. Neither facsimile nor copy, this re-creation combines detailed historical research and advanced digital techniques with the highest levels of craftsmanship.
posted by dhruva (11 comments total)

I like that the first division of the world mentioned is its “seven climates”.
posted by clew at 8:19 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

And, to put maps like al-Idrisi's to use, there were astrolabes, whose craft was perfected in Muslim al-Andalus. The well-known explorations of Spanish mariners under the aegis of the Catholic royals would not have gone nearly as well without the technology inherent in astrolabes.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 12:31 AM on February 25 [8 favorites]

Ooooo, olde mappes: adsum jam forte.
↪ "As the edges of each page did not align precisely with the pages surrounding it, mismatched features such as mountain ranges and rivers had to be adjusted to create continuity from one map to the next".
We live in the townland [Ireland's smallest civil division; ~40-200 hectares each] of Knockroe [Cnoc rua, the red hill]. There are 47 other townlands in the country with the same name, some day I will capture the 2km x 2km squares containing each 'Knockroe' from the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 map series and jigsaw them together into a 6x8 block representing County Knockroe. Obvs, the roads and rivers will have to be digitally adjusted so that they don't come to an abrupt end every 2km.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:36 AM on February 25 [10 favorites]

What a cool project! This is the sort of thing I would have jumped at the chance to be a part of, back as a younger me.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:34 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]

Amazing. I wish they had more closeups and discussion of the detail.

The original atlas and silver disc was destroyed in a rebellion headed by Matthew Bonnellus in 1160.
Damn. This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:53 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]

Kinda makes me want to re-read Crichton's Eaters of the Dead, which is probably gauche but I enjoyed it a lot.
posted by neuron at 9:18 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]

Makes me want to reread The Years of Rice and Salt.
posted by Captaintripps at 9:31 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]

I wish they had more closeups and discussion of the detail.

Here's a podcast episode that has some detail.
posted by dhruva at 10:29 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]

→ … astrolabes, whose craft was perfected in Muslim al-Andalus.

Sure were. There's a particularly beautiful one in the Aga Khan Museum: Planispheric Astrolabe, AKM611
posted by scruss at 5:25 PM on February 25 [1 favorite]

The title more literally means "The Jaunt of Those Who Desire to Pierce the Horizons", just in case you enjoy pedantry. In modern Arabic, a nuzha is a picnic or hike: a day trip outdoors. So the title (all medieval Arabic manuscripts must have rhyming titles, it was the fashion for centuries and they get sillier and sillier as time passes: this one is medium late in the period) is meant to be a bit of a contradictory juxtaposition. This video is gorgeous.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 7:25 PM on February 25 [5 favorites]

So this is like, Pierre Menard’s map of Al-idrisi?
posted by Phanx at 12:47 AM on February 26