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HandWiki. Geography and Cartography in Medieval Islam. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/31294 (accessed on 25 September 2026).
HandWiki. Geography and Cartography in Medieval Islam. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/31294. Accessed September 25, 2026.
HandWiki. "Geography and Cartography in Medieval Islam" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/31294 (accessed September 25, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, October 26). Geography and Cartography in Medieval Islam. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/31294
HandWiki. "Geography and Cartography in Medieval Islam." Encyclopedia. Web. 26 October, 2022.
Geography and Cartography in Medieval Islam
Edit

Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of geography and cartography in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age (variously dated between the 8th century and 16th century). Muslim scholars made advances to the mapmaking traditions of earlier cultures, particularly the Hellenistic geographers Ptolemy and Marinus of Tyre,:193 combined with what explorers and merchants learned in their travels across the Old World (Afro-Eurasia). Islamic geography had three major fields: exploration and navigation, physical geography, and cartography and mathematical geography. Islamic geography reached its apex with Muhammad al-Idrisi in the 12th century.

cartography geography mapmaking

References

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  2. Buang, Amriah (2014). "Geography in the Islamic World". Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer. pp. 1–5. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_8611-2. ISBN 978-94-007-3934-5. "A prominent feature of the achievement of Muslim scholars in mathematical geography and cartography was the invention of scientific instruments of measurement. Among these were the astrolab (astrolabe), the ruba (quadrant), the gnomon, the celestial sphere, the sundial, and the compass."  https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2F978-94-007-3934-5_8611-2
  3. Edson and Savage-Smith (2004)
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  5. Edson & Savage-Smith 2004, pp. 61–63.
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  9. Rankin, Bill (2006). "Projection Reference". http://www.radicalcartography.net/?projectionref. 
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  13. Covington, Richard (2007). "Nation, identity and the fascination with forensic science in Sherlock Holmes and CSI". Saudi Aramco World, May–June 2007 10 (3): 17–21. doi:10.1177/1367877907080149. http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200703/the.third.dimension.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-06. 
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  18. Starr, S. Frederick (12 December 2013). "So, Who Did Discover America? | History Today". http://www.historytoday.com/s-frederick-starr/so-who-did-discover-america. 
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  20. Scott, S. P. (1904). History of the Moorish Empire in Europe. Harvard University Press. pp. 461–2. 
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  23. See p. 289 of Martin, L. C. (1923), "Surveying and navigational instruments from the historical standpoint", Transactions of the Optical Society 24 (5): 289–303, doi:10.1088/1475-4878/24/5/302, ISSN 1475-4878, Bibcode: 1923TrOS...24..289M.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1088%2F1475-4878%2F24%2F5%2F302
  24. Berggren, J. Lennart (2007), "Mathematics in Medieval Islam", in Katz, Victor J., The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: a Sourcebook, Princeton University Press, p. 519, ISBN 978-0-691-11485-9, https://books.google.com/books?id=3ullzl036UEC&pg=PA519 
  25. Richard Nelson Frye: Golden Age of Persia. p. 163
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  27. Dr. Emily Winterburn (National Maritime Museum), Using an Astrolabe, Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation, 2005. http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=529
  28. Lachièz-Rey, Marc; Luminet, Jean-Pierre (2001). Celestial Treasury: From the Music of Spheres to the Conquest of Space. Trans. Joe Laredo. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-521-80040-2. 
  29. Schmidl, Petra G. (1996–97). "Two Early Arabic Sources On The Magnetic Compass". Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 1: 81–132. doi:10.5617/jais.4547.  http://www.uib.no/jais/v001ht/01-081-132schmidl1.htm#_ftn4 https://dx.doi.org/10.5617%2Fjais.4547
  30. Kreutz, Barbara M. (1973) "Mediterranean Contributions to the Medieval Mariner's Compass", Technology and Culture, 14 (3: July), p. 367–383 JSTOR 3102323 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3102323
  31. Jawāmeʿ al-ḥekāyāt wa-lawāmeʿ al-rewāyāt by Muhammad al-ʿAwfī
  32. Schmidl, Petra G. (2014-05-08). "Compass". in Ibrahim Kalin. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 144–6. ISBN 978-0-19-981257-8. 
  33. Needham p. 12-13 "...that the floating fish-shaped iron leaf spread outside China as a technique, we know from the description of Muhammad al' Awfi just two hundred years later"
  34. Kitāb Kanz al-tujjār fī maʿrifat al-aḥjār
  35. "Early Arabic Sources on the Magnetic Compass". http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/jais/volume/docs/vol1/1_081-132schmidl2.pdf. Retrieved 2016-08-02. 
  36. Savage-Smith, Emilie (1988). "Gleanings from an Arabist's Workshop: Current Trends in the Study of Medieval Islamic Science and Medicine". Isis 79 (2): 246–266 [263]. doi:10.1086/354701. PMID 3049439.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1086%2F354701
  37. Schmidl, Petra G. (2007). "Ashraf: al‐Malik al‐Ashraf (Mumahhid al‐Dīn) ʿUmar ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Rasūl". in Thomas Hockey. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 66–7. ISBN 9780387310220. http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ashraf_BEA.htm.  (PDF version)
  38. (King 1983)
  39. Tibbetts, G. R. (1973). "Comparisons between Arab and Chinese Navigational Techniques". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36 (1): 97–108 [105–6]. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00098013.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1017%2Fs0041977x00098013
  40. Hirth, Friedrich (1908). Ancient history of China to the end of the Chóu dynasty. New York, The Columbia university press. p. 134. https://archive.org/details/ancienthistoryof00hirt. 
  41. Needham, Joseph (1962). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 1, Physics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 279–80. ISBN 978-0-521-05802-5. 
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