Muhammad al-Idrisi

His full name is Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Idris al-Hammoudi al-Kurashi. He was a descendant of the emiric family of Idrisides (branches of the Alids ), but by the time of his birth the family had long lost power. He was born in Ceuta , but received his education in Cordoba . He traveled a lot since his youth, in 1116 he was in Asia Minor , also (according to I. Yu. Krachkovsky ) he visited France and England, traveled to Spain and Morocco. Around 1138 he moved to Palermo to the court of Roger II . He died in 1165 or 1166 in Sicily ^{[2] [3]} . According to another version, some time after the death of the king, al-Idrisi returned to his homeland, where he died.

The main work, “ Nuzkhat al-mushtak fi-htirak al-afak ” (translation options: I. Yu. Krachkovsky: “ Entertainment of the wandering in wandering by regions ”; I. G. Konovalova: “ Joy of a passionate person who wants to cross the world ”) was completed in January 1154 and is also known as " al-Kitab ar-Roojari " (" Book of Roger "). In the preface to him, Idrisi talks about the interest of King Roger in geography and his order to compile a book summarizing the information of Greek and Arab geographers. Earlier (according to Idrisi himself and the 14th-century Arab biographer al-Safadi ^[4] ), the king ordered a disc with a detailed map of the world to be cast from silver and paper maps made, after which a book was compiled. Roger also not only asked travelers, but (according to al-Safadi) sent people to various countries to collect information.

In the introduction, Idrisi refers to his main sources: Ptolemy (whose dependence is quite large ^[5] ) and Oroziy from the ancient authors, and from the Arabic: Ibn Khordadbeh , al-Yakubi , Qudam al-Basri , al-Masudi , al-Jayhani , Ibn Haukal , al-Uzri , as well as the poorly known Janah ibn Hakan al-Kimaki , Musa ibn Kasim al-Qaradi and Ishaq ibn al-Hasan al-Munajim .

At the beginning of the essay, a general description of the Earth is given, it is divided into seven climates (latitudinal zones), and each of them into 10 zones from west to east. Thus, 70 sections of the essay are associated with 70 attached cards. According to K. Miller’s calculations, about 2500 names of objects are printed on the maps, and in the text more than 6000 ^[6] . In particular, the description of the country ar-Rusiyya ( Rus ) is included in section 5 of climate VI and sections 4 and 5 of climate VII and contains the names of more than 20 cities ^[7] .

The essay contains information about all countries known to the Arabs, from West Africa to Scandinavia and from Morocco to China. According to Krachkovsky, the third and final period of Arabic cartography is associated with the name of Idrisi, indicating a certain regression, because on maps the understanding of the significance of geographical latitude and longitude is lost.

Idrisi was also the author of an essay on pharmacognosy ^[8] , known from the manuscript; from the geographical work “ Raud al-uns wa nuzhat an-nafs ” (“The garden of affection and entertainment of the soul ”), compiled for William I , only a few citations have survived ^[9] ; fragments of his poems are also known ^[10] .

The work of Idrisi remained unknown to the Latin authors of the 12th – 13th centuries ^{[11] [12]} . The subsequent Arab tradition rarely addressed his work; it was used by Ibn Saeed al-Maghribi and Abul al-Fida . The earliest surviving manuscript of Idrisi is in Paris and dates from around 1300 ^[13] .

Nevertheless, later Idrisi became one of the most famous medieval Arab geographers in Europe, which was facilitated by the early editions of his work. The first Arabic edition appeared in Rome at the Medici printing house in 1592 and transmitted an abridged version of Idrisi's work; a Latin translation was made from the same edition in 1619, misunderstoodly called “Geographia Nubiensis”, because the translators considered the author a native of Sudan. In the years 1836-1840 P. A. Jobert published a complete French translation of the book.

The full publication of Idrisi's work in the original was published only in the 20th century :

• Al-Idrisi. Opus geographicum sive "Liber ad eorum delectationem qui terras peragrare studeant". Neapoli; Romae, 1970-1984. Fasc. I — IX.

Idrisi is the name of the airport in the Moroccan city of Al Hoceima .

Translation of excerpts into Russian:

• Extracts / Per. S. Volina // Materials on the history of Turkmen and Turkmenistan. - M .; L. , 1939. - T. 2. - S. 220—222.
• Excerpts // Arab sources of the X — XII centuries on ethnography and the history of sub-Saharan Africa. / Per. V.V. Matveeva and L.E. Kubbel. - M .; L. , 1965.
• Konovalova I.G. Al-Idrisi on the countries and peoples of Eastern Europe: text, translation, commentary. - M .: Eastern literature, 2006 .-- 328 p. - (The oldest sources on the history of Eastern Europe). ( translation of passages takes p. 108-128 )

• Muller's Idrisi Map
• Idrisi map fragment - Volga basin - with comments