ABSTRACT
Musa shown here is part of the Catalan Atlas of 1375, so named because the Catalan (from the Spanish
region of Catalonia) language is used for cosmographical, astronomical, and nautical information
inscribed on it. The map has been attributed to a Jewish cartographer named Abraham Cresques from
Palma, a seaport on the island of Majorca and a center of great cultural diversity as well as maritime
trade, including relations with Africa and the Muslim East. Jewish and Muslim traditions converged there,
a legacy of the era when Muslim, Christian, and Jewish traditions flourished in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain).
Whoever the mapmaker was, the Catalan Atlas was undoubtedly influenced by European knowledge of
