ABSTRACT

In the spring of 1154 (AH 549) the Arab geographer al-Idrisi displayed a large silver table to his patron, King Roger II of Sicily: upon it was engraved a new map of the world. This map, and the great compilation of geographical knowledge – The Nuzhat al Mushtaq – which accompanied it had taken fifteen years to complete. It showed al-Idrisi’s comprehensive knowledge of the ancient geographers, including Ptolemy (long forgotten in Europe), and the experience of generations of Arab travellers and traders, whose journeys he had culled. The map was the finest and most comprehensive of the early cosmographies. Yet, although it was produced in a noted centre of learning, indeed, one of the most replendent courts in the West, the work of al-Idrisi was forgotten. 1