MUSLIMS CONTRIBUTION IN THE FIELD OF GEOGRAPHY

Muslims' great concern for geography

originated with their religion.

Islam requires each Muslim to have at least enough

knowledge of geography to know the direction of the Qiblah

Pilgrimage as well as commerce in the vast Muslim

empire needed communication

From the beginning of the seventh century, the knowledge

of geography was equally growing with the spread of Islam

Thousands of Muslim coins, discovered in the

excavations of Scandinavia, Finland, Russia, Kazan, etc

He was born in Baghdad,

Iraq.

His major work is Kitāb

ṣūrat al-Arḍ (Arabic: كتاب" األرض صورة Book on the

appearance of the Earth" or

"The image of the Earth"

Al-Khwārizmī's (780-850)

Al-Khwārizmī corrected Ptolemy's gross overestimate

for the length of the Mediterranean Sea

(from the Canary Islands to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean)

Al-Khwārizmī depicted the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as

open bodies of water, not land-locked seas as of Ptolemy

He was the seventh caliph,

or ruler of the Islamic Empire,

of the Abbasid dynasty

He ordered geodetic

measurements, to

determine the size of the earth,

and the drawing of a large map

of the world

Abdullah al-Mamun

(786-833)

He was an Abbasid-era Arab

historian based in Baghdad

He traveled the world

journeying from Persia,

Central Asia, India, the Near

East, Madagascar and the

China Sea

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Masudi(896-956)

Al-Masudi’s book:

Muruj adh-Dhahab (Meadows of gold)

is a compilation of his

travel observations and

studies

His book gives a systematic account of all the places and

regions he had visited

He was author of :

"Ahsan al-Taqasim fi Ma`rifat il-Aqalim" (The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions)

Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shams al-Din Al-Muqaddasi(946-1000, Jerusalem)

Al-Muqaddasi was the first

geographer to produce

maps in natural colors

The Arab-Muslim maps

point upwards to the South,

the North downwards

The maritime voyages

necessitated the tables of

Latitude and Longitude as

well as the use of the

astrolabe and other nautical

instruments

He is famous for

a) Cartography

b) Geodesy

c) Mineralogy

Abu Rayhan al-Biruni(973-1048, Kath [Uzbekistan] )

CartographyBy the age of 22, Biruni had

written several short works,

including a study of map

projections, Cartography, which

included a method for projecting

a hemisphere on a plane

Al-Biruni is regarded as the

father of geodesy

He was the first known writer

to identify certain geological

facts, such as

The formation of sedimentary

rocks

The great geological changes

that happened in the past

Geodesy and geography

Al-Biruni introduced the

scientific method into

mineralogy in his

Kitab al-Jawahir

(Book of Precious Stones)

Mineralogy

He was a Spanish-

Arab geographer

He wrote about Europe,

North Africa, and the

Arabian peninsula

His primary work was:

a) Kitāb al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik

("Book of Highways and of Kingdoms")

b) Mu'jam

Abū 'Ubayd 'Abd Allāh al-Bakrī(1014-1094)

Al-Bakri work was

based on literature and

the reports of merchants

and travelers

Al-Bakri arranged place

names alphabetically,

and lists the names of

villages, towns, wadis,

and monuments which

he culled from the

Hadith and from

histories

His book:

‘Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq,’

(The Delight of Him Who Desires to Journey

Through the Climates)

is a geographical encyclopedia

Al Idrisi’s(1099-1166, Ceuta –Spain)

In 1166 Al-Idrisi, built a

large global map

He meticulously recorded on

it the seven continents

with trade routes, lakes

and rivers, major cities,

and plains and mountains.

Al-Idrisi’s books were translated into

Latin and became the standard

books on geography for three

centuries, both in the east and west

He was the only medieval

traveler who is known to

have visited the lands of

every Muslim ruler of his

time.

Ibn Battuta(1304-1368, Tangier- Morocco)

Ibn Battuta lived by the

motto - 'never, if

possible, cover any road

a second time‘.

• "Rihla - My Travels". Is the

story of Ibn Battuta’s

travels. It is a valuable

record of places.

He invented the compass in

the field of geography

Ibn Majid (1430-1500, Julfar [UAE] )

Ibn Majid wrote several

books on marine

science and the

movements of ships,

which helped people of

the Persian Gulf to

reach the coasts of

India, East Africa and

other destinations

Ibn Majid’s most important

work was:

Kitab al-Fawa’id fi Usul

‘llmal-Bahr wa’l Qawa’id

(Book of Useful Information on the

Principles and Rules of Navigation)

written in 1490

It is a navigation encyclopedia

Ibn Majid’s Hawiyat, a poem of

some 1,082 verses, is a genuine

treasury of navigational theory

Another important book named

al-Urdjuza covering the same

subject

Ibn Majid’s rich contribution to the affairs of the sea benefited the sciences of geography and oceanography, especially in the Indian Ocean

In 1498, Vasco Da Gama, while sailing up the east coast of Africa met Ibn Majid. His guidance to Vasco Da Gama, led to the downfall of Arab sea power in the Indian Ocean

E. Renan, in his book

Averroes and Averrosism,

mentions a letter written

by Columbus in October

1498 in which he admits

that one of the sources

which led him to assume

the existence of the 'New

World' was the work of Ibn

Rushd (Averroes) of the

12th century

Discovery of the America is thought to have been

aided by Muslims’ contribution to Geography