Muhammad al-Idrisi

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Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi (Arabic أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي; Latin: Dreses) (born 1100 - died 1165 or 1166) was a Moroccan cartographer, geographer and traveller who lived in Sicily, at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta, then belonging to the Almoravid Empire (nowadays Ceuta, Spain) and died in Sicily, or maybe in Sabtah. Al Idrisi claimed that he was a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad.

Legacy

A widely used and well known Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software, developed by Clark Labs in USA, is named Idrisi as a dedication to the Arab geographer. Al-Idrisi was a character in Jon Fasman's book The Geographer's Library (Penguin Press, 2005).

References

Beeston, A. F. L. “Idrisi’s Account of the British Isles” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XIII (1950), Part 2: 265-280.

Bredow, G.G. “Edrisis Weltcharte” Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden (Weimar), 13 (1804): 418-437; 14, (1804): 243-244. [Reprinted in: Islamic Geography, Vol. 5, Studies on al-Idrisi reprinted, first part. Ed. Fuat Sezgin, Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, Frankfurt am Main, 1992: 32-53]

Ahmad, S. Maqbul, India and the Neighbouring Territories in the "Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi'khtiraq al-'afaq" of al-Sharif al-Idrisi. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960.

Ahmad, S. Maqbul, “Cartography of al-Sharīf al-Idrīsī” In The History of Cartography, Vol.2, Book 1, Cartography in the traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. Ed. J.B. Harley and David Woodward, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, ISBN 978-0226316352 , 1992: 156-174.

external links

BNF (Bibliotheque Nationale de France) type "Arabe 2221" in the box "Cote", then hit "chercher", then "Images" for images of the manuscript of al-Idrisi
Profile at IslamOnline
Britannica

Muhammad al-Idrisi

Legacy

References

external links

See also