Islamic Cartography

The question of survival of the Ptolemaic cartographical tradition in the Arab World, all through the Idrisian transmission chain and down to the modern times, is the subject of this article. A handwritten map found in Arabia, which -in this author's opinionwas authored by a Moroccan intellectual Az-Zayyānī at the break of the 18 th -19 th cc., is apparently the last pre-modern Arabic cartographical creation. It's history is obscure, but the physical shape bears strong resemblance to the other two published maps by the same author (whereabouts of those two manuscript specimens, unfortunately, are unkown at present). The map is analysed in respect of its geographical contents as depicting the world, as well as of the intellectual horizons the map presented to its users at its time, and questions about its relevance are asked.

This qualitative analysis of symbolic elements in nautical cartography aims to provide an interdisciplinary insight into some aspects of early modern cartographic representations of the Adriatic Sea. The nautical charts were supplemented with compass roses, a graphic structure that facilitates orientation and correlates with rhumb lines. The research objective focusses primarily on the variety of signs for the cardinal directions north and east, additionally considering some rare but innovative and avant-garde pragmatic uses of compass roses to indicate magnetic declination. On the majority of the selected nautical charts, most of which were created in Mediterranean and Western European cultural centres, decorative elements such as the fleur-de-lis and the cross were used in compass roses to determine the cardinal points. The compass roses of these nautical charts often served as symbolic evidence of the social and economic belonging of the Adriatic to the European part of the Medit...

Proud to dedicate my very first article written and edited in Turkish with undying love, deep admiration, and respect to the AMAZING—read Inanılmaz—Ayşe Figen Arlı (1956-2023) who was tragically taken from us too young during the early hours of the February 6th 2023 earthquake that hit Iskenderun Hatay and other parts of Southeastern Turkey—the very earthquake prone area that is the subject of this article but in medieval times. Journalist par excellence, Figen Arlı was also deeply dedicated to the history of her homeland in Hatay and especially enjoyed going on adventures of historical discovery in southeastern Turkey. Figen will be missed eternally by her beautiful family and friends who also suffered terribly during the earthquake of 2023. Altogether 15 journalists lost their lives in Iskenderun during the 2023 earthquake 😪 I take comfort that Figen would have loved this article. She helped me identify places in Southeastern Turkey on the medieval Islamic maps that had been misidentified for centuries past due to persistent 19th century Orientalist errors that continue to be hard to eradicate to this day. Here, I begin to correct the record regarding Southeastern Anatolia and the Levant of 8th—16th century yore in Figen’s name with more works on one of the most highly fought over frontiers of medieval history (Islamicate-Byzantine frontier of Northern Syria & South-eastern Anatolia) planned in her name. Nur içinde yatsın sevgili Figen 🙏🏽

The highly contested “Thughûr al-Shâmiyya” (Islamicate-Byzantine frontier of Northern Syria & South-eastern Anatolia) that coincided with the East Anatolian Fault is the subject of this paper. For no less than seven centuries, Muslims battled for control of this crucial entrance into Anatolia from Northern Syria. From the 7th century and the earliest caliphs onwards until the 14th century and sweeping Mamluk, Turkic, and Ottoman attacks, Muslims vied with Byzantine forces, first, then Crusaders and Armenians, and later, for control of the highly sought after bottleneck coastal route into the Cilician Plains. One of the most significant battlefields of world history, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, Armenians, and Crusaders alike realized that the dominance of Eurasia rested upon control of the Cilician plains. This article examines the heart of the Anatolian “Thughûr al-
Shâmiyya” on medieval Islamic maps of the Mediterranean that were titled “Sûrat Bahr al-Rûm” (Image of the Byzantine Sea) in Arabic. They are found in the Kitâb al-Masâlik wa-al-Mamâlik (Book of Routes and Realms) manuscripts that were first designed in the eighth or ninth century and copied until the nineteenth century. Stretching from Northern Syria across the Cilician Plains to the heart of eastern Anatolia ringed by the Tarsus and Anti-Tarsus mountain ranges, the “Thughûr al-Shâmiyya” coincided with one of the most deadly triple earthquake fault lines in the world: the hyper active East Anatolian Fault Line. On the Islamic maps this great frontier is depicted through the emphatic lines of the three Anatolian rivers that signaled the division of the Muslim and Christian spheres of the eastern Mediterranean Levant in the eighth, ninth and early tenth centuries. Around these three crucial Anatolian rivers of the Jayḥan (Ceyhan), Sayḥan (Sayhan), and Baradân (called the Tarsus River today) are arrayed the sites of al-Massîsa (Eski Misis), ʿAyn Zarba (Anavarza), Adhana (Adana), and Ṭarsûs (Tarsus). These sites, along with the rivers, mark the most crucial frontier of the Mediterranean region in the medieval Islamic cartographic imagination.
Keywords: Islamicate-Byzantine frontier, Thughûr al-Shâmiyya, Northern Syria, South-eastern Anatolia, East Anatolian Fault, Cilician Plains, Jayḥan, Sayḥan, Baradân, Ṭarsûs , Adana, al-Massîsa, ʿAyn Zarba, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, Armenians, Crusaders,
medieval Islamic maps, “Sûrat Bahr al-Rûm” Mediterranean, Kitâb al-Masâlik wa-al-Mamâlik, Book of Routes and Realms

This article introduces and examines an understudied corpus of Greek language handbooks commissioned by the Ottoman court during the reign of Mehmed II (r. 1451–1481). As a result of the multicultural and multilingual nature of the Ottoman court of the era, these primers include teaching material in a number of languages, but the most comprehensive portions of the primers are devoted to the domains of Greek grammar and vocabulary. Drawing from untouched and neglected sources, this article argues that these introductory textbooks can be aptly situated within the context of the Greek scriptorium and court library of the Ottomans in Constantinople. This article’s core argument is that Greek primers used at the Ottoman court were intended to help students learn not only the skills necessary for diplomatic correspondence and chancery but also the skills necessary for exploring ancient knowledge, particularly in the fields of philosophy and science. This engagement with Greek scholarship emanated from an antiquarian-like fascination prevailing within the Ottoman court, which in turn was indicative of a broader interconnected discourse permeating the Mediterranean world during this period.

Ṣūrat Baḥr al-Rūm  صورة بحر الروم , which translates to the “Image of the Sea of the Romans” (i.e. the Byzantines) comes from a twelfth-century Norman-Sicilian copy of the Book of Routes and Realms, attributed to the early tenth-century geographer al-Iṣṭakhrī.

I abbreviate this type of book to KMMS based on its Arabic title: Kitāb al-masālik wa-al-mamālik. It represents a snapshot back in time to the caliphal age of the eighth-through-tenth centuries.

This map is special. It comes from the earliest extant KMMS manuscript housed at one of the best and most generous medieval manuscript libraries in the world. In addition, an unusual colophonic reader signature and a trademark Siculo-Norman ‘alāma (or formal signature) suggest this copy was owned by a young Frederick II before he became the famous conquering Holy Roman emperor

Communicated by A. AABOE 0 ~ Among PTOLEMY'S works are two whose mathematical bases historians of science have interpreted in very much the same way. The works are The Planispherium and the cartographic sections of The Geography, and in both cases the interpretation has been in terms of pointwise projection of a portion of the surface of the sphere onto a portion of the plane.

The question of authorship in translation is one that requires careful examination. While the source or 'original' work is always at the center of any translation endeavor and the voice of the author should always be retained, it is also true that the translator is in many ways a second author whose voice inevitably resonates in the final work. In this sense, the authorship of a translation is multilayered and complex. This applies to an even greater extent to less conventional types of translation, such as cultural translation between different media. The case at the heart of this study is an example of the latter. The focus is on the adaptation of a medieval geographical text by the twelfth-century Arab geographer Muḥammad al-Idrīsī (d. 1165) into maps and atlases by the sixteenth-century North African mapmaker ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-Sharafī of Sfax (d. after 1579). Here we understand translation not as the transfer of a text from one language into another, but primarily as a transfer from a predominantly textual medium into a multi-media (textual, cartographic, and iconographic) product, supplemented by occasional transfers of other iconographic elements. At the same time it also represents a conscious modification of al-Idrīsī's source text in the form of abridgements and adaptations in order to tailor it to the needs of the medium as well as to assert al-Sharafī's claim to be the co-author of the work. In many genres of Arabic literature, an authorial persona is clearly identified in forewords, Kapitel 10

Before the invention of modern air travel, the phenomenon we call "jetlag" was known as the "Circumnavigator's Paradox." It was first observed empirically by European mariners in the sixteenth century, who noticed a missing day in their ship logs after circumnavigating the globe. But two centuries earlier, the theoretical possibility of such an observation was demonstrated by the Arab statesman and polymath Abu'l-Fidā (d. 1331) in his treatise on world geography, the Taqwīm al-Buldān or "Arrangement of Countries." Within the context of this special issue on Cultures of Taḥqīq, this article argues that Abu'l-Fidā's insight was a quintessential expression of the epistemology of taḥqīq as practiced in the immediate aftermath of the Mongol conquests, with profound implications for the latter history of geography, cartography, and modern spatial thinking.

One of the pleasures in completing a project is the opportunity it provides to thank formally all the people who have been a part of the effort and assisted in various ways. First and foremost I wish to thank my collaborators who contributed to the volume. Professor Geert Jan van Gelder, present Laudian Professor of Arabic and Fellow of St John's College, has transformed a mere catalogue into a volume of far wider interest by providing a fascinating essay on the incidental Arabic poetry found in these manuscript-which is to say, the poetry that various owners over the years jotted down on the margins or endpapers. A unique study, so far as I am aware. Professor Edward Ullendorff, Emeritus Professor of Ethiopian Studies, provided the entry for the two Ethiopic items, with the assistance of Dr Girma Getahun who utilized the wonders of computer programs to transform the entry into a form that could be used in the final formatting of the catalogue. Dr Peter E. Pormann, Junior Research Fellow in Oriental Studies at Merton College, prepared the Hebrew and Syriac entries and in the process discovered that one of the Hebrew items was a copy of material in the archives at Merton, which he proceeded to publish in detail. Tim Stanley, Curator of the Middle East Collections at the V&A Museum in London, wrote the analysis of the Turkish letter and carefully laid out the historical arguments for its date and significance. Samira Sheikh, a doctoral candidate in Gujarati history at Wolfson College, kindly studied the Gurajati navigational guide and map, which in the event proved so interesting that she also has produced a full study of the document that will be published elsewhere. To the entries supplied by my collaborators, I added paper and binding descriptions, information on provenance, and similar data, and edited the entries to conform, more or less, with the format used in the first half of the catalogue (covering Arabic and Persian manuscripts). I sincerely apologize to them for any errors I may thereby have introduced. Others were also instrumental in seeing this volume through to completion. It was felt that a second set of eyes to look over the transcriptions of passages from manuscripts would aid in eliminating the inevitable human errors. Accordingly, Colin Wakefield, Deputy Keeper of the Oriental Collections at the Bodleian Library, agree to check all the Arabic and Persian transcriptions, while Peter Glare, of the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, proofed the Latin, consisting mostly of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century notes added to manuscripts. Similarly, Dr Sebastian Brock, recently retired Reader in Syriac Studies and Professorial Fellow of Wolfson College, checked the Syriac entry, and Dr Alison Salvesen, University Research Lecturer in Biblical Studies, the bilingual Hebrew-Latin manuscript. Since two people had already looked at the Ethiopic volume, another person seemed unnecessary, while it was impossible to find a second for the Gujarati item, it being quite difficult to find one in the first place. The careful and patient reading of all of these people is gratefully acknowledged here. vi Acknowledgements Two people gave generous assistance with some of the Arabic and Persian material, though so much time has now passed that they may well have forgotten:

For anyone curious about the eleventh-century Book of Curiosities, an extraordinary Egyptian Fatimid manuscript at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, this book is required reading. The manuscript had its debut online in 2007 at the library website and was edited and translated in 2014 (An Eleventh-Century Egyptian Guide to the Universe: The "Book of Curiosities," Leiden: Brill) by the authors. This volume builds on the previous effort in order to "open a window into the worldview of eleventh-century Islamic society and learning, its geographic horizons, and some of its scientific endeavors" (p. 2). The authors acknowledge a range of scholars who have contributed to the analysis of the manuscript (pp. 271-273). There are ten chapters with details on the discovery of the manuscript, its astronomy, astrology, cosmology, and the geographical knowledge in both the maps and the time period. Twenty-four full-color maps and images, most from the manuscript, are included as plates in the middle of the volume. Had it not been for a visit by Savage-Smith to look at an an Arabic manuscript that Christies was preparing for auction in 2000 and the eventual purchase of the manuscript for 400,000 British pounds by the Bodleian, this manuscript would probably have disappear into a private collection and the wealth of its information buried. The manuscript is not from the time of the author, but appears to have been copied around the year 1200 CE. Later it was discovered that there were later copies of the text, although without the unique maps. One had been in the Bodleian since 1611. Neither the author nor the patron for the text is known, although there are clues that he may have been from the Egyptian Delta (p. 67). It seems from the text itself that the author was a mapmaker, given his comments on techniques and the unique style. There is also the question of which maps may have been added later (see pp. 25-27).

Did medieval European maps influence the Islamicate ones or vice versa? Or, were they mutually exclusive? Scholars fall on both sides of the divide and the question of Islamo-Christian cartographic connections remains elusive due to the lack of extant examples. This article focuses on the author of the Arabic notations on a rare ninth-century copy of Isidore’s geographical treatise of Etymologiae, and, in particular, on its T-O map with the aim of revealing that the notations were made by a distinguished Arab geographer of princely stock from caliphal Andalus and not just an unknown anonymous Mozarab - Iberian Christians including Christianized Iberian Jews who lived under Muslim rule in the southern sections of the Iberian peninsula from the early eighth century until the mid-fifteenth century including those who escaped to the Christian kingdoms of Aragon, Asturias, and Castile. I aim to prove that the majority of the Arabic annotations on a late eighth/ early ninth-century Visigothic Latin Isidorean manuscript of Isidore’s Etymologiae, Ms. Vitr. 014/003, housed at Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacionale de Espana (BNE) were made by Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbdallāh al-Bakrī (d. 487/1094), an Andalusi geographer of princely background, whose mid-eleventh century Islamicate geography Kitāb al-masālik wa al-mamālik (Book of Routes and Realms) influenced many a later medieval Islamicate geographical scholars. The most famous was Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī (d. 626/1229), an inveterate medieval Islamicate-world traveling scholar of Byzantine stock who relied heavily on al-Bakrī’s geography for his seven volume magnum opus, a geographical dictionary on countries and places called Muʿjam al-Buldān (Dictionary/Collection of Countries, completed 1224-1228) that is considered one of the most comprehensive medieval Arabic geographical dictionaries ever written because it provides mini-encyclopedic entries on thousands of sites in the Islamicate realm of the Middle Ages. If al-Bakrī used Isidore’s Etymologiae for his conclusion, then it could be asserted that Yāqūt and other medieval Islamicate geographers who relied on al-Bakrī’s may have been influenced a little by Isidore. This article aims to provide proof of significant scholarly connections between medieval European and Islamicate carto-geographical traditions centuries earlier than previously presumed. In doing so it adds to the story of transcultural connectivity across the greater Mediterranean that can be examined under the central question informing this latest volume by Albrecht Classen as to whether globalism existed in the pre-modern world.

The Safīna-yi Sulaymānī (The Ship of Sulaymān), one of the foremost Persian travelogues from the Safavid period, includes a geographic description of East and Southeast Asia centered on the Indian Ocean. While the Safīna is well-known to scholars, secondary literature on this part of the book is scant and often characterizes it as incoherent and devoid of value. This paper challenges this interpretation through providing a new reading of this text. By casting it in a comparative framework with earlier books of wonders, this paper argues that the geographic section of the Safīna articulates an original view of the Indian Ocean resulting from the encounter between the traveler's observations and experiences and the Islamic tradition of wonders, the ʿajāʾib. As such, it encapsulates one of the central intellectual developments in early modern knowledge production, i.e., the tension between independent inquiry (taḥqīq) and imitation of earlier authorities (taqlīd).

Medieval historians wrote large books concerning human migration throughout Africa in addition to the cultures that they interacted with. Abū al-Idrisi and Ibn Hawqal wrote extensively on the roads that were traveled by people from Nuwābiya and Egypt.

FRANCO-SÁNCHEZ, Francisco: «La difícil clasificación de la geografía árabe medieval entre la literatura geográfica y las ciencias», In Desirée López Bernal, Tsampika Paraskeva y Bárbara Boloix Gallardo (eds.), Un collar de palabras. Saberes, discursos y reflexiones actuales desde los Estudios Semíticos. Granada: Ediciones Universidad de Granada, 2021, pp. 103-125.  |  ISBN: 978-84-338-6953-1  |  The difficulty of classifying medieval Arabic geography between geographical literature and the sciences  |

Resumen: En este trabajo se analiza el uso de la denominación "literatura geográfica árabe", en las escuelas francesa, alemana, italiana y española de arabistas, y tras analizar cómo los árabes (y persas) medievales concibieron y denominaron a la geografía, se llega a la conclusión de que no existe tal "literatura geográfica árabe", ni tampoco los "géneros geográficos", sino que existió una geografía árabe con dos líneas bien definidas: una geografía descriptiva, y una geodesia.  | 
Abstract: This paper analyses the use of the term "Arabic geographical literature" in the French, German, Italian and Spanish schools of Arabists, and after analysing how medieval Arabs (and Persians) conceived and named geography, the conclusion is that there is no such thing as "Arabic geographical literature", nor "geographical genres", but that there was an Arabic geography with two well-defined lines: a descriptive geography, and a geodesy.  | 

Palabras clave: Geografía árabe medieval, Cartografía árabe medieval, Geodesia árabe medieval, Literatura árabe medieval, Geografía descriptiva.
Key words: Medieval Arabic geography, Medieval Arabic cartography, Medieval Arabic geodesy, Medieval Arabic literature, Descriptive geography.  |

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Arabic script gained significance and esteem due to the divine command "Read," at the beginning of a five-verse revelation in the Koran (the Surah Al-' Alaq, 96: 1-5), the holy book of Islam. The full and definitive determination of the text of the Koran and the information it contains, preventing any misreading, was developed and perfected over the centuries through the efforts of linguists and artisans. This work resulted in the formulation of important calligraphic rules regarding spelling and the alphabet, and the establishment of a variety of writing styles. Islam quickly spread to vast geographies from the lands of its inception, reaching societies with differing heritages, cultures, and artistic traditions. This also led to encounters between the histories and traditions of the diverse societies that accepted it. Islamic art undoubtedly drew on these sources. Writing, as the essential element underpinning the new art that emerged, was applied in fields ranging from architecture to tiles and ceramics, woodwork, stone carvings, and textiles. However, throughout the centuries, the greatest patronage and esteem was bestowed on the arts of the book. Many great artists were admired and supported throughout their careers, and extraordinary collections were established. Now, the most valued "spoils

En este artículo se pone de relieve la importancia que, para la historia de al-Andalus, tienen las fuentes geográficas por la cantidad de datos que nos aportan, no solo de tipo geográfico, sino también históricos y socioeconómicos; asimismo, se analizan las principales características historiográficas de estas fuentes, al tiempo que se hace una tipografía de las mismas y un estudio de su evolución.

A virtually unknown Ottoman manuscript atlas provides new indications about the flow of cartographical and geographical information between Italy and the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the sixteenth century. Internal evidence suggests that the prototype of the Muhit Atlası was a Venetian set of globe gores, in some way associated with Giacomo Gastaldi's world map of 1561. This globe appears to have been lost, but the atlas enables a reconstruction of its main features. At the same time, the maps in the Muhit Atlası offer an insight into the reception and re-elaboration of European cartography in the Ottoman Empire.

Atlas Maior, the most expensive and luxurious book of its time, published in the 1660s, was presented to Mehmed IV by the Dutch ambassador Justinus Colier in 1668. It was translated into Ottoman Turkish under the name of Nusretü'l-İslâm by Ebu Bekir Behram ed-Dımaşkî with the suggestion of Fazıl Ahmed Pasha to the sultan in 1675. In this article, I will first present the basic narrative used about China in the work, with reference to the original Latin and Ottoman Turkish text. In this way, I will show how China was perceived in the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century. At the same time, I will present a critique of the translation with the Ottoman transliteration which I prepared and quotations from the Latin original. As a result of the comparisons made, it has been shown that the book is fundamentally translated in accordance with the original copy, although it includes some deliberate mistranslations and extensive summaries. In a certain sense, this article shows the cultural vitality and curiosity in the seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire. Although Nusretü'l-İslâm is presented as a result of the military-intelligence necessity of the Ottoman Empire of the period, it is actually an expression of a wide intellectual cultural curiosity. Thanks to this translation prepared by Dımaşkî, the Ottoman reader was able to obtain important information about China in terms of history, culture and geography, therefore it is expected that the article will make a contribution to the Ottoman geography literature.

La vida cotidiana en al-Andalus a través de sus sonidos y silencios. .. .. .. .. .. . 131 Sivia Nora Arroñada El dilema del sabio: la formulación clásica y la interpretación farabiana. .. .. .. . 145 Ángel Poncela González El cautiverio norteafricano en primera persona: lecturas sensoriales del

Diseño de cubierta y maquetación: Francisco Anaya Benítez © de los textos: los autores © de la presente edición: Dykinson S.L. Madrid-2022 N.º 49 de la colección Conocimiento Contemporáneo 1ª edición, 2022 ISBN 978-84-1377-926-3 NOTA EDITORIAL: Las opiniones y contenidos publicados en esta obra son de responsabilidad exclusiva de sus autores y no reflejan necesariamente la opinión de Dykinson S.L ni de los editores o coordinadores de la publicación; asimismo, los autores se responsabilizarán de obtener el permiso correspondiente para incluir material publicado en otro lugar.

The remnant of the 1513 world map of the Ottoman corsair (and later admiral) Muhiddin Piri, a.k.a. Piri Reis, with its focus on the Atlantic and the New World can be ranked as one of the most famous and controversial maps in the annals of the history of cartography. Following its discovery at Topkapi Palace in 1929, this early modern Ottoman map has raised baffling questions regarding its fons et origo. Some scholars posited ancient sea kings or aliens from outer space as the original creators; while the influence of Columbus' own map and early Renaissance cartographers tantalized others. One question that remains unanswered is how Islamic cartography influenced Piri Reis' work. This paper presents hitherto unnoticed iconographical connections between the classical Islamic mapping tradition and the Piri Reis map.

« (…) décider entre les deux formes, la plate et la sphérique, est l'acte originel de toute la réflexion occidentale, au sens où c'est autour de ce problème que la réflexion de l'Occident sur le monde se structure et s'organise », (Farinelli, p. 15) « « Depuis des temps bien antérieurs à Ptolémée jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe siècle-soit des centaines d'années sans instruments capables de fournir une localisation exacte-les cartographes ont été appelés à faire usage de raison, d'ingénuité et d'imagination pour transcrire des faits connus au sujet de la surface de la terre. Mais souvent ils ont davantage employé l'imagination que la raison ou bien furent trop prompts à accepter de nouvelles informations [

« (…) décider entre les deux formes, la plate et la sphérique, est l'acte originel de toute la réflexion occidentale, au sens où c'est autour de ce problème que la réflexion de l'Occident sur le monde se structure et s'organise », (Farinelli, p. 15) « « Depuis des temps bien antérieurs à Ptolémée jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe siècle-soit des centaines d'années sans instruments capables de fournir une localisation exacte-les cartographes ont été appelés à faire usage de raison, d'ingénuité et d'imagination pour transcrire des faits connus au sujet de la surface de la terre. Mais souvent ils ont davantage employé l'imagination que la raison ou bien furent trop prompts à accepter de nouvelles informations [

Data processing is very important in the development of information technology. Almost all fields of work have information data. Data can be used to help analysis in work. At present, health information data is very important to be processed in order to help medical personnel to make decisions. So that the results of the right decision to help patients. Lately, drug data has been misused for information eliminating a depressed patient without a doctor’s prescription with a total data of 53766. The results shown are very large. So it requires very much attention from the government. As a result of the deviation of information and applied to the patient will result in death. Therefore, research needs to be conducted to group data on drug data. The source of research data is obtained from the UCI Machine Learning Repository Education website. The method proposed in this research is data mining. This solution can help researchers in the analysis of these data. One technique in data mini...

Determining the direction to Qibla 5 times/day is crucial to the functioning of Islam. As Islam grew and spread rapidly to far flung parts of the world it became imperative to determine the correct direction of prayer and this spurred on the development of the means to determine the Qibla: hence the development of mathematics, astrolabes, mihrabs (Qibla-indicating niches) and Qibla maps. But what about the moment of the change of the Qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca? How did it happen? How did the nascent Muslim community respond and adapt to the change? Courtesy of the motivating question of this Mediterranean Seminar panel “How and at what moment were sacred spaces converted?” this talk explores when where and how the change of the Qibla occurred following the Hijra (Emigration to Mecca) in Year 1 of the Islamic calendar/ 622 Common Era and the unresolved dispute regarding the exact date of the change and the manner in which it took place.

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This article makes the argument that a Latin table of geographic coordinates, copied in Italy in the second half of the thirteenth century (MS Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ashburnham 211, fol. 260r), is derived from a list excerpted from a Greek manuscript of the Κανὼν πόλεων ἐπισήμων (« Table of important cities ») in Ptolemy’s Handy Tables. Other sources that appear to bear witness to a thirteenth-century dissemination in Italy of geographic data from the Κανὼν include the Summa de astris of Gerard of Feltre (1264/65) and some later coordinate lists contained in fourteenth-century manuscripts.

The research described in this thesis is focused on development and clinical evaluation of image-guidance solutions for correction of both inter- and intrafraction prostate motion in external beam radiotherapy. Corrections are based on planar imaging of implanted gold markers with MV and kV beams. The main advantages of the developed system include (1) high positioning accuracy, (2) minimal increase in fraction duration, (3) high degree of automation, i.e. minimal operator interference, (4) remote controlled couch re-positioning, (5) minimal additional imaging dose. Another important objective of the research was the assessment of residual errors, including organ deformation and rotation, to establish appropriate planning margins. One of the main findings of the research is that implanted gold markers allow for fast daily correction of translational errors in prostate radiation therapy with high accuracy. An investigation of intrafraction positioning errors which occur during the tr...

The question of survival of the Ptolemaic cartographical tradition in the Arab World, all through the Idrisian transmission chain and down to the modern times, is the subject of this article. A handwritten map found in Arabia, which – in this author’s opinion – was authored by a Moroccan intellectual Az-Zayyānī at the break of the 18th–19th cc., is apparently the last pre-modern Arabic cartographical creation. It’s history is obscure, but the physical shape bears strong resemblance to the other two published maps by the same author (whereabouts of those two manuscript specimens, unfortunately, are unkown at present). The map is analysed in respect of its geographical contents as depicting the world, as well as of the intellectual horizons the map presented to its users at its time, and questions about its relevance are asked.

After the Norman conquest of Sicily, the islands of Pantelleria and Malta still sustained important Arabic communities but their eventual linguistic destinies were quite diverse: the former was submerged by continuous Italian admissions, whereas the latter survived the Italian cultural onslaught. However, traces of Arabic influence are still recognizable on Pantelleria, particularly in the name of its capital and of some old villages. The toponyms usually describe the structure of the soil, the devices to extract water, the controlled use of it, the names of ancient proprietors or tribes, etc. Much less evident, but still consistent, was the influence of the Arabic language on the Pantelleria dialect, as it remained in contact with Arabophones for several centuries. Loanwords and calques are numerous: some Italian words effectively changed their gender according to their Arabic counterparts; some verbs were affected by Arabic conjugation patterns. The great similarity between some M...

Summary This contribution represents a focused insight within a larger research project dealing with the Ottoman nautical atlas of Piri Reis: the Kitab i Bahriye (1521 and 1525-1526). Taking as a point of reference the Ligurian Sea, and more specifically the Tuscan coast, the Ottoman atlas has been compared with the mediaeval nautical charts and with the early sixteenth-century production (Lepore, Piccardi, Pranzini, 2011). In the quest for sources that may have inspired or influenced the Ottoman Admiral, we have identified and more closely analysed the authors of several nauti- cal charts and atlases and of isolarii. This article focuses on cartometric issues relating to mediaeval nautical cartography (Portolan charts). More specifically, it analyses the 1403 chart of Francesco Beccari conserved in the Be- inecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University. This chart represents a crucial turning-point in the development of nautical cartography: namely a refinement in the d...

Recent years have seen new approaches to the history of geography and cartography, as well as spa-tial thought more broadly, in the Islamicate world. Place and space are now increasingly understood as invented reference systems that are entangled with political, religious, cultural, and intellectual his-tory. Thus contextualized, geographic knowledge proves to be more dynamic and varied than previ-ously thought, and many more genres of literature can be seen as relevant to its study. These include world and regional geographies, urban topographies, pilgrimage guides, administrative manuals, trav-elogues, religious or astronomical treatises, encyclopedias, legal documents, and belletristic compen-dia, many of which are accompanied by images or maps. At the same time, questions arise about the importance of geographical knowledge to historical actors and the ways in which spatial considera-tions affected state policies, as well as quotidian religious or economic activities undertaken by, for in-stance, political and military leaders, merchants and travellers, or itinerant Sufis and pilgrims. Moreo-ver, opportunities to analyze centuries-old geographic and cartographic sources have been enhanced by new technologies such as electronic data processing, the unprecedented availability of geodata, and the tools of digital cartography. Taken together, it seems that what was previously understood narrowly as the history of geography or cartography is shifting to a more diversely linked spatial histo-ry, with new relevance for the study of Islamicate societies.

The aim of this conference is to explore these developments further, with special emphasis on the fol-lowing four interrelated categories:

1. GENRE: Is genre a useful concept for understanding spatial thought in this period? For in-stance, do works of geography have anything in common with urban topographies or religious treatises? Can we meaningfully speak of the development of an intellectual field with specific methods or standards for criticism? How do images and maps relate to questions of genre? How did literary traditions combine with formal and thematic innovation? What role did geogra-phy play in encyclopedic literature?
2. AUTHORSHIP: Who composed spatially-oriented texts and from which intellectual or profes-sional backgrounds? What motivated them to do so? How can we discern and describe bound-aries or transitions between collectively transmitted knowledge and individual contributions? Was there a direct relationship between the “state” and the composition of such texts? In what times and places did they proliferate? Who designed or drew maps? Is there any indication that authors thought of themselves as a group?
3. THEME: How do we understand space and place through texts? Can we detect thematic pat-terns across genres? How do conceptions and descriptions in the texts respond to each other? What is the relationship between a written text and its accompanying images or maps? What is the relationship between the materiality of a place and its representation in a text? What is the relationship between travel and text? To what degree do thematic patterns correspond with so-cial and political change?
4. RECEPTION: Who was the audience for spatially-oriented texts and images? Where, by whom, and for whom were they copied over the centuries? How were they transformed in their copy-ing? Can we reconstruct reception histories for these texts or detect the uses to which they were put? Did spatially-oriented texts and images matter?

In addition to exchange on historical issues, we hope the conference will be an opportunity to discuss directions for future research. What is the state of our knowledge about the manuscript heritage? Are cataloguing, digitizing, (re-)editing, and translating pressing tasks? Which tools do we lack that are available in neighbouring fields of study? How can the advance of digital humanities be made fruitful? How can we develop the “spatial turn” in medieval Islamicate history?

Since so far the vast majority of research on these topics has stopped with al-Muqaddasi at around the year 1000, we encourage presentations that approach spatial thought from any part of the Islami-cate world within the loose parameters of 1000–1600 CE.

This contribution represents a focused insight within a larger research project dealing with the Ottoman nautical atlas of Piri Reis: the Kitab i Bahriye (1521 and 1525-1526). Taking as a point of reference the Ligurian Sea, and more specifically the Tuscan coast, the Ottoman atlas has been compared with the medieval nautical charts and with the early sixteenth-century production (Lepore, Piccardi, Pranzini, 2011). In the quest for sources that may have inspired or influenced the Ottoman Admiral, we have identified and more closely analysed the authors of several nautical charts and atlases and of isolarii. This article focuses on cartometric issues relating to mediaeval nautical cartography (Portolan charts). More specifically, it analyses the 1403 chart of Francesco Beccari conserved in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University. This chart represents a crucial turning-point in the development of nautical cartography: namely a refinement in the drawing of the coasts relating to the Atlantic, with corrections that were partially retained in subsequent production. It also features a graduated scale of latitude which is considered a later interpolation. The technique behind the construction of the portolan chart (with a rapid incursion into the symbolism connected with the place name colouring) will be analysed in detail, placing it in relation to other selected models that have been conserved. The aim is to contribute to the debate on the techniques of construction of the portolan charts.

Au début du xi e siècle, les Fatimides firent composer le Kitāb ġarā'ib al-funūn wa mulaḥ al-'uyūn, ouvrage dans lequel se trouvaient plusieurs cartes dont une de la Méditerranée et une de l'océan Indien. Par leur forme ovale commune et leur position dans l'ouvrage, ces deux représentations semblent avoir été faites pour susciter la comparaison. Au-delà de leurs points communs, l'analyse plus fine de ces cartes permet de comprendre qu'il s'agissait pour les imams-califes du Caire de faire passer un message, conformément à la stratégie de communication des Fatimides, désormais de mieux en mieux connue. Le décalage qui existe entre la densité d'informations fournies dans la carte de la Méditerranée et celle de l'océan Indien pourtant considéré comme l'espace maritime le mieux connu par les musulmans pose la question des objectifs de telles représentations cartographiques pour un califat ismaélien en recherche de légitimité dans un monde musulman largement sunnite. At the beginning of the 11th century, the Fatimid Caliphs ordered to compose the Kitāb ġarā'ib al-funūn wa mulaḥ al-'uyūn. Several maps were accompanying this book and among them one of the Mediterranean and one of the Indian Ocean. With their common oval shape and their position into the book, theses two maps seemed to call for comparison. Beyond their commonalities, a closer analysis of these maps allows to understand they were made to send an ideological message. The mismatch between density of informations within the Mediterranean map and the Indian Ocean's one, yet considered as better known by Muslims, raise the question of the goals of these graphic representations for an Ismaili dynasty seeking for legitimacy in a widely sunni Muslim world.

The astrolabe, stereographic projection of the celestial sphere on the plane of the equator, simulates the apparent rotation of this sphere around the Earth, with respect to a certain latitude, and allows to establish the relative position of the stars at a given moment. To understand its meaning and use it is necessary to recall out the main elements of astronomical geography. From the III century BC onwards, various types of astrolabe were built. Among the tools used in the course of the centuries for orientation and measurement, it is the one that perfectly performed both functions, providing measurements related to different fields of investigation: astronomy, chronometry, orientation, measurements (length-height-depth), astrology.

These pages consider the Kitab-i Bahriye by Piri Reis, a corsair and later Admiral of the Turkish fleet as well as an authoritative cartographer who worked during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The Kitab-i Bahriye is a portolan atlas that includes a treatise on seafaring and usually several charts (varying from a few dozen to over two hundred, depending on the copy) illustrating relatively extensive portions of the Mediterranean coasts. We shall consider six different versions that are preserved in Istanbul and span over two centuries, focusing primarily on the maps related to the Tuscan coast and archipelago. We will compare these maps with previous and contemporary examples of nautical and terrestrial cartography. Our intention is to focus new attention on a monumental document of Ottoman cartography that enjoyed a remarkably enduring manuscript tradition.

In this paper we present the story of the most famous ancient female math-ematician, Hypatia, and her father Theon of Alexandria. The mathematician and philosopher Hypatia flourished in Alexandria from the second part of the 4 th century until her violent death incurred by a mob in 415. She was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, a math-ematician and astronomer, who flourished in Alexandria during the second part of the fourth century. Information on Theon's life is only brief, coming mainly from a note in the Suda (Suida's Lexicon, written about 1000 AD) stating that he lived in Alexandria in the times of Theodosius I (who reigned AD 379-395) and taught at the Museum. He is, in fact, the Museum's last attested member. Descriptions of two eclipses he observed in Alexandria included in his commentary to Ptolemy's Mathematical Syntaxis (Almagest) and elsewhere have been dated as the eclipses that occurred in AD 364, which is consistent with Suda. Although originality ...