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Abu Abdallah Muhammad Ibn Muhammad
Ibn Abdallah Ibn Idris al-Qurtubi al-Hasani,
also known by his short name as Al-Sharif
Al Idrisi Al Qurtubi, was born in Ceuta,
Spain, in 1099 A.D.
He received his education in Cordova,
then flourished at the Norman court in
Palermo.
Al Idrisi was a direct descendant of the
prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It is not
confirmed whether he died on 1166 or
1180 A.D.
Many scholars regard him as the greatest
geographer and cartographer of the
middle Ages.
As all Muslim geographers, Al Idrisi
traveled to many distant places,
including Europe, to gather geographical
data. Muslim geographers at that time
had already made accurate measurements
of the earth surface, also several maps
of the world were available.
Al-Idrisi combined his own findings to
the available knowledge at his time. He
became famous for his comprehensive
knowledge of all parts of the world, he
also attracted the attention of European
sea navigators and military planners
more than other Muslim geographers
because ships and navigators from north
sea, Atlantic and the Mediterranean
frequented Sicily, which is located
about the middle of the Mediterranean.
Several of his books were translated
into Latin and his books on geography
were popular for several centuries.
The translation of one of his books was
published in 1619 in Rome, but it was an
abridged edition and the translator did
not give credit to Al-Idrisi.
It is interesting that Europe took
several centuries to make use of his
work and the world map. It is worth
mentioning that Christopher Columbus
used the map which was originally taken
from Al-Idrisi's work.
Al-Idrisi's fame and competence
eventually led to the attention of Roger
II, the Norman King of Sicily, who
invited him to produce an up-to-date
world map.
It should be mentioned that Sicily was
under Muslim rule before King Roger,
where Muslim works were freely available
for transmission to Europe through Latin
West. Al Adrisi then spent most of his
life in the service of the Norman King,
Roger II.
Al-Idrisi constructed a circular world
map of pure silver that weighed
approximately 400 kilograms and
precisely recorded on it the seven
continents with trade routes, lakes and
rivers, major cities, and plains and
mountains.
Al Idrisi described the world in Al-Kitab
al-Rujari (Roger's Book), also entitled
Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq
(The delight of him who desires to
journey through the climates).
This is practically a geographical
encyclopedia of the time, containing
information not only on Asia and Africa,
but also on European countries.
He also compiled another geographical
encyclopedia larger than the former
entitled Rawd-Unnas wa-Nuzhat al-Nafs
(Pleasure of men and delight of souls)
also known as Kitab al- Mamalik wa al-Masalik,
his knowledge of the Niger, the Sudan,
and of the head waters of the Nile was
remarkable for its accuracy.
In addition to geography, he also
contributed to the science of medicinal
plants. His major contribution in this
field lies in he medicinal plants as
presented in his several books,
especially Kitab al-Jami-li-Sifat Ashtat
al-Nabatat. He reviewed and synthesized
all the material available on the
subject of medicinal plants and
associated drugs available to him from
Muslim scientists and added to it his
research collection from his travels.
He contributed this material to the
subject of botany with emphasis on
medicinal plants. He has given the names
of the drugs in six languages: Syriac,
Greek, Persian, Hindi, Latin and Berber.
Besides botany and geography, Idrisi
also wrote on fauna, zoology and
therapeutically aspects. His work was
soon translated into Latin.
His books on geography remained popular
both in the East and the West for
several centuries.
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