Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration

417 Pages·26.043 MB·English

by  Karen C. Pinto

Medieval Islamic Maps

Medieval
Islamic Maps
An Exploration
Karen C. Pinto
The University of Chicago Press / Chicago and London
Karen C. Pinto is assistant professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern history at
Boise State University.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2016 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2016.
Printed in China
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5
Parts of chapters 8 and 9 originally appeared in Views from the Edge, edited by
Neguin Yavari, Lawrence G. Potter, and Jean Marc Ran Oppenheim. Copyright
© 2004 The Middle East Institute. Reprinted with permission from Columbia
University Press.
Parts of chapters 10, 11, and 12 originally appeared in “The Maps Are the Message:
Mehmet II’s Patronage of an ‘Ottoman Cluster,’” K. Pinto, Imago Mundi, vol.
63:2, (2011), pp. 155–1 79. Reprinted with permission from Taylor & Francis Group
(www .tandfonline .com).
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 12696- 8 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 12701- 9 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208 / chicago / 9780226127019.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Pinto, Karen C., author.
Medieval Islamic maps : an exploration / Karen C. Pinto.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 226- 12696- 8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 12701- 9 (e-
book) 1. Cartography—I slamic countries— History. 2. Geography, Arab. I. Title.
GA221.P56 2016
912.092'21767— dc23
2015017867
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI / NISO Z39.48-1 992 (Permanence of
Paper).
In loving memory of my parents,
Adele Berthe Pinto
(1928– 2008)
and
Lt. Col. Felice George Pinto
(1918– 1984)
نپ ہناوید ےہ قشعِ اہک ےس ھجم ےن ملعِ
نظو نیمخت ےہ ملعِ اہک ےس ھجم ےن قشعِ
باوج ناہنپِ ےہ قشعِ ،لاوس ادیپ ےہ ملعِ
!باتکلا مّ ُا ےہ قشعِ ،باتکلا نبِا ےہ ملعِ
Knowledge said to me, Love is madness;
Love said to me, Knowledge is estimation and presumption.
Knowledge is born a question, Love is the hidden answer;
Knowledge is Son of the Book, Love is Mother of the Book!
Allama Iqbal, ʿIlm wa ʿIshq (Knowledge and Love)
It is seeing which establishes our place in
the surrounding world; we explain that
world with words, but words can never undo
the fact that we are surrounded by it.
The relation between what we see and what
we know is never settled.
John Berger, Ways of Seeing
Contents
Note on Transliteration ix
1 / Introduction: Ways of Seeing Islamic Maps 1
2 / A Look Back 9
3 / A Sketch of the Islamic Mapping Tradition 23
4 / KMMS World Maps Primer 59
5 / Iconography of the Encircling Ocean 79
6 / Classical and Medieval Encircling Oceans 113
7 / The Muslim Baḥr al-M uḥīṭ 147
8 / The Beja in Time and Space 187
9 / How the Beja Capture Imagination 201
10 / Meḥmed II and Map Patronage 219
11 / The KMMS Ottoman Cluster 233
12 / Source of the Ottoman Cluster 251
13 / Conclusion: Mundus est immundus 279
Acknowledgments 283
Notes 291
Bibliography 355
Index 393

Note on Transliteration
A book involving the admixture of Arabic, Persian, and
Ottoman transliteration systems is, as I have discovered, no
easy matter. The standard IJMES system, which I employ
throughout this book, does not fit Ottoman transliteration
well. Thus, Mehmet becomes Meḥmed but Tārīḫ- i Hind- i
Gharbī (History of the West Indies) cannot be changed to the
Arabic form of Tārīkh. Similarly, Loḳmān looks odd when
transliterated according to the Arabic system as Luqmān.
The problem is compounded by modern Turkish, which
uses, for example, “c” for “j.” Thus, Cerrāḥiyyetüʾl- Ḥāniyye
(Imperial Surgery) should be transliterated as Jerrāḥiyyet
according to the IJMES system, but no one would be able
to locate the book under that spelling. For this reason, the
transliteration of Ottoman Turkish under the IJMES scheme
cannot be foolproof. The case of Persian is easier. I apply
the IJMES transliteration convention. Instead of the Per-
sian spelling Iskander, for instance, I use Iskandar according
to the Arabic convention. In order to preserve the narrative
flow I have removed the prefix “al-” from the start of Ara-
bic last names. Thus Ṭabarī instead of al- Ṭabarī, Maʾmūn
ix