Ex Oriente Lux Mundi

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Notes

¹See the new edition with a new preface, E.W. Said, Orientalism (New York, 2003).

²See also his ‘A Debt of Gratitude’ in F. Sezgin, Science and Technology in Islam—Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science (at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University), Frankfurt Book Fair 2004 (Frankfurt, 2004), p. 6; idem, Science and Technology in Islam. Exhibition of some Instruments from the Museum of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universityin Frankfurt, Germany (Frankfurt , 2004), pp. 14–15.

³A. Stückelberger, ‘Planudes und die Geographia des Ptolemaios’, Museum Helveticum, 53 (1996), 197–205; see also R. Burri, ‘Die Wiederentdeckung der Geographie des Ptolemaios durch Planudes’, Antike Naturwissenschaft und ihre Rezeption, XIII (2003), 127–36.

⁴For the relevant literature, see M.G. Schmidt, Die Nebenüberlieferung des 6. Buchs der Geographia des Ptolemaios—Griechische, lateinische, syrische, armenische und arabische Texte (Wiesbaden, 1999), p. 72 and note 22.

⁵In his article Djughrafiya in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Suppl., col. 65b.

⁶For earlier publications concerning Sezgin's reconstruction, see esp. F. Sezgin, ‘The Contribution of the Arabic-Islamic Geographers to the Formation of the World Map’, Veröffentlichungen des Institutes für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamische n Wissenschaften, Rheide D Kartographie, 2 (1987), 50 pp. + 48 maps; idem, ‘Ma'mÛnische Weltkarte (Faksimile)’ in Focus Behaim Globus Teil 1: Aufsätze, Teil 2: Katalog, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2. Dezember 1992 bis 28. Februar 1993 (Nürnberg, 1993), p. 651.

⁷These two sources have become more readily available than before: F. Sezgin, in collaboration with M.Amawi, C. Ehrig-Eggert and E. Neubauer, editors, Al Hwarizmi, The Geographical Tables Extracted from Kitab Surat al-Ard and Suhrab, Ağa'ib al-Aqalim As-Sab'a ed. Hans von Mzik. Reprint of the Eds. Leipzig 1926 and 1930, Islamic Geography II, Mathematical Geography and Cartography (Frankfurt am Main, 1992) I.

⁸See R. Jafri, Y.S. Maltsev, and K.S. Aini, Al-Khwarazmi's Geographical Map of the World Based on the Book ‘Surat al-Ard’ (Dushanbe-Srinagar, 1985). In the book titled Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmii Izbrannie Proizvedeniya (Tashkent, 1983), Ashraf Ahmedov translated the book called Surat al-Ard ascribed to al-Khwarizmi, including its table of coordinates into Uzbek, without, however, drawing any maps, pp. 225–365.

⁹An excellent facsimile of this particular MS is now available: F. Sezgin in collaboration with A. Jokhoska and E. Neubauer, editors, Routes toward Insight into the Capital Empires Masalik al-Abşar fi Mamalik al-Amşar by Ibn Fadlallah al-'Umari Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Yahya (d. 1349 A.D.) (Frankfurt am Main, 1988).

¹⁰This value is only valid if one takes the modern equivalent of the stade as 157.50 m as A. Berthelot proposed in L'Asie Ancienne Centrale et Sud-Orientale d'après Ptolémée (Paris, 1930). If we take the extreme values now assigned to the stade, the length of the equator as measured by Eratosthenes ranges from 37,000,000 m and 46,250,000 m. Interestingly, the value for the terrestrial circumference cited by Ibn Khordâdhbeh, in the introduction to his Kitâb al-Masâlik wa'l-Mamâlik, is 9000 parasangs (farsakh, i.e. almost 6 km); M.J. de Goeje, Kitâb al-Masâlik wa'l Mamâlik auctore Abu'l-Kâsim Obaidallah ibn Abdallah Ibn Khordâdhbeh accedunt excerpta e Kitâb al-Kharâdj auctore Kodâma ibn Dja'far (Leiden, 1889); reprinted in 1992 in the ‘Series Islamic Geography’ of the Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wisenschaften an der Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Veröffentlichungen des Institutes für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wisenschaften, IIIIX, 3, which comes to a little over 50,000,000 m, i.e. closer to the upper extreme of the two limits given by different values attached to the Greek stade, and far away from the estimates of Posidonius and his followers, Marinos of Tyre and Ptolemy.

¹¹The Chinese general Fêng fêng-shï presented to the imperial court a map of Tibet in 65 bc: W.M. McGovern, The Early Empires of Central Asia (Chapel Hill, NC, 1939), p. 210.

¹²The Xiong-nu prince Bi sent to the Chinese court a ‘detailed map’ of the Hunnish Kingdom in 46 ad: McGovern (ibid., p. 232). Also, see the captured barbarian (i.e. Xiong-nu) maps showing ‘lands, mountains, and streams’ in C.D.K. Yee, ‘Chinese maps in political culture’ in J.B. Harley and D. Woodward, editors, The History of Cartography, vol. 2, book 2 (Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies) (Chicago, 1994), p. 77, note 48. On the Chinese: ad 72 Chinese geographical reconnaissance of Kashgaria in McGovern, op. cit. note 11, p. 258 and J. Needham and L. Wang, Science and Civilisation in China, III, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Cambridge, 1959); military mapping of territories east of Tien Shan: Yee, op. cit., this note, p. 77; idem, ‘Taking the World's Measure: Chinese Maps Between Observation and Text’, ibid. 96–127; idem, ‘Concluding Remarks: Foundations for a Future History of Chinese Mapping’, ibid., 228–31. For the Muslim knowledge of Tibet: L. Petech, ‘Tibet nella geografia Musulmana’, in L. Petech, Selected Papers on Asian History, Serie Orientale Roma LX (Rome, 1988), pp. 1–18. On the Russians: L.A. Goldenberg, Izograf Zemli Sibirskoi (Magadan, 1990).

¹³B. Latini, The Book of the Treasure (Li Livres dou Tresor) translated by P. Barrette and S. Baldwin (New York, 1993).

¹⁴The word Piri Reis used for the Arabic maps was djafariya, and every historian of cartography without exception preferred to read this as djughrafiya (geography). Only recently, Türküstün suggested that the word djafariya was maybe what was intended and might refer to the Chaliph al-Ma'mun, who was also known as Abu ğafar, indicating that the source maps used by Piri Reis were known as ‘Ma'munian’, thus supporting Sezgin's thesis. See F. Türküstün, ‘Kitab-i Bahriye'yi yaşamak ve Piri Reis'in Atlantik haritasinda fark edilmemiş gerçekler’ in Uluslararasi Piri Reis Simpozyumu Tebliğler Kitabi 27–29 Eylül 2004 (İstanbul, 2006), 6-44–6-45. I told Sezgin of this suggestion, but he dismissed it (perhaps because no other example referring to the Ma'munic maps as djafariya had been mentioned in the literature).

¹⁵A.M.C. Şengör, ‘Science in Southeastern Europe: Advantages and Problems of a Melting Pot’, in Science and Culture for a Joint Future of Southeastern Europe, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Skopje, 1998), pp. 72–74.

¹⁶A.N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (Cambridge, 1926), p. 1.