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Islamic geographical manuscripts
Map of
Arabia from the Kitab al-Masalik wa'l-Mamalik by
al-Istakhri (copy dated to
c. 1306 CE)
The Book of Roads and Kingdoms (
Arabic: كتاب المسالك والممالك, Kitāb al-Masālik waʿl-Mamālik[1]) is a group of
Islamic manuscripts composed from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.[2] They emerged from the administrative tradition of listing
pilgrim and
post stages.[3][4] Their text covers the cities, roads, topography, and peoples of the Muslim world, interspersed with personal anecdotes.[5] A theoretical explanation of the "Inhabited Quarter" of the world, comparable to the
ecumene, frames the world with classical concepts like the seven
climes.[6][3]
The books include illustrations so geometric that they are barely recognizable as maps.[7] These schematic maps do not attempt a
mimetic depiction of physical boundaries.[8][9] With little change in design, the treatises typically offer twenty regional maps and a disc-shaped map of the world surrounded by the Encircling Ocean.[6] The maps have a flat quality, but the textual component implies a spherical Earth. Andalusi scholar
Abi Bakr Zuhri explained, "Their objective is the depiction of the earth, even if it does not correspond to reality. Because the earth is spherical but the [map] is simple".[10]
The first, incomplete Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik by Ja‘far ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi is now lost.[11] The
earliest surviving version was written by
Ibn Khordadbeh circa 870 CE,[11] during the reigns of
Abbasid caliphs
al-Wathiq and
al-Mu'tamid.[11] The earliest known version of the idiosyncratic cartography was composed by
al-Istakhri circa 950 CE,[12] although only copies by later artists survive.[13] As he was a follower of
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi,[6] this style of map-making is often referred to as the "Balkhī school",[14] or the "Classical School".
Leiden University Libraries holds مختصر كتاب المسالك والممالك لابي اسحاق ابراهيم بن محمد الاصطخري / World map in a summary of Kitab al-masalik wa’l mamalik, MS Or. 3101, 1193. [15]
The maps are sometimes called the "Atlas of Islam",[6] or abbreviated as KMMS maps.[9] This tradition of mapping appears in related works including
Ibn Hawqal's Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ (صورة الارض; "The face of the Earth").[16]
Antrim, Zayde (2012). Routes and Realms. Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-991387-9.
Casale, Giancarlo (2019). "Did Alexander the Great Discover America? Debating Space and Time in Renaissance Istanbul". Renaissance Quarterly. 72 (3): 863–909.
doi:
10.1017/rqx.2019.252.
ISSN0034-4338.
JSTOR26845906.
S2CID204482631. Accessed 2023-05-27.
Danilenko, Nadja (2021). Picturing the Islamicate World. Brill.
ISBN9789004440098.
Edson, Evelyn; Savage-Smith, Emilie (2004). Medieval Views of the Cosmos. University of Oxford.
ISBN978-1851241842.
Fiddler, Richard (2022). The Book of Roads and Kingdoms. ABC Books.
ISBN978-1-4607-1527-7.
Jafri, Ayfer S., ed. (2019).
"Geography". Cities of Light. Georgetown University – via Unity Productions Foundation, Inc.
Pinto, Karen (2004). "Cartography and Geography". In Martin, Richard C.; Arjomand, Saïd Amir; Hermansen, Marcia; Tayob, Abdulkader; Rochelle, Davis (eds.). Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Vol. 1. New York:
Macmillan USA. pp. 128–132.