Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic
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Karen C. Pinto
Abstract
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 almasālik waalmamālik (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 alBuldān (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.
Abstract
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 almasālik waalmamālik (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 alBuldān (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.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
