Muslim Travelers and Mapmakers during the Middle Ages

Muslim Travelers and Mapmakers during the Middle Ages

Introduction: Muslim
civilization always has been mobile
(moving). Both the Arabs and the conquerors
from Central Asia were originally nomadic
(able to move or travel
around) and
inherited a tradition of travel. Large armies were constantly on the
move. Students and scholars went on long journeys to sit at the feet
of famous teachers, for the Prophet Muhammad himself encouraged
travel even "as far as China" for learning. The wealth of cities
depended upon trade. And the Faith of Islam asked of the Faithful the
most powerful of all reasons for travel -- the Pilgrimage. So Muslims
traveled the length and breadth
(width)
of the vast

(large, extensive,
widespread) Islamic Empires and beyond, especially for trade purposes.
Muslims traveled by land and by sea and through their trips they
began an Age of Travel and Exploration far beyond their homelands.
Part I: Travelers & Map Makers

A. Ibn Battuta (1305
- 1369?)


Ibn Battuta was perhaps the greatest traveler
of the Middle Ages, having traveled about 75,000 miles in 29
years! He is especially important to history because of his
written accounts (reports) of his travels. From these records we can learn about
the cultures that he visited. The book about his travels is the
only historical source of information about many of the places he
visited which included the East African coast, the Empire of Mali
in West Africa, Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, India, China, Spain,
and many, many more! As a Muslim, he took advantage of the
generosity shown to pilgrims and travelers in the Empire. He was
often given gifts (of horses, gold, and even slaves) and stayed
for free in dormitories, private homes, and even in the palaces of
Muslim rulers. For seven years he worked for the Sultan in Delhi,
India. On his travels he met several Sultans who welcomed him into
their company. His descriptions are filled with adventures - he
almost died several times. He survived robbers, shipwrecks,
pirates, wars, and the Black Death (or Bubonic Plague).

 


Can you name some of the countries in which
he traveled?






For an extensive website on Ibn Battuta, see
Ibn
Battuta - A Virtual Tour of the 14th Century.

See a short biography with some passages from
his book at "Ibn
Battuta - The Great Traveller" (by A.S.
Chughtai).


For an image of a Saharan traveler
meeting a rich king in West Africa, the
same as to the right (reminiscent of Ibn Battuta). The Catalan Map
was completed in 1375 AD.

See National Geographic, 12/91 for more
information.
From the Catalan
Atlas, National Library of France, Paris.
It was completed in 1375.

Rough Map of Ibn Battuta's Travels -
about 75,000 miles in 29 years! Ibn Battuta started his trip in
Tangier, Morocco, going east on his first hajj (pilgrimage) to
Mecca.
B. Al-Idrisi (Dreses) 1099-1166



Idrisi's map of the known world - Note: North is
at the bottom of the map. Can you see the Mediterranean Sea? Arabia?
The Indian Ocean?

 

Al-Idrisi is best known in the West as a geographer, who made a
globe or sphere of silver weighing 400 kilograms for the Christian
King Roger II of Sicily. Some scholars regard him as the greatest
geographer and cartographer (mapmaker) of the Middle Ages. He put together a geographical
encyclopedia with many maps.

See another short
biography of Al-Idrisi . A copy of the map
of Al-Idrisi is displayed in the Sharjah
Is lamic Museum in the United Arab
Emirates.C. Leo
Africanus (Hasan a-Wazan) was a traveler and mapmaker who lived from
1485-1554. He was captured by Christian pirates and presented to the
Pope as a slave. He later was commissioned to write about and make
maps of his travels in West Africa. His description of Timbuktu (now
in the country of Mali) tells of the city famous for trade of African
products and for scholarship with a thriving trade in books. (From
"Leo Africanus: Description of Timbuktu" Washington State
University.) Read another biography of "Leo
Africanus: Moorish Man of Learning."

D. The Famous Pilgrimage of Mansa
Musa


Mansa means "king" and Musa is the Arabic name
for Moses) - Mansa Musa was an extremely rich ruler of the Mali
Empire. Mansa Musa was either the grandson or the grandnephew of
Sundiata, the founder of his dynasty. He became "Mansa" or king in
1307. In 1324, he began his famous pilgrimage to Mecca. It was this
pilgrimage that awakened the world to the incredible wealth of Mali,
or "put Mali on the map." He traveled from his capital of Niani on
the Upper Niger River to Walata (Oualâta, Mauritania) and on to
Tuat (now in Algeria) before making his way to Cairo. Then he
continued on to Medina and Mecca. Accounts vary, and some may be
exaggerated, but according to some: Mansa Musa was accompanied in his
caravan by 60,000 men including of 12,000 personal slaves finely
dressed in silk. The emperor himself rode on horseback and was
preceded by 500 slaves, each carrying a gold-decorated staff. In
addition, Mansa Musa had a baggage train of 80 camels, each carrying
300 pounds of gold. He generously gave away or spent so much gold
that Cairo's gold market didn't recover for several decades. Mansa
Musa was able to impress the rest of the Islamic world by his wealth
and by his commitment to Islam. As a result he was able to bring
Islamic scholars and other Arab settlers to Timbuktu and other towns
in Mali and bring it more firmly and with respect into the World of
Islamic Nations, or "Dar al-Islam".

(See information at "Islamic
Legacy of Timbuktu" . There is more
information from " Carmen
Sandiego" (from Encyclopedia Britanica).
See an image of Mansa
Musa (or his brother and successor,
Suleyman) from the Catalan Atlas; see "Maps websites", below. For
more information about Mansa Musa, see "West
Africa - what was it like before Slavery and
Colonization?"
E. Islamic Journeys to the Americas?


"Muslims
in the Americas Before Columbus". This
site summarizes the theories and evidence that Muslim explorers from
Andalusia (Muslim Spain) made trips to the Americas in 889 and 999;
from Targay (South Morocco) in 1291; and two trips from West Africa
(Mali Kingdom) with the second voyage in 1311 led by the elder
brother of Mansa Musa named Abu Bakari. Read a description of a play
of the story of Abu
Bakari's trip (about 1307) who traveled
from Mali with 2,000 ships. This story is based on oral tradition and
was performed by Ballet D'Afrique Noire, a touring dance company of
Senegal.
Learn more about it:
See
"Muslim
Legacy in Early Americas" and a brief presentation at:
"Columbus
Came Late: The African Presence in Early America", and a
short article with good photographs at
KAM
Africans in Pre-Columbian America and more
citing
of evidence of African trips to the Americas.
These trips to the Americas are not completely proven and the
evidence is disputed. Therefore, these trips are not found in most
textbooks at the present time. But both Columbus and Cortes told of
hearing about or witnessing Africans during their voyages. According
to one Italian Church document of Columbus' voyage, it is recounted,
"...and he (Columbus) wanted to find out what the Indians of
Hispaniola had told him, that there had come to it from the south and
southeast Negro people, who brought those spear points made of a
metal which they called guanin...which was found to have thirty-two
parts, eighteen of gold, six of silver, and eight of copper." This
was similar to how spear points were made in Mali!

 

F. Zheng He [or
Cheng Ho], a Chinese Muslim under the authority of Ming Emperor made
several trips of exploration and diplomacy from 1405 - 1433. He even
made a hajj to Mecca! Learn more about his travels and
the huge size of
his ships at "Chinese Mariner
Zheng He". More about his life and
adventures is found at "Cheng
Ho and Suzhou - History Comes Full Circle"
For a teacher's lesson plan from AskAsia, see "Should
the Ming End the Treasure Ship Voyages?".




Drawing comparing the size of a Chinese Treasure Ship
about 1430 with Columbus' ship, 1492.

from When
China Ruled the Sea by Louise
Levathes
You are here at Page One: Islamic
Travelers and Map Makers

Go to Page Two: Trade Routes and Journeys
Go to Page Three: Transportation: By
Ship
Go to Page Four: Transportation: On
Land
Go to Part Four: Maps to see
historical maps and even take a "Virtual Tour" of modern
countries.
Go to the Student
Activities Page on Travelers and Mapmakers

Go to the Main
PageBooks and Magazines:
Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354,
by James Rumford. A great book for elementary and middle school
students.

The Arabs in the Golden Age by Moktefi and Ageorges,
Millbrook Press, pages 20 - 23

Silver Burdett The Rise of Islam by Moktefi, pages 18 -
23. (Out of print.)

Travellers and Explorers, IQRA Trust, London, 1992
distributed in the U.S. by
Astrolabe
Pictures, call 1-800-39-ASTRO

The Silk Route : 7,000 Miles of History by John Major,
HarperCollins, 1995

Travelers: Ibn Battuta
National Geographic "Ibn Battuta, Prince of Travelers"
12/91 [Especially good!]

"Synopsis of the 14th Century Adventures of Ibn Battuta" by
Ross Dunn, UCSD

Adventures of Ibn Battuta by Ross Dunn, University
of California Press, 1988. [Great!]

Children's books: Amazing Adventures of Ibn Battuta
[set of 5] by Durke,
Astrolabe
Pictures (call 1-800-39-ASTRO) [Muslim Heroes series]

Ibn Battuta: A View of the Fourteenth-Century World (A Unit
of Study for Grades 7 - 10), by Joan Arno and Helen Grady,
National Center for History in the Schools, University of
California, Los Angeles, 1998.

Arab World Notebook for Secondary:
Najda, p.
208 - 210 (Teacher Resource book for sale)

Travels: ARAMCO World: May-June, 1992 "The Middle East and the Age
of Discovery". This magazine has some good background
information on the Muslims' interest in geography and
mapmaking, and the learning of the Greeks which they
translated, then expanded upon. [See pages 3 - 5, especially.]

ARAMCO World: July-August, 1988 "Traveling the Silk Roads".
This has an excellent map of the Silk Road which brought trade
goods between Byzantium (modern Turkey) to China. It has
photographs of people and places along the way.

ARAMCO World: July-August, 1977 "Al-Idrisi and 'Roger's
Book'" This tells the story an Arab geographer who compiled the
first scientific map of the world. See pages 14 - 19.

ARAMCO World: Sept.-October, 1997 "Riding the Forty Days'
Road" shows camel caravans from Sudan up into Egypt.

"Arabia's Frankincense Trail" National Geographic, October
1985

Major, John S., The Silk Route - 7,000 Miles of
History, Harper Collins, 1995


Van Sertima, Ivan. They came before Columbus, New York:
Random House, c1976. and African Presence in early America,
New Brunswick, U.S.A.: Transaction Publishers, c1992. give
evidence for the theory of early contact from Africa hundreds of
years before Columbus. These are fascinating books.

Zheng He, the Admiral of the Ming Dynasty fleet (1405-1433),
was a Muslim who sailed through the Indian Ocean and down the
coast of East Africa to explore for China. His story is told in
When China Ruled the Seas by Louise Levathes, and will be
featured in a forthcoming edition of ARAMCO World Magazine. Also
see Cheng Ho from
Astrolabe
Pictures [Muslim Heroes series; 1-800-39-ASTRO] [Note: "Cheng
Ho" is the Cantonese-Romanization spelling of "Zheng He."]



Community Resources:


Travel agencies in your community can supply you with pictures
from travel brochures of various places. You can use these
pictures to illustrate some of your activities, such as "Medieval
Travel Advertisements" (see "Activities" below). There is one on
Mission at 25th Street.

Community Resources - Visit the website "Influence of the
Middle East and Islam upon the Mission - A Photography Project"
which shows restaurants, stores, and other places within 6 blocks
of Horace Mann Middle School, San Francisco. [Under construction]

Consulates in San Francisco which can provide classes with
booklets, information about their countries and perhaps answer
some questions about student projects:


Yemen Consulate - 1255 Post St., Suite 1030, San
Francisco, CA 94109. (415) 567-3036

Egyptian Consulate - 3001 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco,
California 94115; Tel: (415) 346-9700

Jordanian Consulate - 972 Mission Street, 4th Floor, San
Francisco, California 94103, Tel: (415) 546 1155, Fax: (415)
546 4041



Audio/Visual Resources and Teacher's Guides:


Video on Trans-Saharan Travel by Caravan: "Caravans of Gold" -
Africa Series - Africa: Program 3. Reveals the history and present
day life of the continent in breathtaking photography and rare
archival film. Hosted by Basil Davidson, British author. Available
at many video stores, or for sale for about $60 from
Schoolhouse
Videos. This video shows the trade of salt for gold that was
done by camel caravans, some about Ibn Battuta's description of
West Africa, the wealth of West African gold, and the pilgrimage
of Mansa Musa.

Teacher Lesson Plan Resources: See
http://multimedia 2.freac.fsu.edu/fga/academy/aftimb.htm

Silk Road -
Materials
for Teacher Workshop on the Silk Road includes a
recommendation for a CD-ROM, which may be borrowed from REECAS,
The Silk Road: Digital Journey, produced by Marek Gronowski (DNA
Multimedia Corporation, 1760 West 2nd Ave. Vancouver, B.C. V6J
1H6, Canada, tel. 1-604-736-8783; e-mail: info@dna.bc.ca. Works on
both Windows and Mac). This site also recommends books and
videotapes. Also SEE THEIR
"SILK
ROAD AND CENTRAL ASIA ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB