Al-Idrisi's geographical account of northern Africa 1796

Muhammad Idrisi

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• About the artwork
  AL-IDRISI, Muhammad and Joannes Melchior HARTMANN (translator).
  Africa.
  Göttingen, Johann Christian Dieterich, 1796. 8vo.
  Slightly later black half goatskin.
  
  Second edition of a Latin translation of a work on the geography of Africa, written by the Islamic geographer and botanist Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100-1165). It deals specifically with the geography of northern Africa, Egypt and the Sahara desert, covering its soil, cities, population, mountains, deserts, rivers and monuments. Al-Idrisi also mentions various travel routes from one city to the other. Around 1138, al-Idrisi was invited to the court of the king of Sicily, Roger II, who asked him to map the world as it was then known. This map is now lost, but Roger II also asked for supplemental texts to comment on the map. "Emissaries were sent far and wide, and from the information they brought back the Kitab al-Rojari [Book of Roger] was compiled, and completed by January 1154" (Howgego). Various manuscripts containing (parts of the) Kitab al-Rojari have survived, and the present translation was based on one of them. The present work was translated and edited by the Johannes Melchior Hartmann (1764-1817), who worked from a medieval Arabic manuscript at the University of Jena.
  
  With a library stamp. Somewhat browned and foxed throughout. Binding worn at hinges and along the extremities. Otherwise in good condition.
  Gay 345; Howgego, to 1800, I5; not in Atabey; Blackmer.
• About the artist
  Muhammas al- Idrisi (born 1100, Sabtah, Mor.—died 1165/66, Sicily, or Sabtah), was a famous Arab geographer and an adviser to Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily. Few facts are known about al-Idrīsī’s life. He was born in Sabtah (now Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in Morocco), spending much of his early life traveling in North Africa and Spain and seems to have acquired detailed and accurate information on both regions. He is known to have studied in Córdoba for a couple of years. He traveled to many parts of western Europe, including Portugal, northern Spain, the French Atlantic coast, and southern England. He visited Asia Minor when he was 16 years old. In about 1145 al-Idrīsī entered the service of Roger II of Sicily, a step that marked a turning point in is career. Roger II commissioned him to make a map of the world, resulting in the completion of three major geographic works: a silver planisphere on which was depicted a map of the world, a world map dividing the Earth north of the Equator into 7 climatic zones and a geographic text as a key to the planisphere. This was his magnum opus of descriptive geography, known as Al-Kitāb ar-Rujārī (“The Book of Roger”). Al-Idrīsī completed the book in January 1154, shortly before Roger’s death. The silver planisphere has been lost, but the maps and book have survived. Al-Idrīsī had a good understanding of Arabic literature, and he was also an accomplished poet. The last years of his life are unknown.
  
  His full name was Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti (أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي‎‎)