Introduction: The Life, Times, and Works of al-Idrisi

Summary

In the middle of the twelfth century CE, a Muslim geographer based in Sicily named Abu ʿAbdallah Muhammad al-Idrisi (d. 1164/5–1175) penned an expansive description of the world. The title of this work, Kitab Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq (The Book of Pleasure for Those who Desire to Visit Faraway Places), gives only a small sense of its scale. This geography describes the people, settlements, flora, fauna, and geography of lands stretching from sub-Saharan Africa to Scandinavia and from Iberia to eastern Asia. It was an ambitious attempt at sketching out the entirety of the oikumene—a Greek geographical term meaning “inhabited earth.” Today, this geography is also known by a Latinized name, Tabula Rogeriana (The Book of Roger), which elevates the man who sponsored it: the Norman king of Sicily, Roger II (1095–1154). Across this monograph, we will refer to this text as the Nuzhat al-Mushtaq so that the Arabic-language origins of this text remain front and centre.

The Nuzhat al-Mushtaq of al-Idrisi was not only a sprawling written description of the known world. It also contained a number of maps: seventy regional maps organized into a 7 × 10 grid and one large world map showcasing the entirety of the known globe. Indeed, these maps often serve as an accessible introduction to the work of al-Idrisi (and the Middle Ages more generally) thanks to their frequent appearances on book covers and other medieval-themed media. While this cartographic art provides a useful point of entry to the Nuzhat al-Mushtaq, too often these maps serve as substitutes for the expansive writings of al-Idrisi, which contain far more information about human settlement patterns, economic trends, and forms of cultural expression. Our translation seeks to provide an accessible introduction to some of the chapters found within the Nuzhat al-Mushtaq, namely those regions that were governed by the Normans in Ifriqiya (roughly modern Tunisia), Sicily, and south Italy. We hope that this translation will expand the audience of those able to appreciate the work of al-Idrisi not merely for the visual art accompanying it, but also for the text within it.

This introduction provides readers with information about the life, times, and work of al-Idrisi such that our subsequent translation can be read with an eye toward its historical context. An analysis of the physical texts of the Nuzhat al-Mushtaq that survive to the present day is an ideal place to begin.