in 1154, one of the most advanced
medieval world maps. This modern consolidation, created from al-Idrisi's 70 double-page spreads, shows South at the top as was common in medieval Islamic cartography. Because of conflict and instability in
Al-Andalus al-Idrisi joined contemporaries such as
Abu al-Salt in Sicily, where the
Normans had overthrown Arabs formerly loyal to the
Fatimids. Al-Idrisi incorporated the knowledge of Africa, the
Indian Ocean and the
Far East gathered by
Islamic merchants and explorers and recorded on Islamic maps with the information brought by the Norman voyagers to create the most accurate map of the world in pre-modern times, The was drawn by al-Idrisi in 1154 for the
Norman King
Roger II of Sicily, after a stay of eighteen years at his court, where he worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map. The map, with legends written in Arabic, while showing the
Eurasian continent in its entirety, only shows the
northern part of the African continent and lacks details of the
Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia. For Roger it was inscribed on a massive disc of solid silver, two metres in diameter. On the geographical work of al-Idrisi,
S.P. Scott wrote in 1904: Al-Idrisi's work influenced a number of Islamic scholars including
Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi,
Hafiz-i Abru, and
Ibn Khaldun but his work was unknown in Western Europe and had little influence on the development of
Renaissance cartography. The oil colors he used in the creation of his maps, such as
lapis lazuli blue for water, remain vivid to this day.
Description of islands in the North Sea Al-Idrisi in his famous mentioned
Irlandah-al-Kabirah (
Great Ireland). According to him, "from the extremity of
Iceland to that of Great Ireland," the sailing time was "one day." Although historians note that both al-Idrisi and the
Norse tend to understate distances, the only location this reference is thought to have possibly pointed to, must likely have been in
Greenland.
Description of Chinese trade Al-Idrisi mentioned that Chinese
junks carried leather, swords, iron and silk. He mentions the glassware of the city of
Hangzhou and labels
Quanzhou's silk as the best. In his records of Chinese trade, al-Idrisi also wrote about the
Silla Dynasty (one of Korea's historical Dynasties, and a major trade partner to China at the time), and was one of the first Arabs to do so. Al-Idrisi's References to Silla led other Arab merchants to seek Silla and its trade, and contribute to many Arab's perception of Silla as the ideal East-Asian country. ==Nuzhat al-Mushtaq==