Back to Table of Contents (5)
To next page

The Leiden ms Or. 2541 (1248)

----------------------------------------

Taken from: L'Afrique dans les mappemondes circulaires arabes médiévales par Jean-Charles Ducène.

The world-map in this manuscript

The world map is on the last folio of the manuscript copied in 646/1248 and illustrates a fragmentary Persian

geographical treatise, but the script also gives the astronomical treatise of Aḥmad al-Sigzi (d. 442/1050 ca),

Tarkib al-Aflaq. The designer has tried to integrate the design of a communication between the Indian Ocean

and the Atlantic with the Ptolemaic model. We have a shortened Africa that is recognizable by the Nile, but

also a land mass starting at Andalus (=Muslim Spain), runs along West Africa before curving eastward at the southern tip of the

African continent  here marked by the place name "Mountains of the Moon" and continue eastward.

And if we had doubts about the nature of this land, a place name indicates that it is the steppe of the Blacks

(badi Sudan). In fact, Africa has been cut in half.

Dr Karen Pinto states that this map is part of al-risala al-Mu'iniyya, a Persian treatise by Nasir al-din Tusi (1201-1274CE).

Because of that I added the map also on my webpage on Nasir al-din Tusi.