The sea on the right is the Mediterranean; so Europe is not really on the map.

 

Back to Table of Contents 6

(compiled for) Padshah Adil Aran Khan: Collective ms. Leiden Or. 563 with astronomical and medical tables (1390)(Persia)

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Taken from: website Leiden University Libraries

 

 Collective volume with astronomical and medical tables in Persian. [1, f. 1-40]: Anonymous chronological, astronomical and astrological tables. – [2, f. 41-55]: Anonymous tables for properties of simplicia, taken from a work by Amin al-Dawla Abu al-Ḥasan Hibat Allah ibn Sa’id Ibn al-Tilmidh (c. 1073 - c. 1164 AD), 1390

 

Like most Islamic maps south is on top and the southern continent is Africa with the East African coast running West to East instead of North to South. The enormous red brown mass in the upper right corner of the circle is the Mountain of the Moon. From where a double Nile runs towards the Mediterranean. The red tower in between its two mouths is the Lighthouse of Alexandria dating from classical times and which was then already in ruins. This double Nile is only found on this type of maps. The circle on top of the mountain represents the moon.


The worldmap is a copy of the one found: Miscellany of scientific works, (Tables of the year 1309) (see my webpage under this name). Another copy in the work of Zinat al-Munjim ibn Sulayman Qanooni (1371).

And also: Ann: Taqwim-i Tarikhi (Historical Calendar) (1450).

This map resembles the map in the Mudjmal al -Tawarikh wa-l-qisas (1126) as well as the 16th century one of Ali Mustapha al Galliapoli (Turkey).