Edrisi

Edrisi (whose full name is ABŪ'ABDALLAH MOHAMMED ESH-SHERIF EL-EDRISI), one of the most eminent Arabic geographers, was born at Ceuta in 1100. He belonged to the princely family of the Hammûdis of Malaga, and traced his pedigree up to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed. Tradition avers that he studied at Cordova, and in youth he certainly travelled in Spain, Barbary, and Asia Minor. He then settled at the court of the enlightened king of Sicily, Roger II., who covered him with honour. Edrisi made the king a silver map of the world and a celestial sphere, and Roger invited him to write a description of the earth founded upon direct observation. For this purpose travellers were sent on journeys of exploration to many parts, and were directed to assist him by sending their itineraries, their measurements of longitudes and latitudes, their observations and adventures—in short, all they had seen or heard on their journeys. The collection of this material occupied many years, and Edrisi's Description of the World (Nuzhat-el-Mushtâk), or 'Book of Roger,' as it was also called, was not completed till 1154. Unequal in its execution, and better for Western than for Eastern lands, it is nevertheless a work of the highest value and authority, and stands in the very first rank of medieval geographies. A mere abstract of it was first edited in Arabic, very inaccurately, at Rome in 1592, under the mistaken title of Nubian Geography, and reprinted in the monastery of Khesruan, in the Lebanon, with Syriac characters, in 1597. The first published translation was a Latin one, made in Paris (1619) by Gabriel Sionita and Johannes Esonita, a work teeming with the most absurd blunders; and Domenico Macri translated this Latin translation into Italian. Rosario Gregorio's Latin version of the portion referring to Sicily was published with the text in 1790. Portions of the Arabic text, with comments, have been separately published; the chapters relating to Africa and to Spain by Hartmann (Göttingen, 1796); those concerning Syria by Rosenmüller (1828); and those on Africa and Spain again (admirably) by Dozy and De Goeje (Arab. and French, Leyden, 1866). The whole work was done into French, not very satisfactorily, from two MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, by Amédée Jaubert (Paris, 1836–40), but the entire Arabic text has never been edited. Edrisi was also the author of a larger geographical work, which has apparently been lost, and of a treatise on herbs. He died about 1180.