Transcript Islamic exploration

Islamic Exploration
History of Islam
• 622: hijra, hegira
• 630: return to Mecca
• 632: Death of Muhammad
• -750 rapid expansion of Islam, Arabic
language and culture
Islamic Astronomical
Knowledge
• Inheritors of Greek and Hellenistic
knowledge
• Indian and Persian knowledge
• Book of Fixed Stars
• astrolabe
Book of Fixed Stars
Early Islamic
astrolabe, 10th
c, SOAS
How to use and
astrolabe
Islamic cartography
• Some Persian inheritance
– kishvars
• Inheritors of Greco-Hellenistic
knowledge
• Bahlki school
– Production of world maps, regional
maps, atlases
• Ad-Idrisi school
• Books of Curiosities
Kishvars
Fusion Geography!
Islamic Trade
• Pax Islamica
• Arab Empire as world’s leading
economic power (until 13th c)
• Trade between Charlemagne and
Harun al-Rashid
Islamic Travellers
• Ibn Battuta (c. 1304-1369)
– Rihla
• Mansa Musa (r. 1312-1330? 1337?)
Manu I