Draft:Thana Abdalla Al-Idrisi

Thana Abdalla Mrs. Zerrarka Social Studies 3/26/2024

Al-Idrisi (also known by Al-Sharif Al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi) was a Geographer, writer, scientist and cartographer, who specialized in making maps. He was born in 1100, Ceuta Spain and died in Italy, 1165 .Al-Idrisi graduated from the University of Cordova and spent a lot of years traveling significantly throughout Europe and North Africa. Many years ago there were no accurate maps and all of the countries, continents and waterways remained unknown, that is until the 12th century Al Idrisi stepped in and produced an atlas, showing most of Europe, Asia and Africa for the first time in history.

In 1145 C.E., al-Idrisi became an advisor to King Roger II of Sicily, and made an updated map for the king.Over the course of nine years, he brought the material up to date by sending off travelers  to various points around the world, instructing them to make careful notes of what they saw. and his own experience, in 1154 he completed what became one of the most detailed geographical works created during the medieval period., interviewing thousands of travelers and producing 70 accurate maps. He gathered previous information from past authors. And his work contained extravagant information on the more remote parts of Asia and Africa. Many muslims were inspired by him and began to make detailed measurements of the globe.

Al Idrisi measured the circumference of the globe, he calculated that it was 22,900 miles at the Equator, about 10% adrift from the modern figure. He also wrote about the hemispheres of the earth. Even before Al idrisi, many Muslim Arabs were commissioned by Caliph Al ma'mun to determine the earths circumference.