Full Name : His full name is: Mohamed bin Mohamed bin Abdullah bin Idris bin Yahya bin Ali bin Hamoud (owner of Granada in his time) bin Maimoon bin Ahmed bin Ali bin Obaidullah bin Omar bin Idris bin Driss bin Abdullah bin Hassan Muthanna bin Hassan bin Ali bin Abi Talib bin Abdul Muttalib bin Hashem Al Qurashi.
Al-Idrisi was born in the city of Ceuta, part of Morocco at that time but now controlled by Spain.
He spent much of his early life travelling through North Africa and Al-Andalus, and seems to have acquired detailed information on both regions. He visited Anatolia when he was barely 16. He studied in Córdoba.
Drawn by al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154, one of the most advanced medieval world maps. Modern consolidation, created from al-Idrisi's 70 double-page spreads, shown upside-down as the original had South at the top.
For three centuries geographers copied his maps without alteration. The relative position of the lakes which form the Nile, as delineated in his work, does not differ greatly from that established by Baker and Stanley more than seven hundred years afterwards, and their number is the same.
The mechanical genius of the author was not inferior to his erudition. The celestial and terrestrial planisphere of silver which he constructed for his royal patron was nearly six feet in diameter, and weighed four hundred and fifty pounds; upon the one side the zodiac and the constellations, upon the other-divided for convenience into segments-the bodies of land and water, with the respective situations of the various countries, were engraved.
According to the French National Library, "Ten copies of the Kitab Rujar or Tabula Rogeriana exist worldwide today. Of these ten, six contain at the start of the work a circular map of the world which is not mentioned in the text of al-Idris". The original text dates to 1154. Note that south is at the top of the map.
Al-Idrisi inspired many other geographers such as Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun and Piri Reis. His map also inspired Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama.
Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet and armed forces that undertook these expeditions. Wang Jinghong was appointed his second in command. Preparations were thorough and wide-ranging, including the use of such numerous linguists that a foreign language institute was established at Nanjing. Zheng He's first voyage departed 11 July 1405, from Suzhou: and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen.
Check All seven Voyages Routings of ZHENG He ( 1405 - 1431) : By clicking on the above picture 👆
ZHENG himself wrote of his travels:
We have traversed more than 100,000 li of immense water spaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course [as rapidly] as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare...
The pet giraffe of the Sultan of Bengal, brought from the Somali Ajuran Empire, and later taken to China in the thirteenth year of Yongle (1415).
One theory is that Admiral Zheng He died in 1433, during or shortly after the seventh voyage. Another is that Zheng He continued to serve as the defender of Nanjing, dying in 1435.
A tomb was built for Zheng He at the southern slope of Cattle Head Hill, Nanjing. The original tomb was a horseshoe-shaped grave. It is a cenotaph believed to contain his clothes and headgear. In 1985, the tomb was rebuilt following a Muslim style.
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