Though Idrisi was in such close relations with one of the most civilized
of Christian courts and states, we find few traces of his influence on
European thought and knowledge. The chief exception is perhaps in the
delineation of Africa in the world-maps of Marino Sanuto (q.v.) and
Pietro Vesconte. His account of the voyage of the _Maghrurin_ or
"Deceived Men" of Lisbon in the Atlantic (a voyage on which they seem to
have visited Madeira and one of the Canaries) may have had some effect in
stimulating the later ocean enterprise of Christian mariners; but we have
no direct evidence of this. Idrisi's Ptolemaic leanings give a distinctly
retrograde character to certain parts of his work, such as east Africa
and south Asia; and, in spite of the record of the Lisbon Wanderers, he
fully shares the common Moslem dread of the black, viscous, stormy and
wind-swept waters of the western ocean, whose limits no one knew, and
over which thick and perpetual darkness brooded. At the same time his
breadth of view, his clear recognition of scientific truths (such as the
roundness of the world) and his wide knowledge and intelligent
application of preceding work (such as that of Ptolemy, Masudi and Al
Jayhani) must not be forgotten. He also preserves and embodies a
considerable amount of private and special information--especially as to
Scandinavia (in whose delineation he far surpasses his predecessors),
portions of the African coast, the river Niger (whose name is perhaps
first to be found, after Ptolemy's doubtful Nigeir, in Idrisi), portions
of the African coast, Egypt, Syria, Italy, France, the Adriatic
shore-lands, Germany and the Atlantic islands. No other Arabic work
contains a larger assortment of valuable geographical facts;
unfortunately the place-names are often illegible or hopelessly corrupted
in the manuscripts. Idrisi's world-map, with all its shortcomings, is
perhaps the best product of that strangely feeble thing--the Mahommedan
cartography of the middle ages.
Besides the _Rojari_, Idrisi wrote another work, largely geographical,
cited by Abulfida as _The Book of Kingdoms_, but apparently entitled by
its author _The Gardens of Humanity and the Amusement of the Soul_. This
was composed for William the Bad (1154-1166), son and successor of Roger
II., but is now lost. He likewise wrote, according to Ibn Said, on
_Medicaments_, and composed verses, which are referred to by the
Sicilian Mahommedan poet Ibn Bashrun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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