- World Map
Maps have a huge part in Human history, it was how we got around places. It was used for centuries before the GPS, and even the GPS is technically an "eletronic map". But most people don't know that Muslims contributed to Map making which made traveling easier.
Muhammad Al-Idrisi was a geographer who was an Andalusian (Spain) Muslim who traveled to Sicily and drew out one of the most advanced maps in the ancient world. He actually drew the map southly orientated meaning that he put Africa on top and Europe on the bottom.
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Al-Idrisi traveled often, he traveled to many places in Europe such as Portugal, France, Andalus (Muslim Spain), Hungary and even England. He also went to Africa and Sicily as well.
He also tried gathering information from sailors and other explorers that had gone to the Far East part of the world such as India. This in termed allowed him to create the most accurate map of that time. He is also been said to have discovered America and even wrote descriptions of the natives living there. Check out: Muslim discovery of Americas before Columbus
He also tried gathering information from sailors and other explorers that had gone to the Far East part of the world such as India. This in termed allowed him to create the most accurate map of that time. He is also been said to have discovered America and even wrote descriptions of the natives living there. Check out: Muslim discovery of Americas before Columbus
It is important to note that the map was south oriented cause some of the European map makers actually took the maps from his book, but they realized that Africa was on top of Europe. They wanted dominance so they actually took the map and fliped it over which is why Europe and America have a dominant North oriented map.