Tabula Rogeriana with focus on the Balkans

1/10/2016

URANOS

TABULA ROGERIANA WITH FOCUS ON THE

BALKANS

In vino veritas | Boban Jelenkovi

[Type text]

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Tabula Rogeriana with focus on the Balkans

Tabula Rogeriana
The Nuzhat al-mushtq fi'khtirq al-fq (Arabic: , lit. the book
of pleasant journeys into faraway lands), most often known as the Tabula Rogeriana (lit. The
Book of Roger in Latin), is a description of the world and world map created by the Arab
geographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi, in 1154. Al- Idrisi worked on the commentaries and
illustrations of the map for fifteen years at the court of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, who
commissioned the work around 1138.[1][2] The book, written in Arabic, is divided into seven
climate zones (in keeping with the established Ptolemaic system), each of which is sub-divided
into ten sections, and contains maps showing the Eurasian continent in its entirety, but only the
northern part of the African continent. The map is oriented with the North at the bottom. It
remained the most accurate world map for the next three centuries.[2][3] The text incorporates
exhaustive descriptions of the physical, cultural, political and socioeconomic conditions of each
region and each of the seventy sections has a corresponding map.[2][4] To produce the work alIdrisi interviewed experienced travelers individually and in groups on their knowledge of the
world and compiled only that part... on which there was complete agreement and seemed
credible, excluding what was contradictory.[1] Roger II had his map engraved on a silver disc
weighing about 300 pounds.[1] It showed, in al-Idrisis words, the seven climatic regions, with
their respective countries and districts, coasts and lands, gulfs and seas, watercourses and river
mouths.[1] The foremost geographer of this period was Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi. He
settled in Palermo, Sicily at the tolerant and enlightened court of the Norman king Roger II of
Sicily, where he was charged with the production of a book on geography. It was to contain all
available data on the location and climate of the worlds main centers of population. King Roger
himself enthusiastically interviewed travelers passing through his kingdom, and agents and
draftsmen were dispatched to gather materiala research process that took some 15 years. In
1154, just a few weeks before the king died, al-Idrisis book was finally complete.
Written in Arabic and Latin and accompanied by maps, it presented the world as a sphere. It
calculated the circumference to be 37,000 kilometres (22,900 mi) an error of less than 10
percent and it hinted at the concept of gravity. Following the classical Greek tradition, al-Idrisi
had divided the world into seven climate zones and described each in turn, supported by 70
longitudinal section maps which, when put together, made a rectangular map of the known
world. This was complemented by a smaller, circular world map in which the south was drawn
at the top and Arabia, being the site of Makkah, was depicted centrally. Al-Idrisis book came to
be known as Kitab Rujar (Rogers Book) and the circular world map was engraved onto a silver
tablet. Sadly, both the book and the silver map appear to have been destroyed during civil unrest
shortly afterward, in 1160. Thus our understanding today of al-Idrisis conclusions is based on
an abbreviated version of a second book that he wrote for Rogers son, William II. Manuscripts of
this so-called Little Idrisi are held today in a handful of European libraries.[5]
On the work of al-Idrisi, S. P. Scott commented:
The compilation of Edrisi marks an era in the history of science. Not only is its historical
information most interesting and valuable, but its descriptions of many parts of the earth are
still authoritative. 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.[3]
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Tabula Rogeriana with focus on the Balkans

Ten manuscript copies of the Book of Roger currently survive, five of which have complete text
and eight of which have maps.[2] Two are in the Bibliothque nationale de France, including the
oldest, dated to about 1325. (MS Arabe 2221). Another copy, made in Cairo in 1553, is in the
Bodleian Library in Oxford (Mss. Pococke 375). It was acquired in 1692.[6] The most complete
manuscript, which includes the world map and all seventy sectional maps, is kept in Istanbul.[4]

The modern copy of the Tabula Rogeriana, upside-down with North oriented up.
References

[1] Houben, 2002, pp. 102-104.

[2] Harley & Woodward, 1992, pp. 156-161.
[3] S. P. Scott (1904), History of the Moorish Empire, pp. 461-2
[4] Bacharach, 2006, p. 140.
[5] Parry, James V. 2004. Mapping Arabia. Saudi Aramco World. January/February 2004. Pages 20-37.
[6] The Book of Roger, BBC Online.

Bibliography

Bacharach, Jere L. (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 978-0- 41596690-0
Harley, John Brian and Woodward, David (1992). The History of Cartography, Volume 2. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-226-31635-2
Houben, Hubert (2002). Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler Between East and West. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-65573-6

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Rogeriana?oldid=677941310

In vino veritas

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Tabula Rogeriana with focus on the Balkans

Focus on the Balkans

Fragment of map depicting the area of Balkans

Fragment of map depicting southern part of the Balkan peninsula

The names of settlements are recognizable even today, I draw your attention in particular to a
city in eastern Peloponesus, named Getulia.
In vino veritas

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Tabula Rogeriana with focus on the Balkans

Fragment of map depicting Macedonia

Fragment of map depicting western part of the Balkan peninsula

As we read the map, it's obviously that the author precisly use existing toponims and hydronims
of his time, making no mistakes even in the names of the regions and their positions on the map.
Now, let's take a look at the center of the Balkan peninsula.
In vino veritas

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Tabula Rogeriana with focus on the Balkans

Fragment of map depicting central part of the Balkan peninsula

Getulia... instead of Serbia. After examining this fragment, we can only reach one and only
conclusion: Getulia is Serbia, a region wery well known to the Sicilans - Normans of 12th
century, so there is no mistake about depicting this part of Balkans.
Getuli Serbi, or Herodots Geti, according to Romans Getae, or Goths Scythes in late
antique historians, such as Iornandes (Getica), Zosimus (Historia nova) etc, and Gettic
Triballi of Laonikos Chachondylas are THE SAME PEOPLE.
Even the Dalmatian writers, such as Mauro Orbini or Marco Marulli confirm that fact. For
them the Serbs are Goths.
The search for more facts about the true origins of Serbs is continuing, and I hope that the
newly presented facts and evidences will soon end the DARK AGE of Serbian history, and
put an end of DOGMA presented in De administrando imperiae of Constantinus
Porfirogenes.
Author:
dr Boban Jelenkovi, spec.

In vino veritas

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