Al-Masa?lik Wa-l-Mama?lik (II). Building a new world view:
Route guides, Geography and Cartography at the service of the s?i?’i? cause
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25145/j.cemyr.2018.26.05Keywords:
Al-Masa?lik wa-l-mama?lik, medieval Arabic geography, medieval Arabic cartography, s?i?’a, Abbasid empireAbstract
The study presents informations about the religious affiliation and ideology of the main authors of geographical treaties entitled Kita?b al-Masa?lik wa-l-mama?lik (KMM) –as well as of other related works. Most of them are presented as s?i?’i?, a subject so far hardly pointed out and formerly considered as non-relevant to the characterization of these works. The aim of this study is to re-evaluate them as a new geography from a s?i?’i? perspective of Persian origin, and proper to the ’abba?si? empire. Such new geography can be defined: by its opposition to the Hellenistic legacy in geography, the sciences, and the Ptolemaic astronomy, gradually contested in the East between the 4th H./10th C.e. centuries. Many of these authors present these «sciences of the ancients» as non-Islamic, and this type of works of KMM (especially those presented as belonging to the «school of al-Balji?») result from an intellectual proposal akin to s?i?’a ideology.
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