The fullest geography of Africa a generation before 1200: the Maghreb and Ifriqiya town by town with distances and products; the Sahara routes through Sijilmasa, Awdaghust, Ghadames and Zawila; the Sudan with Ghana, Takrur, Sila, Barisa, Kawkaw (Gao) and Kugha, and Kanem with its towns Manan and Njimi; Nubia and Dongola, the Beja and the Red Sea ports; Zeila and Berbera; and the Zanj coast with Malindi, Mombasa, Qanbalu and Sofala with its gold, the earliest systematic notice of the Swahili towns. Compiled in Sicily from older books (al-Bakri, Ibn Hawqal) and from merchants and sailors questioned at Roger's court, so some information is old and some confused (the Niger is run westward into the Atlantic), but for the Sudan and the East African coast it is the best witness between al-Bakri and Yaqut. It knows nothing of the Almohad conquest of Ifriqiya (1160) or anything later.
About this source
- Title
- Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq
- Author
- al-Idrisi (Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif al-Idrisi)
- Author's dates
- about 1100 to about 1165
- Written
- completed in 1154 at Palermo, for Roger II of Sicily
- Language
- Arabic
- Covers
- the known world as of the mid twelfth century
- Kind
- Geography
Jaubert's complete French translation should be checked against Dozy and de Goeje, who edited and translated only the African and Spanish parts. Levtzion and Hopkins give the West African passages in English; Freeman-Grenville the East African ones. Al-Idrisi's death is put at 1165 or 1175.
Where to read it
Editions
- R. Dozy and M. J. de Goeje (eds and trs), Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne par Edrisi (Leiden, 1866), Arabic text with French translation of the African and Spanish sections
- Opus geographicum, Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, 9 fascicles (Naples and Rome, 1970 to 1984), the complete Arabic text (not freely online)
Translations
- P. A. Jaubert (tr.), Géographie d'Édrisi, vol. 1 (Paris, 1836), French, complete but unreliable
- P. A. Jaubert (tr.), Géographie d'Édrisi, vol. 2 (Paris, 1840), French
- H. Bresc and A. Nef (trs), Idrîsî: la première géographie de l'Occident (Paris, 1999), French, partial (not freely online)
Read it online
About the source
Realms this source covers in 1200
- The Almohad caliphate of Muhammad al-Nasir
- Mahdia under the rebel al-Ragragi
- The Arab tribes: Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym
- The Ibadi communities
- The oases of the northern Sahara
- The Fezzan
- The veiled Sanhaja of the western Sahara
- The veiled Berbers of the central Sahara (the later Tuareg)
- Ghana (Wagadu)
- The kingdom of Takrur
- Gao (Kawkaw): the Songhay kingdom
- Kanem: the Sayfawa mai
- Makuria (Dotawo) under King Basil
- Alodia (Alwa)
- The Beja
- Zeila
- The Somali clans
- The Swahili towns
- The land of Sofala
- Ayyubid Egypt under the boy sultan al-Mansur