Posted on 06/06/2004 5:45:19 PM PDT by blam
Ancient map shows egg-shaped England
Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
Sunday June 6, 2004
The Observer
It is known as a catalogue of 'marvel for the eyes' and tomorrow the public will be able to judge for themselves at last. A previously unknown medieval Arabic map with the earliest representation of an identified 'England' - a tiny, egg-shaped lump - is to go on public display in Oxford. The unique and, until now, unseen map is part of a manuscript called the Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels, which was originally put together, probably in the Nile Delta region, at some point before AD1050 and was then copied around 150 years later in Egypt. It reflects the achievements of the classical age of Islamic civilisation and gives an unrivalled picture of the relationship between east and west in that period.
The exhibition at the Bodleian Library will include most of the illustrated folios of the Book, or Kitab Ghara'ib al-funun wa-mulah al-'uyun, to give it its Arab title, including a key page which shows England as a small, oval island labelled in Arabic as Inghiltirah or 'Angle-terre'. This, researchers believe, is the earliest depiction of the British Isles in connection with that name.
The unbound manuscript is on display for the first time following its purchase by the library two years ago with grants made to them by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Art Collections Fund. The funds which helped to secure the Book were also provided by Oxford Colleges, the Friends of the Bodleian Library, individual donations and the Saudi Arabian and American company Aramco.
According to Jeremy Johns of Wolfson College, one of two scholars in charge of the exhibition, the manuscript itself is a copy of an anonymous work compiled in the first half of the 11th century, probably by a citizen of Tinnis in the Nile Delta. He believes the treatise is 'extraordinarily important for the history of science'.
Lesley Forbes, Keeper of Oriental Collections at the Library, said the exhibition will also reveal new evidence for the paths of international trade and commerce in the 11th century, particularly of the movements of Islamic merchants trading in the eastern Mediterranean. But the main appeal will be its astonishing array of medieval maps.
'Apocalypse and pilgrimage maps are shown alongside diagrammatic maps which were produced at the same time,' said Forbes. 'For example, the Rectangular World Map in the Book of Curiosities is of a type previously completely unknown, and, we believe, unique to this manuscript. There is a rare illustrated discourse on comets and a unique illustrated guide to stars used in navigation and weather prediction.'
The Heritage Lottery Fund is supporting a two-year project to understand and interpret the significance of the Book of Curiosities and to increase public access to its pages. The work will include an edition of the Arabic text and an English translation.
Eggsackly.
Who gives a crap that the Muslims knew about England 1000 years after the Romans not only also did but had conquered them. The Brits will do anything to prop up the myth of a great Muslim renaissance. It is all BS.
I believe that the furor is because of the use of "England" to identify the island, not the pictorial representation as a place. I'm sure that Roman maps used the Roman names.
Are you saying that Britain was never depicted on a Roman map? Or that Rome did not have sufficient civilization to produce maps?
That name would have come about only after the invasion of Britain by the Angles (along with the Saxons and the Jutes) from Denmark in the Fifth Century. The use of the name some five or six centuries later again merits a "so what?" BFD.
If it wasn't an "Islamic" map, no one would have mentioned it.
Thank you. Whew, 43rd post and someone 'gets it.'
The egg-shaped reference everyone hooked onto only shows how little detail the Arabs had, as if "England" was a newly discovered area, all the way on the other side of the earth.
Uh-oh. The Venerable Muttly thinks he ate England this morning.
Not to worry, though. I have 11 more left!
(I wondered what happened to sciencediet. Muttlies relate everything to food, you know. I thought they would come for my kibble next. Whew.)
Excellent.
Tomorrow, when I eat another England, I will put the kibble on top, for a change. I'm sure Science Diet contains it too...or it wouldn't grow my Attack Cats so big.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
Goo-goo-ga-joob!
Egypt was civilized and literate long before the hordes of Arab Muslims conquered it and appropriated the treasures that had been there for thousands of years before their brutish intrusions.
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Note: this topic is from 6/06/2004. |
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