Editing Muhammad al-Idrisi (section)

==Nuzhat al-Mushtaq==
<!-- Commented out: [[File:Al-Idrisi's world map uright.JPG|thumb|World map by al-Idirisi]] -->

As well as the maps, al-Idrisi produced a compendium of geographical information with the title ''Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi'khtiraq al-'afaq''. The title has been translated as ''The book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands''<ref>{{harvnb|Ahmad|1992}}</ref> or ''The pleasure of him who longs to cross the horizons''.<ref name=corpus104>{{harvnb|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=104}}</ref> It has been preserved in nine manuscripts, seven of which contain maps.<ref name="Ducène">{{cite journal|last1=Ducène|first1=Jean-Charles|title=Les coordonnées géographiques de la carte manuscrite d'al-Idrisi|journal=Der Islam|date=2011|volume=86|pages=271–285}}</ref>

The translated title of this work (in the "pleasure of him ..." form) attracted favourable comment from the team selecting lists of names for features expected to be discovered by the New Horizons probe reconnoitring the [[Pluto]] system. The [[Al-Idrisi Montes]] is a geographical feature in that system named after him.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Horizons|first1=New|title=Team|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pz1AF-fe0TV9YcNl502ThK04hxigxtv04GqtJ380E3I/edit#gid=0|website=Pluto Name Bank Proposal 2015-07-07|publisher=NASA|access-date=2015-08-05}}</ref>

In the introduction, al-Idrisi mentions two sources for [[geographical coordinates]]: [[Claudius Ptolemy]] and "an astronomer" that must be [[Ishaq ibn al-Hasan al-Zayyat]]; and states that he has cross-checked oral reports from different informers to see if geographical coordinates were consistent.<ref name="Ducène"/>

===Publication and translation===

An abridged version of the Arabic text was published in Rome in 1592 with title: ''De geographia universali or Kitāb Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī dhikr al-amṣār wa-al-aqṭār wa-al-buldān wa-al-juzur wa-al-madā' in wa-al-āfāq'' which in English would be ''Recreation of the desirer in the account of cities, regions, countries, islands, towns, and distant lands''.{{sfn|Ahmad|1960|p=158}}{{sfn|Al-Idrisi|1592}} This was one of the first Arabic books ever printed.<ref name=corpus104/> The first translation from the original Arabic was into Latin. The [[Maronite]]s Gabriel Sionita and Joannes Hesronita translated an abridged version of the text which was published in Paris in 1619 with the title of ''Geographia nubiensis''.{{sfn|Sionita| Hesronita|1619}} Not until the middle of the 19th century was a complete translation of the Arabic text published. This was a translation into French by [[Pierre Amédée Jaubert]].{{sfn|Jaubert| 1836–1840}} More recently sections of the text have been translated for particular regions. Beginning in 1970 a critical edition of the complete Arabic text was published.{{sfn|Al-Idrisi|1970–1984}}

===Andalusian-American contact===

Al-Idrisi's geographical text, ''Nuzhat al-Mushtaq'', is often cited by proponents of [[pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories]]. In this text, al-Idrisi wrote the following on the Atlantic Ocean:

{{blockquote|The Commander of the Muslims Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin sent his admiral Ahmad ibn Umar, better known under the name of Raqsh al-Auzz to attack a certain island in the Atlantic, but he died before doing that. [...] Beyond this ocean of fogs it is not known what exists there. Nobody has the sure knowledge of it, because it is very difficult to traverse it. Its atmosphere is foggy, its waves are very strong, its dangers are perilous, its beasts are terrible, and its winds are full of tempests. There are many islands, some of which are inhabited, others are submerged. No navigator traverses them but bypasses them remaining near their coast. [...] And it was from the town of Lisbon that the adventurers set out known under the name of Mughamarin [Adventurers], penetrated the ocean of fogs and wanted to know what it contained and where it ended. [...] After sailing for twelve more days they perceived an island that seemed to be inhabited, and there were cultivated fields. They sailed that way to see what it contained. But soon [[barque]]s encircled them and made them prisoners, and transported them to a miserable hamlet situated on the coast. There they landed. The navigators saw there people with red skin; there was not much hair on their body, the hair of their head was straight, and they were of high stature. Their women were of an extraordinary beauty.<ref name=Hamidullah>Mohammed Hamidullah (Winter 1968). "Muslim Discovery of America before Columbus", ''Journal of the Muslim Students' Association of the United States and Canada'' '''4''' (2): 7–9 [http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=646] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020191955/http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=646 |date=20 October 2013 }}</ref>}}

This translation by Professor [[Muhammad Hamidullah]] is however questionable, since it reports, after having reached an area of "sticky and stinking waters", the ''Mugharrarin'' (also translated as "the adventurers") moved back and first reached an uninhabited island where they found "a huge quantity of sheep the meat of which was bitter and uneatable" and, then, "continued southward" and reached the above reported island where they were soon surrounded by barques and brought to "a village whose inhabitants were often fair-haired with long and flaxen hair and the women of a rare beauty". Among the villagers, one spoke Arabic and asked them where they came from. Then the king of the village ordered them to bring them back to the continent where they were surprised to be welcomed by Berbers.<ref>Idrisi, Nuzhatul Mushtaq&nbsp;– "La première géographie de l'Occident", comments by Henri Bresc and Annliese Nef, Paris, 1999</ref>{{Verify source|date=November 2008}}

Apart from the marvellous and fanciful reports of this history, the most probable interpretation{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} is that the ''Mugharrarin'' reached the [[Sargasso Sea]], a part of the ocean covered by [[seaweed]], which is very close to [[Bermuda]] yet one thousand miles away from the American mainland. Then while coming back, they may have landed either on the [[Azores]], or on [[Madeira]] or even on the westernmost [[Canary Islands|Canary Island]], [[El Hierro]] (because of the sheep). Last, the story with the inhabited island might have occurred either on [[Tenerife]] or on [[Gran Canaria]], where the ''Mugharrarin'' presumably met members of the [[Guanches|Guanche]] tribe. This would explain why some of them could speak Arabic (some sporadic contacts had been maintained between the Canary Islands and Morocco) and why they were quickly deported to Morocco where they were welcomed by Berbers. Yet, the story reported by Idrisi is an indisputable account of a certain knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean by Andalusians and Moroccans.<ref>{{Google books |id=P54YAQAAMAAJ |title=The journal: account of the first voyage and discovery of the Indies |page=197 }}</ref>

Idrisi describes an island of cormorants with which has been tentatively identified as [[Corvo, Azores]] but on weak grounds.<ref>{{Google books |id=2WJWAAAAMAAJ |page=135 |title=Land to the West: St. Brendan's Voyage to America }}</ref>