İdrîsî

İdrîsî (ö. 1165) is a medieval author, one of the most renowned representatives of the classical Islamic geographical tradition. He is considered one of the most famous followers of the Batlamyus (Ptolemy) school of geography and gained fame with the world geography he prepared under the patronage of Sicily's King II. Roger.

Works

İdrîsî is a geographer who made significant changes to Batlamyus's maps. Sicily's King II. Roger had a silver globe model made by geographer scholars, including İdrîsî; the scholars led by İdrîsî wrote an Arabic geography book describing the places mentioned on the map on this model. This work, named Kitabu Rucar, discusses all countries of the world (Volume 2, p. 25).

Among İdrîsî's main works are Nüzhetü'l-müştâk fi'htirâkı'l-âfâk, also known as Kitabu Rucar, named after the king, Ünsü'l-mühec ve ravżü'l-fürec, and el-Câmiʿ li-ṣıfâtı eştâti'n-nebât. Nüzhetü'l-müştâk, a world geography, is one of the most comprehensive works on the general and systematic geography of the globe written in the medieval Islamic world, and is also considered the first work to provide the most accurate information about Europe, especially Western European countries (Volume 2, p. 25).

Records Regarding the Kurds

İdrîsî also mentions the Kurds in his work. He mentions four "ramm" (tribe/community) belonging to the Kurds in the Fars region; each ramm contains villages and cities, and these ramms have a chief from among the Kurds. This chief ensures security in the region, protects the roads; no misfortune would befall anyone in his lands (Volume 2, p. 25). The author also notes, when speaking of the Kufs mountains, that there are seven of these mountains, each mountain has a leader from among the Kurds, these Kurds are nomadic and do not have pack/draft animals, their skin color is dark, and their bodies are of a slender build. He also states that they possess herds of cattle and sheep, and are engaged in date and bee farming (Volume 2, p. 25).

Subsequent Influence

İdrîsî's work became a fundamental reference source for later authors. Indeed, while compiling his work Takvîmü'l-büldân, Ebü'l-Fidâ benefited from İdrîsî, as well as from authors such as İbn Havkal, İbn Hurdâzbih, İstahrî, İbn Saîd el-Mağribî, Batlamyus, Bîrûnî, and Nasîrüddîn-i Tûsî (Volume 2, p. 35).