Links to Photos of Islamic Cartography

Even though I have in my possession many photos of Islamic maps (single and in books/atlases) especially in relation to the topic of my PhD dissertation (“The depiction of the Mediterranean in late Islamic cartography: from the 13th to the 16th centuries”), which I have collected from various libraries worldwide, I would not be able to publish them (digitally or otherwise) without explicit permission from the original holders. And I am saving that for the future that is, hopefully, the publication of my dissertation.
But because a blog is a great location for photographs of a-so-visual-topic such as cartography I will be trying to include as many links as possible to Islamic maps; I will be updating them as much as possible, though I am not seeing many websites that have such photos.

The major current resource is the great digital (not-so-well-known) library of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF), which holds one of the biggest collections of maps and notably Islamic maps. Mandragore is the right place for good resolution images of some of the most important Islamic maps.

PHOTOS of AL-IDRISI'S Nuzhat al-Mushtaq in the BNF, which is thought to be the “oldest” existing copy (early 14th century, that is after more than a century of his death); type in the entry “Cote” ‘Arabe 2221’, then hit “rechercher”, then “images”.

PHOTOS of AL-SHARFI'S Atlas, an autographed copy in the BNF; type in the entry “Cote” ‘Arabe 2278’, then hit “rechercher”, then “images”.

PHOTOS of Katib Chalabi's Jihan Nama in the BNF; type in the entry “Cote”, ‘Supplément turc 215’, then hit “rechercher”, then “images”.

I have included photographs of Islamic astronomy too.
PHOTOS of AL-SUFI'S Suwar al-Kawakib al-Thabita in BNF; there are 8 copies; type in “Cote” the following cote numbers each time you search for a manuscript: ‘Arabe 2488’, ‘Arabe 2489’, ‘Arabe 2490’, ‘Arabe 2491’, ‘Arabe 2492’, ‘Arabe 4670’, ‘Supplément persan 1551’, and ‘Supplément persan 2021’. Then hit “rechercher”, then “images”.


There is a world map reconstructed by Konrad Miller out of the 70 sectional maps of al-Idrisi, in the website of the British library.