2020 - Once upon a time in Islamic Gibraltar
Con anterioridad a los atlas de al-Idrisi no se conoce ningún mapa específico de al-Andalus. . . Aparte del de la Geografía de Ptolomeo, que debieron utilizar los árabes, pero del que no hay copias anteriores al siglo XIII, la Península Ibérica aparece dibujada en al menos veinticuatro mapas islámicos del siglo X, todos ellos pertenecientes a lo que (se) denomina “Escuela de al-Balkhi ” por ser muy similares en cuanto a su forma y contenidos.
El geógrafo que les da nombre fue Abu Zayd Ahmad ibn Sahl, apodado al-Balkhi, por la ciudad de Balkhi, situada junto al río Oxus, a algo más de 300 km al sur de Samarcanda, entonces parte de Persia Oriental. Al-Balkhi realizó su trabajo como cartógrafo en torno a los años 920-930 y tuvo muchos seguidores . . . siendo sus figuras más destacadas al-Istakhri e Ibn Hawqal, el único que estuvo en al-Andalus y que por lo tanto pudo obtener una información de primera mano . . .
Notes:
An interpretation of an Al-Balkhi’s maps of the Mediterranean by Konrad Miller
To people like myself who know little about the science of geography, or the art of cartography, medieval Islamic maps are almost incomprehensible – despite the useful interpretation of many of them by the German archaeologist and historian of cartography, Konrad Miller (1844-1933). To the modern viewer, the orientation of these maps is often confusing - west is usually shown at the top with north to the right. A rough overview of the map shown above can be summarised as follows:
“Al Bahr al muhit” translates as the dark ocean and is the Atlantic which narrows down into an unnamed Straits of Gibraltar with Algeciras on the Iberian side and the “Bilad al Magreb”, the land of the west – or Morocco - opposite. The rest of the pear-shaped centre, is the entire Mediterranean.
Some of the towns on the Iberian side are recognisable - Isbilia – Seville, Malaka – Malaga, Mursia – Murcia, Tartusa – Tortosa, Balinsa – Valencia, Gezira Sikiliija – the island of Sicily, Gezira Kubros – the island of Cyprus and so forth. Others, especially on the African side, are on the whole less identifiable.
But perhaps the most interesting detail is that Gibraltar - or Jabal Tariq - is nowhere to be seen. The inference is that Gibraltar, as a town or city, was not worth a mention, almost certainly because there was no proper town there when Al-Balkhi created his map during the early 10th century or alternatively, that it simply formed part of the municipality of Algeciras.
The general consensus is that the “city” or “town” of Gibraltar was founded more then a century later in 1160 by the Almohad Caliph Abd al-Mu’min. Nevertheless, one would have thought that the legendary status of the Rock as the place were the start of the Islamic conquest of Iberia took place would have tipped the scale into deciding to include it.
Possibly a 15th century copy of part of a World Map by Ptolemies’ showing “Calpe” as one of the very few places identified in his depiction of Iberia.
Ptolemy was well known to Islamic cartographer and although they refrained from slavishly copying his work, they did make use of it and were influenced accordingly - but nevertheless – no Gibraltar for al Balkhi.