cartography 187
of the illustrated treatises compiled by his three followers: al-Iṣtakhrı̣ ̄ (d. c. 961), Ibn
Ḥawqal (d. c. 990) and al-Muqaddası̄ (d. c. 1000). The accompanying texts in these
treatises included itineraries and descriptions of products and local customs. The
“Balkhı̄ School” authors were concerned with land routes, not sea routes—in particu-
lar, land routes useful to trade, pilgrimage, and the postal system (barıd̄) operative in
the eastern lands, a system that depended upon relays of postal carriers over designated
land routes. For these authors, the Mediterranean was simply a space around which
landmasses were arranged (Antrim, 2012).
A typical world map produced by the “Balkhı̄ School” is circular, with south at the
top (for examples, see Edson and Savage-Smith, 2004: 76–77, fig. 38; Tibbetts,
1992, plate 7). The Mediterranean comes in from the right (west) shaped as an
elongated oval, while a much larger and more amorphous Indian Ocean enters from
the left (east). Both waters connect with a dark-blue ring that encloses the map and
represents the “Surrounding Sea.” At this time not only scholars, but also sailors,
travelers, and many others as well, knew the earth to be spherical—not flat. Only one-
quarter of the sphere was considered to contain inhabitable land, and the sea that
covered the remaining three-quarters of the globe is represented on the Balkhı̄ School
world maps by the ring of the “Surrounding Sea.” The landmasses are all depicted in
a central circle within this ring. In the Mediterranean Sea (which has no special title)
there are three large circular islands: Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily. On its northern shore
al-Andalus is clearly indicated, as well as two peoples: the Franks (al-Ifranjah) and
Greeks (Rūmiah). The “Gulf (khalı̄j) of Constantinople”(that is, the Black Sea) is a
broad straight band that appears to connect toward the north with the “Surrounding
Sea”, while a narrower but longer straight band coming from the top (south) is the
River Nile. The labels for Byzantium (Bilād al-Rūm) and Constantinople both extend
to either side of the “Gulf” of Constantinople. Neither Italy nor Greece is indicated
at all. On its southern shore, the Maghreb (North Africa), Egypt and Syria are labeled.
The separate map in the “Balkhı̄ School” treatises that is devoted exclusively to the
Mediterranean is titled Ṣūrat baḥr al-Rūm (map of the Romano–Byzantine Sea). This
is the most common name in Arabic for the Mediterranean. The names baḥr al-Shām
(the Syrian Sea) and baḥr al-Maghrib (the Sea of North Africa) also occur in other
sources. A typical example of a “Balkhı̄ School” Mediterranean Sea map is illustrated
in Figure 12.2.
West is at the top, with a very large Straits of Gibraltar opening into a large area of
water at the top of the map representing the Atlantic Ocean (part of the “Surrounding
Sea”), and Gibraltar itself is depicted as a triangular mountain. Only three islands occupy
the Mediterranean: Sicily, Cyprus, and Crete, all represented by circles. In the Nile
delta, toward the south (left) there are two further circular “island-cities”—Damietta
and Tinnı̄s. On the northern side of the sea the name of the city of Constantinople is
written on the western shore of the band of water labeled “Gulf of Constantinople,”
which is shown entering the Mediterranean from the north. East of (below) the “Gulf
of Constantinople” the harbor of Antalya is prominently labeled, but its name mis-
spelled as Anṭākiyah (Antioch), a town in northern Syria. Antalya was a large port on
the south coast of Anatolia, important in trade with Cyprus during the tenth and elev-
enth centuries. Further east along the coast, between Antalya and Tarsus only the set-
tlement of Awlās is indicated. There is considerable uncertainty regarding the
identification of Awlās, but it is likely that the name refers to some now unidentified