192 emilie savage-smith
“western” is meant in opposition to the Indian Ocean in the east. This “Western Sea”
(al-baḥr al-gharbı) is depicted as a completely closed and perfectly symmetrical oval. ̄
Around the periphery, 121 anchorages on the mainland are described, with information
on winds and landmarks. The dark green sea itself is crammed with 118 islands, all
circles of uniform size except for Sicily and Cyprus.
The design represents a very different conception of mapmaking and reflects the
maritime interests of the mapmaker. The map is orientated with north (roughly speak-
ing) at the top. Whereas Muslim Spain played a large and prominent part in the Balkhı̄
school maps, here it is reduced to near insignificance, as is most of Europe. The Atlantic
Ocean is not represented at all. The Straits of Gibraltar are indicated by a thin red line
at the far left of the oval. The next seven ports (indicated by red dots) above this thin
line and proceeding clockwise are anchorages past the straits, on the Atlantic coast of
Morocco (including Tangier). Thereafter, the map maker briefly alludes to the ports of
Muslim Spain and Europe with short statements accompanying the next five red dots,
reading clockwise: the anchorages of al-Andalus, the anchorages of the Galicians, the
anchorages of the Franks, the anchorages of the Slavs, the anchorages of the Lombards.
The next label reads: “The Gulf of Burjān, in which there are thirty anchorages for
skiffs of the Burjān.” The Burjān, in Arabic sources, were the Bulghars who immi-
grated to the Balkans in the early medieval period. The Gulf of Burjān can refer either
to the coasts of the Black Sea or to the coasts of the northern Aegean; it is uncertain
which is intended here.
Beginning with this Gulf of Burjān, all the subsequent anchorages described across
the top (north) of the map over to the rightmost point of the oval (opposite the Straits
Figure 12.3 The Mediterranean Sea from the anonymous Book of Curiosities compiled
about 1020–1050 ce. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Arab. c. 90, fols. 30b–31a. Undated
(c. 1200). Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library.