---
title: "History of geography"
chunk: 5/11
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_geography"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:59:47.409771+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Middle Ages ==

=== Byzantine Empire and Syria ===
After the fall of the western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople and known as the Byzantine Empire, continued to thrive and produced several noteworthy geographers. Stephanus of Byzantium (6th century) was a grammarian at Constantinople and authored the important geographical dictionary Ethnica.  This work is of enormous value, providing well-referenced geographical and other information about ancient Greece.
The geographer Hierocles (6th century) authored the Synecdemus  (prior to AD 535) in which he provides a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists the cities in each. The Synecdemus and the Ethnica were the principal sources of Constantine VII's work on the Themes or divisions of Byzantium, and are the primary sources we have today on political geography of the sixth-century East.
George of Cyprus is known for his Descriptio orbis Romani (Description of the Roman world), written in the decade 600–610. Beginning with Italy and progressing counterclockwise including Africa, Egypt and the western Middle East, George lists cities, towns, fortresses and administrative divisions of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire.
Cosmas Indicopleustes, (6th century) also known as "Cosmas the Monk", was an Alexandrian merchant.  By the records of his travels, he seems to have visited India, Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of Axum in modern Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Included in his work Christian Topography were some of the earliest world maps. Though Cosmas believed the earth to be flat, most Christian geographers of his time disagreed with him.
Syrian bishop Jacob of Edessa (633–708) adapted scientific material sourced from Aristotle, Theophrastus, Ptolemy and Basil to develop a carefully structured picture of the cosmos. He corrects his sources and writes more scientifically, whereas Basil's Hexaemeron is theological in style.
Karl Müller has collected and printed several anonymous works of geography from this era, including the Expositio totius mundi.

=== Islamic world ===

In the latter 7th century, adherents of the new religion of Islam surged northward out of Arabia taking over lands in which Jews, Byzantine Christians and Persian Zoroastrians had been established for centuries. There, carefully preserved in the monasteries and libraries, they discovered the Greek classics which included great works of geography by Egyptian Ptolemy's Almagest and Geography, along with the geographical wisdom of the Chinese and the great accomplishments of the Roman Empire. The Arabs, who spoke only Arabic, employed Christians and Jews to translate these and many other manuscripts into Arabic.
The primary geographical scholarship of this era occurred throughout the Islamic Realms: in West Asia's newly intellectually dynamic regions like Persia, today's Iran, but also in the great learning center the House of Wisdom at Baghdad, in today's Iraq as well as in Syria, both being centers of knowledge from the earliest times. Early caliphs encouraged scholarship. Under their rule, native West Asians served as mawali or dhimmi,  and most geographers in this period were Syrian or Persian, i.e. of either Zoroastrian or Christian background, like much of the region's population.
Persians who wrote on geography or created maps during the Middle Ages included:

Al-Khwārizmī (780–850) wrote The Image of the Earth (Kitab surat al-ard), in which he used the Geography (Ptolemy) of Ptolemy but improved upon his values for the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, and Africa.
Ibn Khurdadhbih (820–912) authored a book of administrative geography Book of the Routes and Provinces (Kitab al-masalik wa’l-mamalik), which is the earliest surviving Arabic work of its kind. He made the first quadratic scheme map of four sectors.
Sohrab or Sorkhab (died 930) wrote Marvels of the Seven Climes to the End of Habitation describing and illustrating a rectangular grid of latitude and longitude to produce a world map.
Al-Balkhi (850–934)  founded the "Balkhī school" of terrestrial mapping in Baghdad.
Al-Istakhri (died 957) compiled the Book of the Routes of States, (Kitab Masalik al-Mamalik) from personal observations and literary sources
Al-Biruni (973–1052) described polar equi-azimuthal equidistant projection of the celestial sphere.
Abu Nasr Mansur (960–1036) known for his work with the spherical sine law. His Book of Azimuths is no longer extant.
Avicenna (980–1037) wrote on earth sciences in his Book of Healing.
Ibn al-Faqih (10th century) wrote Concise Book of Lands (Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan).
Ibn Rustah (10th century) wrote a geographical compendium known as Book of Precious Records.
Arabs who contributed to this tradition included: