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WHO IS AL-IDRIS?
 Al-Idrisi (Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad bin Muhammad 'Abdallah bin Idris al-Hammudi al-Hasani) was born in 1099 at Centa, Morocco. He was a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad. He studied at Cordoba, Spain, and after many travels spent his life in the service of the Norman King, Roger II of Sicily. Perhaps because of his service to a Christian king he was generally ignored by Muslim historians and biographers.
     Prior to Roger II's death in 1154 al-Idrisi constructed a celestial globe and a circular world map of pure silver. The map shown on  this stamp portrays the world map. South is at the top of the map, and, with the map turned upside down, the Mediterranean Sea, Europe, Asia, and Africa are easily identified. The Arabian peninsula is in the center of the map.
     The map combines features of the old, symbolic T-O maps, with the encircling sea, and a more representative mapping of geographical features. The map is based on al-Idrisi's book, Katib Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq, also know as Katib a-Rujari, the Book of Roger, which first appeared in the west in 1592, and was translated into Latin in 1619.
     After the death of Roger II, al-Idrisi wrote another geographical treatise, The Garden of Civilization and the Amusement of the soul, for his son, William II. al-Idrisi died in 1166. al-Idrisi produced an atlas of 73 maps with a shortened form of The Garden in 1192 which incorporated a great deal of new material
     al-Jahiz (Abu 'Uthman 'Amr bin Bahr al-Jahiz) of Basrah (776-869), who is commemorated by the stamp, wrote more than two hundred books of history, natural science and commerce, as well as of poetry. He is credited with bringing clarity and precision to Arabic prose expression.


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