Media Coverage
History Prof Mapping a New View of the Medieval World (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Kathleen Tuck,
Publication: Boise State University
Date: 6/1/2015
URL: http://news.boisestate.edu/update/2015/05/26/history-prof-mapping-a-new-view-of-the-medieval-world/
"Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration. By Karen C. Pinto." (Review)
Author(s): Evelyn Edson
Publication: Imago Mundi
Date: 6/12/2017
Abstract: "Pinto's book is well-researched and provides a number of excellently reproduced, beautiful illustrations. One must be grateful for her extensive library research and the photographs she has made of rare world maps that are normally hard to see. The University of Chicago Press has done a magnificent job with the illustrations."
URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03085694.2017.1312124
BOOK REVIEW: Karen C. Pinto, Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016) (Review)
Author(s): Marina Tolmacheva
Publication: Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture
Date: 9/11/2017
Abstract: This book is a selective inquiry into the history of Islamic maps and the practice of mapping from the 9th through the 16th century. The book’s ambition is to use map analysis “to expand the boundaries” of the history of cartography and, more broadly, of Islamic history. It also deliberately focuses on maps as part of the Islamic art tradition and the history of material culture, aspects rarely discussed in the existing academic research on Islamic cartography.
The book is lavishly illustrated; most maps are reproduced in high-quality color copy, many photographed by the author. Some maps are made available in print for the first time....Pinto is painstaking with regard to visual details of map ideography and decoration, while expressing hope that art historians will turn their attention to illustrations in scientific manuscripts. Her work is both meticulous and imaginative – truly an exploration."
URL: https://digital.kenyon.edu/perejournal/vol6/iss2/13/
Karen C. Pinto, Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2016. Pp. x, 406; many color figures. $60. ISBN: 978-0-226-12696-8. (Review)
Author(s): Francisco Franco-Sánchez
Publication: Speculum
Date: 7/2/2018
Abstract: "Pinto’s analysis shows how KMMS maps can be used as alternate gateways into the Islamic history of cartography. It is stimulating to see how this corpus of maps, until now largely neglected—unlike Ptolemaic cartography and its later developments—and considered of little significance to the study of the history of science, is now considered as relevant material for cartographic and historical studies."
URL: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/698686
“Karen C. Pinto:Medieval Islamic maps. An exploration” (Review)
Author(s): Marco Di Branco
Publication: Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies
Date: 1/11/2018
Abstract: Medieval Islamic maps is a book on geography written by an historian and this is its main point of interest. In fact, the scope of the author’s intention is not only to introduce the reader to understand the maps contained in the Islamic geographical manuscripts of the Middle Ages, but also to analyze the role of cartography in the formation of the Muslim geographical and historical thought.
URL: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jtms-2018-0013/html#Chicago
Review of Medieval Islamic Maps (Review)
Author(s): Rand Burnette
Publication: Terrae Incognitae
Date: 2/12/2018
Abstract: “The book is well written and easy to folow. The research is excellent ...What really stands out in her volume are the illustrations... I certainly recommend this work and believe it is a strong entry into a history of medieval maps.”
URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00822884.2018.1435475
“Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration” (Review)
Author(s): Graham Chandler
Publication: Aramco World
Date: 7/18/2018
Abstract: “These Islamic maps are unique in the way they cross time and space,” states the author of this amply illustrated volume. Through the cartographic tradition known as kitab al-masalik wa al-mamalik (Book of Routes and Realms), focusing on iconography, context & patronage, Pinto shows how maps evolved into art objects rather than the guides depicting places, landforms & shorelines as we understand maps today. Many indeed look like abstract art but are actually highly schematic representations designed to make cultural & political sense of territory. She traces the development of Islamic mapping traditions alongside the cosmographic and cartographic descriptions of the cultures, including Hindu, Buddhist & Jain, that influenced those styles. She also points out intriguing mysteries—such as relatively obscure Beja tribe of eastern Africa, found on every map. Volume explores maps as gateways into Islamic history offering insights that can be appreciated by both scholars & general readers.”
URL: https://www.aramcoworld.com/Resources/Books-and-More/Medieval-Islamic-Maps-An-Exploration
“Mapping the Medieval World in Islamic Cartography with Karen Pinto” (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Nir Shafir
Publication: OTTOMAN HISTORY PODCAST
Date: 1/13/2016
Abstract: Hundreds of cartographic images of the world & its regions exist scattered throughout collections of medieval & early modern Arabic, Persian, & Turkish manuscripts. Sheer number of these extant maps tells us that from the thirteenth century onward, when these map-manuscripts began to proliferate, visually depicting the world became a major preoccupation of medieval Muslim scholars. However, these cartographers did not strive for mimesis, that is, representation or imitation of the real world. These schematic, geometric, & often symmetrical images of the world are iconographic representations—‘carto-ideographs’—of how medieval Muslim cartographic artists & their patrons perceived their world & chose to represent & disseminate this perception…we sit down with Karen Pinto to discuss the maps found in the cartographically illustrated Kitāb al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik (Book of Routes and Realms) tradition, which is the first known geographic atlas of maps, its influence on Ottoman cartography…
URL: https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2016/01/islamic-cartography.html
“American scholar sheds light on Mediaeval Islamic Maps” (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Peerzada Salman
Publication: Dawn
Date: 11/15/2019
Abstract: “When you make a map, you have to make choices what to put in and what not to put in. This was one of the points made by Karen C. Pinto in her lecture on ‘Mediaeval Islamic maps — Sindh and the influence of Pakistan’ at the Mohatta Palace Museum on Thursday evening.”
URL: https://www.dawn.com/news/1516730/american-scholar-sheds-light-on-mediaeval-islamic-maps
“ Dr Karen Pinto Visits Aljamea Karachi” (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah
Publication: Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah
Date: 11/20/2019
Abstract: On Saturday, 16th November, Dr Karen C Pinto, a professor at Boise State University’s College of Innovation and Design and an eminent medieval Islamic maps expert visited Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah, Karachi.
Dr Pinto delivered a talk to students and faculty on the topic of medieval Islamic maps where she explained their prominent characteristics and distinctive features. She spoke of the tendency for such maps to be oriented to the South, the concept of an encircling ocean and the symbolism of birds. Having studied and collected over 3000 medieval maps, her expertise and breadth of knowledge were apparent as she delivered a riveting lecture.
She also introduced the audience to her monumental medieval map classification project, a website named MIME (Medieval Islamic Maps Encyclopedia).
URL: https://jameasaifiyah.edu/news-events/dr-karen-pinto-visits-aljamea-karachi/
Associated Products
Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration (Book)Title: Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration
Author: Karen C. Pinto
Abstract: Hundreds of exceptional cartographic images are scattered throughout medieval and early modern Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscript collections. The plethora of copies created around the Islamic world over the course of eight centuries testifies to the enduring importance of these medieval visions for the Muslim cartographic imagination. With Medieval Islamic Maps, historian Karen C. Pinto brings us the first in-depth exploration of medieval Islamic cartography from the mid-tenth to the nineteenth century.
Pinto focuses on the distinct tradition of maps known collectively as the Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik, or KMMS), examining them from three distinct angles—iconography, context, and patronage. She untangles the history of the KMMS maps, traces their inception and evolution, and analyzes them to reveal the identities of their creators, painters, and patrons, as well as the vivid realities of the social and physical world they depicted. In doing so, Pinto develops innovative techniques for approaching the visual record of Islamic history, explores how medieval Muslims perceived themselves and their world, and brings Middle Eastern maps into the forefront of the study of the history of cartography.
Year: 2016
Primary URL:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo17703325.htmlPrimary URL Description: This is a link to the hard copy that will be published in September. I will send a copy to the NEH as soon as copies are available.
Secondary URL:
https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9780226126968&PRESS=CHICAGOSecondary URL Description: Link to epub which is available for rental or purchase download prior to the publication of the hard cover
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780226126968
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes
Prizes
OAT
Date: 12/28/2017
Organization: Choice
Abstract: Through excellent research in multilingual (Arabic, Persian, and Turkish) primary and secondary resources, Pinto (Islamic and Middle Eastern history, Boise State Univ.), a Columbia University-trained expert on Islamic maps and Middle Eastern history, provides a significantly original, detailed, and compelling in-depth assessment of medieval Islamic cartography from the mid-10th to the 19th century. The author focuses on a ninth-century tradition of maps known collectively as the Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik, or Book of Roads and Kingdoms, by the Persian geographer In Khordladbeh, and Greek history (notably Ptolemy) from the perspectives of iconography, context, and patronage. In 13 chapters augmented by 150 superb (mostly color) illustrations, 741 scholarly notes, and 686 bibliographic references, she examines these Muslim maps as documents of political and cultural history from a broad humanities context and demonstrates the intersection with Western cartography. Tracing the incepti
Masking Conflict with Harmony: The Two Faces of the KMMS Mediterranean Map (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Masking Conflict with Harmony: The Two Faces of the KMMS Mediterranean Map
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: This paper is based on selections from my forthcoming book on “The Mediterranean in the Islamic Cartographic Imagination,” which focuses on the Mediterranean maps that illustrate manuscript copies of al-I??akhri's Kitab al-masalik wa-al-mamalik (Book of Routes and Realms), abbreviated to KMMS. The reason for my focus on the KMMS tradition is that I aim to understand the most popular and widespread medieval Islamic mapping tradition. While there are other examples of Islamic mapping most of these are singleton traditions with limited copies whereas there are in excess of thirty cartographically illustrated copies of al-I??akhri’s map manuscript extant. Their number make them by far the most commonly replicated cartographic image in the central lands of the medieval and early modern Islamic world and therefore useful for deconstruction if we want to understand what kind of information on the Mediterranean was communicated to people who were exposed to these images.
Date: 3/4/2016
Conference Name: Mediterranean Seminar Winter 2016 Workshop, Harvard University
Islamo-Christian Cartographic Connections (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Islamo-Christian Cartographic Connections
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: Did medieval European maps influence the Islamic ones or vice versa? Or were they mutually exclusive? The question of Islamo-Christian cartographic connections is one of the major unresolved debates in the history of cartography. Scholars fall on both sides of the divide. A definitive answer to the question has been hampered by the lack of extant examples demonstrating Islamo-Christian cartographic connections. In this paper I discuss in depth a medieval European T- O map labeled in Arabic.
Date: 10/11/2015
Conference Name: “Islamo-Christian Cartographic Connections,” at the “Found in Translation,” conference on the world history of science, 1200 to 1600 CE, University of Pittsburgh
Qustantiniyya (Constantinople) on Islamic Maps: Depictions & Impact (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Qustantiniyya (Constantinople) on Islamic Maps: Depictions & Impact
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: Every medieval Islamic Mediterranean map of the Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamlik (KKMS) tradition displays Qustantiniyya proudly astride the Bosphorus. These depictions vary with time, place, and milieu of copy. This talk will discuss the depiction of Constantinople and, by extension, Anatolia, in particular the thughur (the most heavily contested of all Christian-Muslim frontiers), which was the center of a six-century struggle for control between the Byzantine and Abbasid Empires that was eventually won by the Turkic tribes. I will show how the Anatolian thughur, in fact, underlined the classical KMMS map of the Mediterranean. Time permitting I will also discuss the commissioning of a cluster of Ottoman copies for Fatih's new post-conquest mosque libraries.
Date: 5/21/2016
Primary URL:
http://http://www.osmanliistanbulu.org/en/Conference Name: The Fourth International Conference on Ottoman Istanbul at Istanbul 29 Mayis Üniversitesi
Liminal Spaces: Places and Borders of the Great Thughur and 'Awasim of Southeastern Anatolia (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Liminal Spaces: Places and Borders of the Great Thughur and 'Awasim of Southeastern Anatolia
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: For the purposes of this workshop, I plan to focus on a different area of the Mediterranean maps, in particular on the great Thughur and ?Awa?im area of Southeastern Anatolia. It is located in the lower right quadrant of the map running from the three river markers of the Jay?an, Say?an, and Baradan at the bottom (east) of the map to the Bosphorus (Khalij Qus?an?iniya) along the right (northern) flank of the map. (See template of Fig. 2; blue arrows indicate area of discussion) It spans in other words the region we refer to now as Anatolia, Asia Minor of yore, or rather a portion of it. That portion of coastal southeastern Turkey that borders on northern Syria and was an area of deep and sustained contestation between the Eastern Christian and Islamic worlds for the better part of six centuries.
Date: 05/18/2015
Primary URL:
http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/europeanstudies/medcrossingsConference Name: Mediterranean Crossings, Yale University
Mapping the Medieval World in Islamic Cartography (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Mapping the Medieval World in Islamic Cartography
Writer: Karen Pinto
Director: Nir Shafir
Producer: Chris Gratien
Abstract: Hundreds of cartographic images of the world and its regions exist scattered throughout collections of medieval and early modern Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts. The sheer number of these extant maps tells us that from the thirteenth century onward, when these map-manuscripts began to proliferate, visually depicting the world became a major preoccupation of medieval Muslim scholars. However, these cartographers did not strive for mimesis, that is, representation or imitation of the real world. These schematic, geometric, and often symmetrical images of the world are iconographic representations—‘carto-ideographs’—of how medieval Muslim cartographic artists and their patrons perceived their world and chose to represent and disseminate this perception. In this podcast, we sit down with Karen Pinto to discuss the maps found in the cartographically illustrated Kitab al-Masalik wa-al-Mamalik (Book of Routes and Realms) tradition, which is the first known geographic atlas of maps, its influence on Ottoman cartography, and how basic versions of these carto-ideographs were transported back to villages and far-flung areas of the Islamic empire.
Date: 01/12/2016
Primary URL:
http://http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2016/01/islamic-cartography.htmlAccess Model: OA
Format: Web
MIME and Other Digital Experimentations with Medieval Islamic Maps (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)Title: MIME and Other Digital Experimentations with Medieval Islamic Maps
Writer: Karen Pinto
Director: Digital Islamic Humanities, Brown University
Producer: Elias Muhanna
Abstract: I have spent the last two decades studying medieval and early modern Islamic maps in depth. These studies involved extensive on-site visits to manuscript libraries through which I collected thousands of images of medieval Islamic maps ranging in date from the eleventh century to the nineteenth. The sheer number of these extant maps tells us, at least from the thirteenth century onwards when copies of these map-manuscripts begin to proliferate, that the world was a much-depicted place. It loomed large in the medieval Muslim imagination. It was pondered, discussed, and copied with minor and major variations again and again, and all with what seems to be a peculiar idiosyncrasy to modern eyes: the cartographers did not strive for mimesis (imitation of the real world). They did not show irregular coastlines even though some of the geographers whose work includes these maps openly acknowledge that the landmasses and their coastlines are uneven. They present instead a deliberately schematic layout of the world and the regions that comprised the Islamic empire that can be best described as “carto-ideographs.”
I started a digital project called MIME—Medieval Islamic Maps Encyclopedia—to place these maps on an interactive CD and online web-based format in order to make this rich resource available to scholars, students, and the general public. The mainstay of MIME are the maps found in the manuscripts of al-I??akhri, Ibn ?awqal, and al-Muqaddasi—also known as the “Islamic Atlas.” The aim of MIME is to decode the place and space matrix on these carto-ideographs so that anyone, with or without Arabic, can browse them and understand how medieval Muslim cartographic artists and their patrons perceived their world.
Year: 2015
Primary URL:
https://islamichumanities.org/conference-2015/Primary URL Description: Scroll down to Session 3
Secondary URL:
http://youtu.be/rkZe3galDUYSecondary URL Description: Youtube link
Access Model: OA
Format: Video
Format: Web
Sicily: Lynchpin of Medieval Islamic Maps of the Mediterranean (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Sicily: Lynchpin of Medieval Islamic Maps of the Mediterranean
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: In this paper I discuss the crucial role that Sicily plays as the lynchpin of medieval Islamic maps of the Mediterranean. I have spent the last two decades studying medieval Islamic maps in depth, in particular KMMS maps produced in the Kitab al-Masalik wa-al-Mamalik (Routes and Kingdoms) geographical manuscripts from the tenth century onwards. The maps of the Mediterranean, subject of my next book, consistently place Sicily at the center of their maps suggesting that the Muslims saw it as the central lynchpin of the Mediterranean around which the entire map was built. The question that I will explore in this paper is why Sicily is consistently placed as the central point of the medieval Islamic depiction of the Mediterranean. Out of this inquiry emerges the crucial discovery that some copies of this KMMS Mediterranean map were produced under the auspices of Norman rulership in the twelfth century Sicily.
Date: 5/28/2016
Primary URL:
https://www.mediterraneanstudies.org/ms/general_information_2016.htmlPrimary URL Description: Conference program
Conference Name: 19th Annual Mediterranean Studies Congress, Mediterranean Studies Association
Is there a Medieval Muslim Mediterranean? (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Is there a Medieval Muslim Mediterranean?
Author: test
Author: Karen Pinto and Karla Mallette
Abstract: tba
Middle East Studies Association (MESA) 2015 Annual Meeting, Denver, Nov. 22, 2015
Date: 11/22/2016
Conference Name: Middle East Studies Association (MESA) 2015 Annual Meeting
Was there an Islamo-Mediterranean Culture & When? (Conference/Institute/Seminar)Title: Was there an Islamo-Mediterranean Culture & When?
Author: Karen Pinto
Author: Brian Catlos
Abstract: Given all the work that has been done on the subject in the last decade, that
there was an Islamo-Mediterranean culture is undeniable. To mention but a few
examples because there are too many to mention. See, for instance, the work of
Brian Catlos, Karla Mallette, Sarah Secord-Davis, Jessica Goldberg, Olivia Remie
Constable, and other participants of this workshop. What all this research has
proven in agreement with Braudel, Goitein, and the other yea-saying scholars of
yore is that they were right to see the Mediterranean as a region of intense
cultural encounters religious, architectural, textual, mythological, navigational
and otherwise. From tinkers, tailors, soldiers, sailors, traders, travelers,
pilgrims, crusaders, and other folk, we hear story upon story of one
Mediterranean Encounter after another.
Date Range: MEH/MED Middle East History/Mediterranean, The Mediterranean Seminar, Boulder, Colorado
Islamic Ways of Seeing the World (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Islamic Ways of Seeing the World
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: Islamic Ways of Seeing the World" ( Schematic, geometric, and often symmetrical images are the hallmark of the medieval Islamic conception of a world that loomed large in their imagination for seven centuries.)
Date: 3/15/2015
Conference Name: "Medieval Global Cartographies,” at Medieval Academy of America (MAA) Meeting, Notre Dame
2020 Calendar: Exploring Islamic Maps (Acquisitions/Materials Collection)Name: 2020 Calendar: Exploring Islamic Maps
Abstract: The richest surviving heritage of premodern maps of the world comes to us from the Middle East and Central and Inner Asia.
The abundance of copies produced in so many places over 1,000 years testifies to the importance of Islamic-world cartographic visions.
Al-Khwarizmi’s map of the Nile became a model for depicting the river in nearly every cartographic manuscript for centuries.
Nasuh’s cartographically illustrated histories could be described as the first attempt at 3D.
Together, all of the maps produced over this unfathomably long era share one thing in common: They were made on the basis of sketches, accounts and myths; views from hills, mountains and the masts of ships; supplemented by tradition on the one hand and carefully accumulated data from increasingly sophisticated navigational and geometric tools on the other. Although these maps do not display the forms of the world in the way ours do today, modern atlases and GPS maps turn out to have much in common with the maps in this calendar: Systems of shapes, lines, labels, patterns and colors all help us understand the world and invite us to explore it.
Director: Karen Pinto
Director: Alva Robinson
Year: 2019
Address: AramcoWorld
Primary URL:
https://www.aramcoworld.com/Articles/November-2019/2020-Calendar-MapsPrimary URL Description: 2020 Calendar pdf available for download.
November/December 2019
Introduction and captions by Karen C. Pinto
Medieval Islamicate Maps: Sindh and the Influence of Pakistan (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)Title: Medieval Islamicate Maps: Sindh and the Influence of Pakistan
Writer: Karen Pinto
Director: Mohatta Palace Museum
Producer: Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi, Pakistan
Abstract: In a sustained pursuit of the greater understanding of the medieval Islamic mapping tradition, Pinto has collected thousands of medieval Islamic map images from Arabic, Persian and Ottoman manuscripts collections from around the world. She describes maps as "rich records of the past, windows into the material culture of the pre-modern Islamic world." Through her work Pinto has sought to understand cartographic visions across historical periods, places and people.
Year: 2019
Primary URL:
https://youtu.be/MMR52rg-JEIPrimary URL Description: Video of talk taped by Mohatta Palace, Karachi, Pakistan.
Date: Thursday November 14 2019
Address: 7 Hatim Alvi Road Old Clifton Karachi 75600
Secondary URL:
https://fb.watch/jc3yx77BEX/Access Model: Subscription Only
Format: Video
Format: Digital File
“Mapping the Worlds of the Global Middle Ages” (Book Section)Title: “Mapping the Worlds of the Global Middle Ages”
Author: Karen Pinto
Author: Cordell Yee
Author: Asa Mittman
Editor: Geraldine Heng
Abstract: “Maps are amalgams of words and images, of history, myth, and religion, fart and science--and as such, they highlight the arbitrary divisions we have created between modern disciplines that have little or no relevance to the study of medieval artifacts. Maps therefore can be of great use in courses across many disciplines. Two of us have been using old maps in our teaching for many years and have found that they provoke some of the richest class discussions each semester. Maps are gripping, consuming things; they draw us in, orient us in space and time, invite us to explore
their extents, and create whole worlds anew.”
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
https://www.mla.org/Publications/Bookstore/Options-for-Teaching/Teaching-the-Global-Middle-Ages#product-tocPrimary URL Description: “While globalization is a modern phenomenon, premodern people were also interconnected in early forms of globalism, sharing merchandise, technology, languages, and stories over long distances. Looking across civilizations, this volume takes a broad view of the Middle Ages in order to foster new habits of thinking and develop a multilayered, critical sense of the past.”
Secondary URL:
https://www.academia.edu/86115107/_Medieval_Islamicate_Cartography_excerpts_from_Mapping_the_Worlds_of_the_Global_Middle_Ages_Secondary URL Description: Pinto’s Academia page with scan of entry
Access Model: Subscription only
Publisher: Modern Language Association of America
Book Title: Teaching the Global Middle Ages
ISBN: 9781603295178
"It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. No, it’s the World! An Exploration of the Spiritual Meaning Underlying the Bird Forms Used in Islamicate Maps” (Book Section)Title: "It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. No, it’s the World! An Exploration of the Spiritual Meaning Underlying the Bird Forms Used in Islamicate Maps”
Author: Karen Pinto
Editor: Christoph Mauntel
Abstract: This article explores the spiritual underpinnings of the forms used in Islam- icate world maps. After a brief overview on the ‘Kit b al-mas lik wa-al-mam lik’ (‘Book of routes and realms’ – abbreviated to KMMS) Islamicate mapping tradition, it examines the meaning behind the form of a bird that constitutes the shape of the landmasses of the old world. In Islamic culture the bird is an oft-repeated motif with a multitude of meanings related to the bird’s reflection of soul and its ability to be closer to the heavens and God. Through an examination of the bird in the world map this article points to the multitude of Islamic cultural, philosophical, and spiri- tual signs embedded in Islamicate cartography.
Year: 2021
Primary URL:
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110686159/htmlSecondary URL:
https://www.academia.edu/49633334/ _Its_a_Bird_Its_a_Plane_No_its_the_World_An_Exploration_of_the_Spiritual_Meanings_Underlying_the_Bird_Fo rms_Used_in_Islamicate_World_Maps_Access Model: Subscription only
Publisher: De Gruyter
Book Title: Geography and Religious Knowledge in the Medieval World
ISBN: 9783110685954
"Fit for an Umayyad Prince: An Eighth-Century Map or the Earliest Painting of the Moon?” (Article)Title: "Fit for an Umayyad Prince: An Eighth-Century Map or the Earliest Painting of the Moon?”
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: , vol. 4., no. 2, 2018, pp. 29-68.
Year: 2018
Primary URL:
https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/40735Primary URL Description: “Can the Qusayr ‘Amra globular fresco be the starting point of the Islamic mapping impulse, within a caliphal context? There is no question that this very site also houses the earliest extant star chart of the medieval Middle East. Taken together, these frescoes imply that the mapping tradition in the Islamic world may well have begun under Umayyad auspices in a raunchy bathhouse in the Jordanian desert”…
“To date, no one has adequately explained the significance of the mottled circular object, which a cherub is handing to a figure reclining on the spandrel above and to the right of the site’s entrance. Thus far, scholars have argued that it depicts a crown or a wreath. But in this article, I will demonstrate that this circular disk should be read as a map, either of the earth or of the moon. If I am correct, this would make it either the earliest known terrestrial depiction produced in an Islamic context or the earliest known mimetic representation of the moon.”
Secondary URL:
https://www.academia.edu/38578646/Fit_for_an_Umayyad_Prince_An_Eighth_century_Map_or_the_Earliest_Mimetic_Painting_of_the_Moon_Secondary URL Description: Free copy of article available on Pinto’s academia web page
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Medieval Globe
Publisher: Arc Humanities Press
Interpretation, Intention, and Impact: Andalusi Arab and Norman Sicilian Examples of Islamo-Christian Cartographic Translation (Book Section)Title: Interpretation, Intention, and Impact: Andalusi Arab and Norman Sicilian Examples of Islamo-Christian Cartographic Translation
Author: Karen Pinto
Editor: Patrick Manning
Editor: Abigail E. Owen
Abstract: “Translation is a two-way street. Or so the maps that I harness for the purposes of this chapter intimate: one a medieval European T-O map labeled in Arabic and the other a medieval Islamic geographical atlas made in Norman Sicily. One was interpreted by a famous eleventh-century Andalusi Muslim geographical scholar of Arab descent and the other illustrated by a Siculo-Arab cartographic artist may have had an influence on the childhood psyche of the emperor, Frederick II, who went on to be called Stupor Mundi (Wonder of the world). One ended up influencing the composition of an Arabic geographical text and the other had an impact on a segment of the Kitāb al-masālik wa-al-mamālik (Book of routes and realms) KMMS Islamic mapping tradition. Each speaks to crucial sides of translation: interpretation, intention, and impact. These are the sides that I focus on in this chapter.
This analysis provides us with an opportunity to explore the question of Islamo-Christian cartographic connections. Did medieval European maps influence the Islamic ones or vice versa? Or were they mutually exclusive? It is one of the major unresolved debates in the history of cartog raphy. Scholars fall on both sides of the divide. A definitive answer to the question has been hampered by the lack of extant examples demonstrating Islamo-Christian cartographic connections. A decade ago a medieval European T-O map labeled in Arabic came back into the limelight after a forty- year hiatus and recently I identified a KMMS geographic atlas as having been produced in the late twelfth century Norman court of Sicily. Taken together these new identifications make it possible to update the discourse on the question of Islamo-Christian cartographic connections.”
Year: 2018
Primary URL:
https://upittpress.org/books/9780822945376/Primary URL Description: Book listing on publisher’s website along with abstracts of reviews including:
“The editors of this volume have embarked on a very novel approach to one of the most fascinating periods of human history, 1000–1800 CE. By bringing together profound research on diverse topics that cross cultures, languages, and systems of faith in the Euro-Asian region—and by framing the history of science within the scope of global history—Knowledge in Translation succeeds in abolishing borders of all kinds” by George Saliba, Columbia University
“Knowledge in Translation is a remarkable collection of essays that highlights the multidirectional and polycentric nature of the transfer of scientific knowledge around the globe, with an expansive chronology that incorporates medieval as well as early modern exchanges across communities. This book thus examines knowledge and practices that crossed boundaries, and does so itself.”
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Editor, Journal of Global History
Secondary URL:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5vdf1qSecondary URL Description: JSTOR web page
Access Model: Subscription only
Publisher: The University of Pittsburgh Press
Book Title: Knowledge in Translation: Global Patterns of Scientific Exchange, 1000–1800 CE
ISBN: 9780822945376
“In God’s Eyes: The Sacrality of the Seas in the Islamic Cartographic Vision” (Article)Title: “In God’s Eyes: The Sacrality of the Seas in the Islamic Cartographic Vision”
Author: Karen Pinto
Abstract: “In keeping with the theme of this issue, this article focuses on the sacrality embedded in the depiction of the seas in the medieval Islamic KMMS mapping tradition. Teasing apart the depictions, this article analyses the sacred dimensions of the fives seas that make up the classical KMMS image of the world: Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ (the Encircling Ocean), the Baḥr Fāris (Persian Gulf-Indian Ocean-Red Sea), Baḥr al-Rūm (the Mediterranean), Baḥr al-Khazar (Caspian Sea),and Buḥayrat Khwārizm (Aral Sea).
One of the most enigmatic verses in the Qurʾān is the verse implying that God’s throne rested somewhere upon the waters. Where exactly it rested this Qurʾānic ayat (verse) does not specify. Nor does it indicate which sea. As a result of this lack of specificity all the world’s seas gain an aura of the sacred in the Islamic context. Is this Qurʾānic concept that all the seas have lapped god’s throne reflected in their depiction on medieval Islamic maps? This article will argue that this is indeed the case and that the manifestation of sacrality in the seas can be read in the forms used to represent them.”
Year: 2017
Primary URL:
http://revistas.uned.es/index.php/ETFVII/issue/view/961Primary URL Description: Journal issue available on revista website
Secondary URL:
https://www.academia.edu/34859711/In_God_s_Eyes_The_Sacrality_of_the_Seas_in_the_Islamic_Cartographic_Vision_A_través_de_los_ojos_de_Dios_la_sacralidad_de_los_mares_en_la_visión_cartográfica_islámicaSecondary URL Description: Article on Pinto’s academia page
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Espacio, Tiempo, y Forma, Serie VII, Historia del Arte
Publisher: UNED (UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA)
“Maps and Mapmaking” (Book Section)Title: “Maps and Mapmaking”
Author: Karen Pinto
Editor: Richard C. Martin
Abstract: “Contrary to the impression that one receives from traditional histories of cartography, the richest heritage of pre-Renaissance maps has come down through history from the medieval Islamic world rather than ancient Greece or medieval Europe. Muslim carto-geographical scholars from the tenth century CE onward drew on Greek, Babylonian, Coptic, Syriac, Sassanian, Indian, Chinese, and Turkic knowledge to produce a new genre of detailed maps of the known world. There are hundreds of medieval Islamic maps in oriental manuscript collections worldwide, many of them unpublished. Until recently these maps lay virtually untouched, often deliberately ignored on the grounds that they are not mimetically accurate representations of the world. This perspective overlooks the great value of these images as representations of the way medieval Muslims perceived their world. The abundance of extant copies produced in locales across the Islamic world for eight centuries testifies to the enduring importance of these maps. Because all images are socially constructed these iconic carto-ideographs contain valuable information about the milieus in which they were produced. They are a rich source of historical data that can be used as alternate gateways into the past.”
Year: 2016
Primary URL:
https://www.gale.com/ebooks/9780028662725/encyclopedia-of-islam-and-the-muslim-worldPrimary URL Description: The Encyclopedia Of Islam And The Muslim World, 2nd Edition, is a two-volume set containing over 540 alphabetically-arranged entries designed to support students of religion and world history at the high school and undergraduate levels, as well as the general public. Rich historical content is partnered with coverage of the issues, countries, and people that are important in today's world, allowing for an assessment of Islam's influence on all areas of human activity throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The revamped table of contents includes entries at the forefront of current events, including entries on oil, water rights, social media, and ISIS, as well as greatly expanded coverage of Islam in specific countries. Now in full color, this beautifully illustrated set features more than fifty percent new and revised entries, including more than 170 new articles, and more than 350 maps, charts, and photos.
Access Model: Subscription only
Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA
Book Title: Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
ISBN: 9780028662725