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Research pertaining to my latest novel, The Mapmaker.

Idrisi's World Map


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The Mapmaker

al-IdrisiDecember, 1148; 543 AH: a small band of illustrious travellers gather on Marettimo, a fortress island off the coast of Norman Sicily, destination Brycgstow, England. Among them is geographer and luminary of Roger II’s court, Muhammad al-Idrisi, travelling in pursuit of his grand treatise, Nuzhatul Mushtaq. Finding safe passage on Captain Hajji's futuristic vessel, al-Jaariya, Idrisi shares conversation and adventures with an extraordinary array of characters, some human, on a tumultuous voyage where the darkest encounters are not with sea monsters or storms, but with the desires and contradictions burning at the very heart of their expedition.

Notes: Stories

September 2009

Narrative Sources

September 2009

It's primary literary conceit: everyone's story, as told to al-Idrisi and recorded in his journal, is entangled with everyone else's.

There are stories/books that are likely to be have been known to al-Idrisi

  • Layla and Majnun (although Nezami Ganjavi version wasn't around until very late in the 12th century)

  • Al-Hariri's (1054-1122) Maqamat al-Hariri (see: Assemblies of Al-Hariri, retold by Amina Shah - Octagon Press)

  • Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Alive, Son of Awake, aka Philosophus Autodidactus.)

  • Ferdowsi's (d.1020) mythical/historical past of Iran from the creation to 7th century, Shahnameh
     

 

Wikipedia Links
 
Shahnameh
     Fereydun



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