Ash – Sharif Al Idrisi was born in 1099. He was a Muslim geographer, cartographer, Egyptologist and traveller. He lived in Sicily, at the Court of King Roger – II. He spent much of his early life travelling through North Africa and Spain.
Al Idrisi incorporated the knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the far east gathered by Islamic merchants and explorers and recorded on Islamic maps. He wrote a book ‘A Diversion for the Man Longing to Travel to Far Off Places’. The Tabula Rogeriana’ was drawn by him in 1154 for the Norman King Roger II of Sicily. He died in Sicily in 1165/1166.
