or ALDRISI, the most eminent of the geographers who have written in the Arabic language. There is no individual of equal eminence over whose life there hangs a deeper veil of mystery, the various parts of it affording rather subjects of controversy to the learned than of precise information to the biographer. The place, and even the country in which he was born, compose the first subject of disputation. Sionita and Hezronita, who published a Latin translation of his work at Paris, make him a Nubian, and gave to their work the title of Geographia Nubiensis; the "Nubian Geography." They proceeded upon the expression there used, "The Nile of Egypt, which cuts our land." Hartmann was at once led to suspect the correctness of this inference by observing that Nubia was one of the countries of which Edrisi gives the most meagre and imperfect account. His suspicions were confirmed by learning that Ockley, on examining two manuscripts in the Bodleian library, had found in both "that land," instead of "our land." It seems now generally agreed, therefore, that there is no reason to suppose him of Nubian origin. Others have given him an Egyptian one, which seems more probable, yet rests solely upon the erroneous reading above referred to. In 1663, Bochart stated that he had found, in a manuscript of Leo Africanus, that Edrisi was born at Mazara, in Sicily, in 1098. Next year, however, the manuscript was edited by Hottinger, in an Appendix to his work, entitled Bibliothecarius Quadripartitus, when it appeared, that the person supposed to be Edrisi was there named Esseriff Essachalli. Esseriff, or Scheriff, is indeed an usual appellation of Edrisi, but is common to many, and is rather a title than a name. The rest of the name, and the date of birth, are materially different, so that there seems very little reason to doubt that Bochart was here mistaken.

The most positive statement on the subject is that of Casiri, who says (Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispanica, II. 9.) that if Edrisi, as appeared probable, were the person designated by the Mahomedan writers under the long appellation of Abu Abdallah Mohamad Ben Mohamad Ben Abdallah Ben Edris, he was born at Septa (Ceuta) on the coast of Morocco, in the year of the Hegira 493 (A.D. 1099). Casiri not only qualifies his statement with this condition, but he does not state the authorities from which it is derived; so that it rests only upon the confidence reposed in his learning and accuracy. Edrisi was long a mighty name in Northern Africa; but, in 919, the dynasty was subverted by Mahedi Abdallah, and the proscribed wrecks of the family, according to D'Herbelot, sought refuge in Sicily. This, certainly, tends to strengthen the Sicilian origin of our author; though it is probable that many would seek refuge by concealment in their native county.

If we may trust the information of Casiri, Edrisi pursued his studies at Cordova, then equally famed as a seat of Moorish empire and a seminary of Arabic learning. From the accurate and particular description he has given of Spain, it is probable that he travelled through a great part of that country. Various circumstances prove that he removed to Sicily, and began to compose his great work under the patronage, and indeed at the express desire, of Roger II. king of that island. It was completed about the year 1153. (Heg. 548.)

It has been a subject of pretty warm controversy among the learned whether Edrisi was a Mahomedan or Christian. Sionita, who adopts the latter opinion, observes that he repeatedly calls our Saviour the Lord Jesus, and on one occasion simply "the Lord," a title which is said never to be applied by Mahometans unless to Mahomet, while they merely say "Jesus, to whom be peace," or "Jesus, to whom be safety." He also speaks with profound respect of the holy Virgin, and of various saints, using, in regard to the latter, the Italian expression instead of the Arabic. These arguments are strenuously repelled by Hartmann, though not, as appears to us, on very solid grounds. He justly remarks, indeed, that the Mahometans speak always with the highest respect of every thing connected with the origin of Christianity. But though this may impair the force of Sionita's arguments, there seems nothing of any importance to place in the opposite scale. Hartmann lays much stress on the circumstance that Edrisi, among his numerous names, bears that of Mahomed, which he says was never born by any Christian; but, though this may imply that he was a Mahometan by birth, it does not authorize us to infer that he may not have become a convert to the opposite faith. He evidently wishes to offend persons of neither profession, and thus writes in a style from which no positive inference can be drawn. But, considering how high religious differences ran in that age, it does not appear very probable that he could have resided in Sicily, or been in such high favour with Roger, without adopting the religion of the monarch and country.

The only thing relative to the life of this eminent author which remains even a subject of controversy, is the period of its termination. Bochart has fixed it in the year 1122; but this date clearly proves that he had some quite different person in view; since it appears by the preface to Edrisi's own work, that its completion took place in the year 1153. No other notice, or even conjecture, relative to the time or manner of his death, is to be found in any author.

From these meagre notices respecting the life of Edrisi, we shall proceed to give some account of his work. It has appeared under various titles. The first and fullest appears to have been, The going out of a Curious Man to explore the Regions of the Globe, its Provinces, Islands, Cities, and their Dimensions and Situation. This is sometimes abbreviated into The going out of a Curious Man to explore the Regions of the Globe; and sometimes merely The Going out of a Curious Man. Sionita published it under the name of Relaxation of the Curious Mind; but the title of Nubian Geography, which he and his companion imposed upon it, though it has become general in Europe, is, as is already observed, altogether arbitrary.

The work contains a full description of the whole world, so far as known to the author, with its countries, cities, and all its features, physical and political. These are arranged, not according to any of the methods to which we are accustomed, but in a manner peculiar to itself. The world is divided into seven climates, commencing at the equinoctial line, and extending northwards to the limit at which the earth is supposed to be rendered uninhabitable by cold. Each climate is then divided, by perpendicular lines, into eleven equal parts, beginning with the western coast of Africa, and ending with the eastern coast of Asia. The whole world is thus formed into seventy-seven equal square compartments, resembling those upon a chess-board, or those formed upon a plane map, by the intersecting lines of latitude and longitude. The geographer begins with the first part of the first climate, including the western part of central Africa, and proceeds eastward through the different divisions of this climate, till he finds its termination in the sea of China. He then returns to the first part of the second climate, and so proceeds till he reaches the eleventh part of the seventh climate, which terminates in the north-eastern extremity of Asia. The inconveniences of such an arrangement must be abundantly obvious. Instead of each country, or at least each region of similar physical character, being described by itself, it is severed, by these mechanical sections, into fragments, which are described in different and distant parts of the work; and no connected view is given of any great country.

In drawing the general outlines of cosmography, Edrisi describes the earth as globular; that figure being only interrupted by the varieties of mountains and valleys on its surface. He adheres to the doctrine of those ancient schools, which supposed an uninhabited torrid zone; but, as his knowledge extended to populous countries south of the tropic, he placed the commencement of this zone, with very little propriety, at the equinoctial line: beyond this he says there are neither plants nor animals, all being uninhabitable on account of the heat. Again, the habitable world extends only to the 64th degree of north latitude, beyond which all is frozen with ice and perpetual winter. The circumference of the earth he estimates at 132,000,000 cubits, or 11,000 leagues. He mentions also a measurement by Hermes, which made it 86,000 miles. He divides the whole, according to the established system, into 360 degrees; observing, however, that in consequence of the impossibility of passing the equinoctial line, the known world consists only of one hemisphere: of this one half is land, and the other sea, which last consists chiefly of the great ambient sea, surrounding the earth in a continued circuit, like a zone, and in which "the earth floats like an egg in a bason of water." The only portion of it concerning which much was known was the Atlantic Ocean, called the "Sea of Darkness;" the mind, by a natural process, transferring the obscurity of its own ideas to the object on which they were exercised. That still less known part which rolled along the north-eastern extremity of Asia was, from the same principle, called the "Sea of Pitchy Darkness." Besides this great sea, Edrisi reckons seven smaller ones,—the Indian Sea; the Red Sea, or Arabian Gulf; the Green Sea, or the Persian Gulf; the Sea of Damascus, or the Mediterranean; the Sea of the Venetians, or the Adriatic; the Sea of Pontus, or the Black Sea; the Sea of Georgian, or Dailcm, by which he means the Caspian.

The countries best known to Edrisi are those of Northern Africa, Spain, and Arabia, which are described with minute topographical exactness. As we possess accounts of them, however, equally detailed, and more recent, the chief value is attached to that part of his work where he treats of the interior parts of Africa; regions into which, notwithstanding immense efforts, no European traveller has yet been able to penetrate. In consequence of the colonies and settlements formed there by several Arabian dynasties, Edrisi possessed opportunities of information, of which religious estrangement has deprived Christian Europe. His description, however, cannot be considered as throughout correct; or rather, it is so only for a certain space; after which it deviates into the realms of imagination and conjecture. The leading feature delineated by him is that of the great central river, called the Nile of the Negroes, the Niger of Ptolemy and of the moderns, which he represents to rise from the same fountain as the Egyptian Nile, and to flow westwards till it falls into the sea. This statement has not been confirmed by modern discovery, but it is doubtful how far the moderns may not have erred as to the regions designated by Edrisi, and even the precise import of the terms employed by him. From him, however, have been delineated, in all our modern maps, Wangara, surrounded by the branches of the Niger, which form in it two large lakes; with the cities of Gana, Tocrur, Berissa, and Sala, situated along its banks. The eastern coast of Africa is described accurately as to the countries contained in it, but with a singular error of direction, being made to run from west to east, parallel to the southern coast of Asia. The idea was probably suggested by the great unknown continent of Ptolemy, which was made to follow the same direction; and it was rendered almost necessary by our author's hypothesis, that no country could be habitable to the south of the line; since such an extent of coast produced in a southerly direction must necessarily have passed that limit. Thus, however, Sofala is placed upon the sea of China, while Madagascar, under the name of Al Comr, or the Island of the Moon, forms part of the oriental archipelago. In Asia, Edrisi shows considerable acquaintance with the central and southern regions, though he has not described them so fully as Abulfeda and other writers, who resided in Syria and Bagdad. The northern part is occupied by the fabulous abodes of Yagiojue and Magiouje, or Gog and Magog. Their territories were defended by a tremendous castle or rampart of iron, the idea of which was probably derived from some fortified pass in the mountains which stretch across central Asia.

In Europe, with the exception of Spain and Sicily, the information of Edrisi is neither accurate nor extensive. Germany is particularly ill delineated; England he describes as a great island, in its form resembling an ostrich, in which are seen "cities, lofty mountains, flowing rivers, and a level land, but where perpetual winter reigns." He names its capital and principal sea-ports. To the north is the island of Scotland, some features of which he mentions, though in a manner difficult to identify. He mentions also Ireland, and appears even to have a faint knowledge of Orkney and Shetland.

The only valuable unpublished manuscripts of Edrisi which now exist in Europe, are two that are preserved in the Bodleian Library. The first, which was brought over by Greaves from Egypt, is written in the Arabic character peculiar to northern Africa. It is illustrated by a map of the known world, and by thirty-three maps, containing each part of a climate, so that there are maps only for the three first climates. The second manuscript, brought by Pococke from Syria, is written in the Arabic character, as used in that country, and bears the date of 906, Heg. (A. D. 1500). It consists of 320 leaves, and is illustrated by one general and seventy-seven particular maps, the last consequently including all the parts of every climate. The general map has been published by Dr Vincent in his Periplus of the Egyptian Sea. The writer of this article has examined these maps, and found them to throw considerable light upon the geographical system adopted by the Arabian writers.

There is a manuscript (Cod. DLXXX) in the Royal Library at Paris, which professes to be the production of Edrisi; but D'Herbelot, it appears, has not made use of it as such; and De Guignes expresses positive disbelief on the subject. Hartmann, however, found it to coincide, in many particulars, with the geography of Edrisi. A copy of our author's work was contained, at one time, in the library of the Escurial, but it was destroyed by a great fire in 1671.

The geography of Edrisi, in the original Arabic, was printed at Rome in 1592, at the Medicen press, from a manuscript preserved in the Grand-ducal library at Florence. Both the paper and printing are exceedingly neat; the latter being made to resemble manuscript. This unfortunately constitutes the whole merit of the edition, which swarms with typographical errors, and forms, besides, only an epitome of the original work. This epitome seems made, indeed, in the oriental style, by the simple omission of those parts which appeared to the editor to be superfluous; but these comprise many essential and important passages. The description of Mecca, for example, which had been unaccountably omitted, is supplied by Pococke from his manuscript. Hartmann gives instances, where reference is made to the description of places of which there occurs no other mention. D'Herbelot and Casiri equally remark the imperfections of this edition; and the information obtained by the writer of this article at Oxford as to the result of a comparison between it and the manuscripts in that university, tends entirely to confirm their statements. In most bibliographical works, this impression has been characterized as one of the rarest of books; but Adler, in a visit to Florence, found, in the palace there, 1129 copies, which were publicly exposed to sale at a moderate rate. If, therefore, the book be wanting, even in many extensive public libraries, it is merely because those libraries have not taken the trouble to procure it.

In 1619, two oriental scholars, Gabriel Sionita and John Hezronita, published at Paris a Latin translation of Edrisi's work, bearing the title, as already observed, of Geographia Nubiensis. It is not executed with all that care and accuracy which might have been expected from these learned personages. They have been particularly careless as to the proper names, which are given sometimes in Latin, sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in neither, nor in any intelligible language. In consequence of the Arabic original being occasionally appended, it has been supposed to have been reprinted along with it; but this is a mistake, there being no edition ever printed except the Roman one. George Hieronymus Velschius, an eminent German scholar, had prepared a copy of the Arabic original, with a Latin translation, which he intended to have illustrated with notes; but death prevented the execution of this design; and his manuscript remains deposited in the library of the University of Jena. Casiri (Bibliotheca Arab. Hispan. II. 13.) mentions that, at the request of many friends, he had determined to re-edit this work, but he never appears to have executed this intention. The part relating to Africa, pre-eminent, certainly, in point of importance, has been very ably edited by Hartmann, Professor of Oriental Languages at Marburg (Edrisi, Africa, Gottingen, 1796). Instead of following the awkward division into climates, he has collected together all the notices relating to each particular country; and has annexed the statements of the countrymen and contemporaries of Edrisi, so that his work forms nearly a complete body of Arabian geography, so far as relates to Africa. It does not appear, however, that he had an opportunity of consulting the Oxford manuscripts, or any others of importance, by which the deficiencies of the printed edition could be supplied. A complete edition of this work is, therefore, still wanting; and the learned world may naturally expect it from the University of Oxford, which possesses, in Mr Nicol, Junior Librarian of the Bodleian, a scholar well qualified for the task, and who promises to support the long-established fame of the University in oriental literature. (B.)