The Island of the Jewel (Arabic: جزيرة الجوهرةJazīrat al-Jawhar)[n 1] or Island of Sapphires (Arabic: جزيرة الياقوتJazīrat al-Yāqūt) was a semi-legendary island in medieval Arabic cartography, said to lie in the Sea of Darkness (Bahr az-Zulamat) near the equator, forming the eastern limit of the inhabited world.
The four chorographic maps of the AD 1037 manuscript of al-Khwārizmī—including that of the Island of the Jewel—are the oldest surviving maps from the Islamic world.[8] Al-Khwārizmī gave the Island of the Jewel as the easternmost point of the inhabited world.[9] His gazetteer is divided by categories but altogether he provides coordinates for its coast, three cities, its surrounding chain of mountains, and two summits on the interior.[10] It lies in the Sea of Darkness near the equator,[11] east of his equivalent of Ptolemy's Golden Peninsula (Malaysia) and east of the still larger phantom peninsula—now usually known as the Dragon's Tail[12]—which replaced Ptolemy's unknown eastern shore of the Indian Ocean.[13][14] Its center was given at 173° east of al-Khwārizmī's prime meridian off west Africa and 2° north of the equator.[15]
It subsequently appeared in the world map of the Book of Curiosities—where it is labelled "The Island of the Jewel, and its mountains encircle it like a basket"[9][16] or "like scales"[17][18]—and in other medieval Arabian and Persian texts.
It is now typically identified with one of the Indonesian islands[9][17] or with Taiwan,[9][18] although al-Khwārizmī's description seems to borrow from Ptolemaic and legendary accounts of Taprobane (Sri Lanka).[19]
^Wan, Lei (2017). The earliest Muslim communities in China. Qiraat. Vol. 8. Riyadh: King Faisal Center for research and Islamic Studies. p. 11. ISBN 978-603-8206-39-3.
^Qi, Dongfang (2010). "Gold and Silver Wares on the Belitung Shipwreck" (PDF). In Krahl, Regina; Guy, John; Wilson, J. Keith; Raby, Julian (eds.). Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds. Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. pp. 221–227. ISBN 978-1-58834-305-5.
^Rapoport (2008), pp. 127–128.
^ a b c dBodleian (2011).
^al-Khwārizmī (1037), 7–8, 40–42, 83.
^Rapoport (2008), p. 133.
^Siebold (2011).
^Rapoport (2008), p. 134.
^Olshin (1994), p. 326.
^Nallino (1896), p. 41.
^Rapoport (2008), p. 125.
^ a bJohns (2003).
^ a bRapoport (2004).
^Tibbetts (1987), p. 106.
References
Antrim, Zayde (2012), Routes & Realms: The Power of Place in the Early Islamic World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-991387-9.
"The Treasures: An Islamic world map", Treasures of the Bodleian, Oxford: Oxford Digital Library, 2011, retrieved 14 March 2015.
Daunicht, Hubert (1968), Der Osten nach der Erdkarte al-Ḫuwārizmīs: Beiträge zur historischen Geographie und Geschichte Asiens [The East in the al-Khwārizmī World Map: A Contribution to Historical Geography and Asian History], vol. I: Rekonstruktion der Karte, Interpretation der Karte: Südasien [Reconstruction & Interpretation of the Map: South Asia], Bonn: Oriental Department of the University of Bonn. (in German)
Johns, Jeremy; et al. (2003), "The Book of Curiosities: A Newly Discovered Series of Islamic Maps", Imago Mundi, vol. 55, London: Routledge, pp. 7–24, doi:10.1080/0308569032000095451, ISSN 0308-5694.
Nallino, Carlo Alfonso (1896), "Al-Huwârizmî e il suo rifacimento della Geografia di Tolomeo [Al-Khwārizmī and His Remaking of Ptolemy's Geography]", Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei [Proceedings of the Royal Lincean Academy], vol. Series 4, Vol. II, Pt. 1: Memorie [Monographs], Rome: V. Salviucci for the Royal Lincean Academy, pp. 4–53. (in Italian)
Olshin, Benjamin B. (1994), A Sea Discovered: Pre-Columbian Conceptions and Depictions of the Atlantic, Ann Arbor: University of Toronto, ISBN 9780315973237.
Rapoport, Yossef; et al. (December 2004), "Medieval Islamic View of the Cosmos: The Newly Discovered Book of Curiosities", The Cartographic Journal, vol. 41, London: British Cartographic Society, pp. 253–259, doi:10.1179/000870404X13841, ISSN 0008-7041.
Rapoport, Yossef; et al. (2008), "The Book of Curiosities and a Unique Map of the World", Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Fresh Perspectives, New Methods, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, pp. 133–134, ISBN 978-90-04-16663-9.
Siebold, Jim (2011), "#256: Martellus' World Maps", Cartographic Images, Oviedo: Henry Davis Consulting, retrieved 15 March 2015.
Tibbetts, Gerald R. (1987), "4 · The Beginnings of a Cartographic Tradition" (PDF), History of Cartography, vol. II, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 90–107.