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Y.K. Fall differentiates between Greek cartography and Ptolemy’s document. The first distinguishes between the Earth, represented as a flat disc, and its inhabited areas. Greek scholars think that the Earth is surrounded by the sea. Whereas Ptolemy holds the view that land surrounds the sea and that there is interpenetration between continental and maritime masses. He lays emphasis on cities and ports as being symbols of civilization. The primordial concept from the Ptolemyan geography that considerably holds sway over Christian sciences and most importantly Arab sciences is that of the division of the world into latitudes and climates.

In Ptolemy’s work, the world is divided into latitudes from the equator to the 45th parallel north. Beyond this line the subdivisions are organised according to climates. The latter corresponds to the best known parts of the world which appears essential to be deeply studied. The use of this theory – that is to say the division of the world into climates – varies according to geographers. However, they share a common knowledge of central climates, which is where the Islamic world plays its role.

The term climate, iklim in Arabic comes from the geek klima, which means inclination, i.e the one of the Earth towards the pole from the equator line. This idea involves another translation of klima that is region (of the earth sphere). The notion of climate refers to an area spreading in longitude from one and end to the other end of the inhabited world, lying in latitude between two parallels.

Climates bring together cities, mountains, water streams and minerals and are defined according to their astral contexts. Arab tradition establishes seven climates for the inhabited area of the earth. In the scriptures that attempt to describe the globe, the most significant theme is the one that deals with central climate that it is the fourth climate. This climate is located in Mesopotamia and represents a balance in everything.
In the adab (ancient rules and tradition of good behaviour) geography, we find this privileged theme of the fourth climate. Al Razi (Geographer of the 10th century) locates Spain in the same climate as Bagdad, exalting its wealth and advantages in order to justify the comparison with Iraq. Idrisi (geographer of the 12th century) always associates each country or city with a climate. Therefore we can argue that this tradition travels throughout history and geographic types.

Some disagree with this theory. They are those who work under an administration and prefer to interpret iklim as being a country brought together around a county town.

There are those who are inspired by another sense of the word originating from Persia. Keshwar describes the seven kingdoms of the world, of which six (India, China, Turcs, Rum, Africa, Arabia) are spread around the central kingdom of Persia. The number seven does not appear with Ptolemy but we find again this idea of a central climate prevailing over the others. The difference here is that the Persian climate is a politico-ethnic concept and no more a geodesic one.

Christian geographers divide the world into five climates or celestial zones. Each zone is determined by the yearly sun circumambulation inside the ecliptic. At the centre there is an uninhabitable zone. At each end we find a cold, boreal and austral and uninhabitable zone and in between lie two temperate zones. Christians were concerned by pragmatism and the supremacy of a zone over the other does not appear. However the idea of dividing the world into climates reveals the Ptolemyan influence within the cartographers.

If you have enjoyed all the exciting information in this article about geography and cartography, you will love everything else about GIS you will find at http://www.globeanalytics.com

By Morad Ouasti

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_eclipse_al-Biruni.jpg

Al-Biruni, is a Persian scholar who was born in 973 in Khwarazm, today known as Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan). He studied under the famous astronomer and mathematician, Abu Nasr Mansur. By the age of 17 he was involved in scientific research. In 990 he determined the latitude of Kath (Uzbekistan) by observing the maximum altitude of the sun.

He wrote his Cartography which is about map projections. As well as describing his own projection of a hemisphere onto a plane. By the age of 22 he had studied a wide range of map projections and addressed them in treaties.

In 995 the rule by the Banu Iraq was overthrown in a coup. Al-Biruni fled at the outbreak of the civil war.

By the 4th June 1004 al-Biruni came back to his homeland. Abu’l Abbas Ma’mun became ruler and he provided important resources to al-Biruni’s scientific research.

Armed conflicts in the region interrupted the scientific work of Al-Biruni and made him leave Khwarazm around 1017.
Al-Biruni studied Indian literature, and translated many Sanskrit texts into Arabic. He also wrote treatises about Indian astronomy and mathematics. He was versed in astrology, astronomy, chronology, geography, grammar, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, religion, weights and measures.

He wrote his famous text, Shadows, around 1021. It is a precious legacy of the history of mathematics, astronomy, and physics. He is also the pioneer of what would be later known as polar coordinates.

Greek scientists, in particular Ptolemy, inspired Al-Biruni as for his conception of the spherical shape of the earth and its geographical components. In his al-Qānūn al-masūdī, he addressed the Greek astronomers’ theory of the earth and enhanced the debate of the distribution of land and sea with new knowledge and thinking.

In his Tahdīd he approaches climate change and stratigraphy. In India he interpreted the theories of the earth both of the Purānas (religious text about the history of the universe from creation to destruction) and of the Indian astronomers.

Al-Biruni made large contributions to geodesy and geography. He introduced techniques to measure the earth and distances based on triangulation. He claimed that the radius of the earth was 6339.6 km, by observing the height of a mountain in India. His Masudic canon reveals a table with the coordinates of six hundred places. Some of them were given by al-Khwarizmi (Persian scholar, 780-850).

Coming to the geographical organisation of the world, Al-Biruni accepted the Greek teaching of the seven climes, and also explained with deep precision the seven kešvars (Ancient Persians conceived the world as vast, round and surrounded by a high mountain) of traditional Persian geography and the seven dvīpas ( “peninsula, island” in Indian mythology) of the Indian Purānas.

Al-Biruni’s focus was mainly in the location of places relative to each other, their latitudes and longitudes, and the computation of their azimuths (angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system) of the qebla (direction to Mecca).

Al-Biruni did not meet problems for establishing local latitude. The longitude difference between two different places was his main obstacle. He managed to overcome it by assessing the longitudinal difference based on an amendment of the itinerary distance between two localities, using the latitude of each, and a determined value for the circumference of the earth. After establishing the longitudinal difference between any places of known latitude and Mecca has been determined, he managed to compute accurately the azimuth of the qebla.

Abu Rayhan al-Biruni died in 1048 in Ghazni (Afghanistan).

If you have enjoyed all the exciting information in this article about geography and cartography, you will love everything else about GIS you will find at http://www.globeanalytics.com

By Morad Ouasti

http://science.howstuffworks.com/french-foreign-legion.htm

The Depot of Military Knowledge is the first British intelligence agency and the ancestor of both MI5 and MI6. It was created during the Napoleonic wars by the Quartermaster General’s Department of the War Office.

Its purpose was to gather foreign maps and information on the military resources and topography of other countries. After 1815 this activity lost its dynamism, in spite of attempts to give a boost to intelligence gathering to strengthen British imperial expansion around the world.

Military defeats by the British army like, for example, in the Crimean War, were widely attributed to a lack of geographical intelligence.

World War II was a global conflict that involved national maps based on various map datums as well as different reference ellipsoids.

The requirements of weapons systems like bombers and missiles with considerably elborateded ranges made the gap between national mapping systems quite obvious.

One attempt to bridge this gap was to spread national datums to other countries, but in 1944 this met a huge technical and political obstacles.

SHORAN (Short Range Navigation) radio navigation systems, made around 1943 for approximate geopositioning for “blind-bombing” operations, showed great interest for geo-positioning outside extant geodetic networks. Later it became a recognized powerful tools for post-war development.

Photogrammetry and terrain models

Aerial photography from airplanes was a major and powerful technology of World War I, aerial photogrammetric mapping applications appeared between the wars. In World War II, aerial photogrammetry was a necessity.

According to Amrom Katz, During World War II, aerial reconnaissance helped gathering about 80% of the information on the Axis powers and their operations.

Aerial photoraphy gave a great contribution to battlefield startegy by supporting the construction of 3D terrain models at different scales. Those were used in all major offensive operations. The conception and use of such terrain models was the main focus for military geography, and the use of those models involving planning and analysis for military geographic intelligence.

Maps served the Military Intelligence. The latter and Geography evolved alongside until fusioning and creating one body, The Military Geographic Intelligence. Through navigation systems and satellites today, military departments can not only collect data but also spy on each other. This raises questions of security and regulation. Any action to regulate the use of satellite would automatically be applied to both, spied and spies, when spied can also be spies. Can we fill this gap or is it condemened to remain as a deadlock ?

If you have enjoyed all the exciting information in this article about geography and cartography, you will love everything else about GIS you will find at http://www.globeanalytics.com

By Morad Ouasti

1. Cloud, J., 2002. American Cartographic Transformations during the Cold War, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 261-282
2. Heffernan, M., 1996. Geography, cartography and military intelligence: the Royal Geographical Society and the First World War. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 21(3), 504-533.

“This documentary reveals some very interesting facts about Ancient Egyptian maps, from antiquity through the times of the Arab explorers to the present times. Video is in Arabic with English subtitles, viewing is highly recommended”

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