Medieval Arab geography of Africa mixed empirical fact with scriptural legend

Evidence

De Moraes Farias has suggested that these medieval “mistakes” of geographical knowledge are “much more complicated than the word ‘mistake’ implies,” that in them can be found ideologies of classification that led to further mythification of Africans’ identities: On the one hand, they were caused by insufficiency of empirical knowledge about the real world; on the other hand, they were caused by a fixed scheme of categories, according to which the world was divided into “temperate” and “extreme” climates; one of the “extreme” climates was the torrid zone, in which life was only possible along the banks of great rivers; it follows, logically, that (a) if there was agriculture and urban life in Kanem, and (b) if Kanem indeed was situated in the torrid climate, then it was to be expected that there was a “Nile” flowing across Kanem. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 144 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Medieval Arabic maps of Africa mixed myth with empirical knowledge; Medieval Arab geographic errors followed logical climate-theory deduction — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 144; Medieval racial classification from Noah’s sons seeded later European denials of African achievement (+3 more)

Related

• Medieval Arab geographic errors followed logical climate-theory deduction (similarity 0.93)
• Medieval map errors sprang from fixed climate categories as much as ignorance (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval geographers deduced a Nile through Kanem from climate theory, not observation (similarity 0.84)
• A writer lacking African experience shaped Egypt’s map of Africa (similarity 0.79)
• Sudanese interpretations of their own political geography were ignored in 1894. (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Europeans’ geographical ignorance reduced Africa to crude caricature (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian mapping of the Sudan depended on European explorers’ prior geographic knowledge and expertise. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Arabic maps of Africa mixed myth with empirical knowledge #corroborates (0.95)
• Medieval Arab geographic errors followed logical climate-theory deduction #expands (0.60) — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 144
• Egyptians produced their own Orientalist discourse about the Sudan and Africa #expands (0.50)
• Medieval racial classification from Noah’s sons seeded later European denials of African achievement #expands (0.45)