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Secondary sourceDocument1154 (map); labels added later

Saladins Lebensstationen

Al-Idrisi; Konrad Miller (copy) · 1154 (map); labels added later

A detail from a copy of al-Idrisi's 1154 world map, labelled with the places associated with Saladin's life such as Tikrit, Damascus, and Cairo.

A map annotated with the cities of Saladin's life, tracing his career across the medieval Islamic world.

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Detail of a colorful historical map in the style of al-Idrisi's world map, with Arabic and red-lettered labels on tan parchment. Blue wavy seas, a green and red-outlined coastline, and labels including Damaskus, Baalbek, Aleppo, Tikrit, and Kairo. Several cities are marked in bold black text.
Detail from Konrad Miller's compiled copy of al-Idrisi's world map (1154), with Saladin's life stations added.

About this source

What it is

This is a detail from a reproduction, compiled by Konrad Miller, of the world map made in 1154 by the geographer al-Idrisi. The detail has been additionally labelled with the stations of Saladin's life, including Tikrit, Baalbek, Aleppo, Damascus, and Cairo.

Why it matters

Al-Idrisi's map was one of the most detailed and accurate maps of the known world produced in the twelfth century, made for a Sicilian king using Arabic geographical knowledge. By marking Saladin's life stations onto it, this later annotated version connects the sultan's biography — his birth, campaigns, and rule across Egypt and Syria — to the wider geography of the medieval Islamic and Mediterranean world as it was understood in his own era.

Look closer

  • What does the choice of cities marked tell you about the span of Saladin's life and career?
  • Why might a modern historian add labels to a centuries-old map rather than draw a new one?
  • How might a twelfth-century map differ from a modern map of the same region?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Saladin on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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