Evolution of Geography

Greeks, Romans, Muslims and European Contribution

Greek’s Contribution
• Homer
introduced the literary tradition through his monumental work
‘Odyssey’ and ‘Illiad’.
He described the four winds coming from different directions and
named them Boreas (North), Eurus (East), Notus (South) and Zephyrus
(West).
Homer
Thales
• Thales was the first Greek genius, philosopher, and traveler who was
concerned with the basic theorems of geometry.
• He proposed the following six geometric propositions –
i) The circle is divided into two equal parts by its diameter
ii) The angles at either end of the base of an isosceles triangle are equal iii)
When two parallel lines are crossed diagonally by a straight line, the
opposite angles are equal
iv) The angle in a semi-circle is a right angle
v) The sides of similar triangles are proportional
vi) Two triangles are congruent if they have two sides and one angle
respectively equal
Thales
Anaximander
• Anaximander is credited with the introduction of a Babylonian
instrument known as Gnomon into the Greek literary world.
• Gnomon is a pole set vertically above a flat surface on which the
varying position of the sun and other celestial bodies could be
measured by the length and direction of the shadow cast by the
vertical pole.
• He is even credited to produce a world map to scale.
Anaximander
Hecataeus
• Hecataeus for the first time gave two approaches for the study of
geography:
a) Nomothetic or law seeking approach.
b) Idiographic approach (descriptive).
• Hecataeus prepared the world map but it was based on the map of
Anaximander; he had just modified it.
Hecataeus
Herodotus
• Herodotus was the father of history. He is credited with the idea that
history must be treated geographically and all geography must be
treated historically.
• He is also identified as the father of ethnography as he provided a
vivid portrayal of cultural traits of people who were unknown to
Greeks
• His works were based on his own observations during his travels.
• He contributed both in physical and human geography.
Herodotus
Plato
• Plato is regarded as the master of deductive reasoning - from the
general to the particular.
• He is considered to be the first scholar who adopted the idea of round
earth located in the center of the universe with the other celestial
bodies revolving around it in a circular motion.
Plato
Aristotle
• Aristotle agreed with Plato that the earth is spherical in shape and
went a step further by seeking an explanation for the spherical shape.
• He even contributed to the branch of human geography when he put
forward the concept of variations in habitability on the surface of the
earth on the basis of latitudinal position.
• He opined that the regions nearer to the Equator were uninhabitable
and named it as the Torrid Zone.
• Similarly, the parts of the earth which was away from the Equator and
were permanently frozen were also uninhabitable – the Frigid Zone.
• The population of the Earth lived in the Temperate zone which existed
between the Torrid and the Frigid Zones
Aristotle
Eratosthenes
• Eratosthenes has been regarded as the ‘Father of Geography’.
• He is the one who coined the term Geography.
• He is credited to provide the definition of geography as the ‘’study of earth as
the home of man’’.
• His outstanding contribution for which he is known throughout the world is his
measurement of the earth’s circumference, by using Thales theorem – When
two parallel lines are crossed diagonally by a straight line, the opposite angles
are equal - while measuring the earth’s circumference
• He has also prepared a world map with respect to correct distance.
• He also delineated the world into five climatic zones: one Torrid Zone, two
temperate zones, and two frigid zones.
• He also measured different latitudes and longitudes.
Eratosthenes
Hippocrates
• Hippocrates in his book On Airs, Waters, Places explained the man-
nature relationship in the context of climatic conditions.
Hippocrates
Hipparchus
• Hipparchus established the concept of locating the exact position of
each place on the surface of the earth.
• On the basis of an Assyrian arithmetic, he divided the circle into 360
degrees.
• He made an attempt of showing the three-dimensional earth on a flat
surface.
Hipparchus
Strabo
• Strabo, a Greek scholar was highly influenced by Homer, Hecataeus
and Aristotle.
• He was in acceptance of Aristotle’s zones of habitable world – the
Ekumene (as defined by Eratosthenes).
• His biggest contribution is his monumental work ‘Geographia’ in 17
volumes; a compilation of writings of his predecessors. Out of these
17 books, eight are in Europe, six on Asia and one of Africa (Egypt and
Ethiopia). The first two books were devoted to the historical review of
the development of geography from the times of Homer.
Strabo
Roman Contribution to the field of
Geography
• Ptolemy revived the geography as a science and art of map-making. This
concept was borrowed from the works of earlier Greeks especially Aristotle,
Hipparchus, Posidonius and Marinus the Tyre (his teacher).
• He came up with a monumental work known as “The Almagest” – the
standard reference for the study of the movement of celestial bodies for a
long time.
• Another significant contribution of Ptolemy was in the field of map making.
• He improved and modified previous maps by adopting a projection for the
world map which had a graticule of meridians of longitude and parallels of
latitudes.
Ptolemy
Muslim Contribution in Geography
• Al-Balkhi
who collected climatic data from the accounts of various Arab travelers
and prepared the world’s first climatic atlas based on that data entitles
Kitab-Al Ashkal in 921.
Al-Balkhi
Al-Masudi
• Al-Masudi was a geographer, a historian a world traveler and a prolific writer.
• Al-Masudi described the weather conditions of the places he visited or sailed
through and also pointed out that the salt in the seas comes from the land.
• In the field of study of landforms he appreciated the role of process of
erosion and adjustment of streams to structure in the evolution of landforms
• He had a clear idea of the spherical shape of the earth.
• In the field of human geography he tried to study the relationship between
human beings and the environment and explained the impact of
environment on the mode life and attitude of people (environmental
determinism).
• He even divided the world into seven regions on the basis of language.
Al-Masudi
Al-Biruni
• His main interests include astronomy, mathematics, chronology, physics, medicine and
history.
• He describes the processes shaping the landforms under normal conditions.
• He provided detailed information about the source of Indus and explained the phenomena
of floods in its basin.
• He has provided an accurate account of the seasons of India describing the nature of
monsoons.
• He had also studied Indian culture and Hindu beliefs.
• He provided his views on the origin of universe.
• .He also attempt to measure the longest and the shortest distance of the moon and the sun
from the earth.
• He studied the relationship of tides with the phases of moon.
Al-Biruni
Ibn-Sina
• He gave the idea of landscape erosion when he observed that the
streams cut down their valleys when flowing down the mountains.
• He even examined the presence of fossils in the rocks in higher
mountains.
Ibn-Sina
Al idrisi
• His world map is considered as his most important contribution to
geography.
• He described the course of many rivers including the Danube and
Niger with precision.
• He did not agree with the Greek’s classification of the world into five
climatic divisions and provided a more sophisticated classification
based on climate.
Al idrisi
Ibn Batuta
• He was the greatest Muslim traveler of his time.
• He spent 28 years in travel and crossed a distance of more than 75000
miles.
• His primary interest was in people though he has described the
physical conditions of various regions that he visited.
• His description of house types and building materials in deserts is very
interesting and informative.
• His book Rihlah provides an insight into the soils, agriculture,
economy and political history of the then Muslim world.
Ibn Batuta
Ibn Khaldun
• Ibn Khaldun was basically a historian but his writings also have been
important as they were based on travel.
• His most important work is known as Muqaddimah.
• In his writings, Ibn Khaldun has maintained that the northern hemisphere
is more densely populated than the southern.
• He emphasized the role of fertile land in the origin of settlements.
• Ibn Khaldun is considered as one of the early environmental determinists
as he tried to correlate man and his environment in a scientific way.
• He is also credited of establishing political geography.
Ibn Khaldun