Creating the Mediterranean

Reviews / Votes

"Creating the Mediterranean is a truly accomplished tour across a complex terrain of settings and subjects that stretches from Abbasid administrators to Ottoman renegades. It is also a study that is exceptional in its methodological variety. [...] Kahlaoui's Creating the Mediterranean is a vitally important contribution to literature on the Islamic Mediterranean. It deserves to be read by any scholar or student interested in the history of cartography, in the cultural history of geography and geographers, and in the sciences in the Islamic world more generally." - Carlos Grenier, Florida International University, in: H-Ideas (June, 2018)



"Overall this very interesting book makes a substantial contribution towards the creation of a narrative for Islamic perceptions of the Mediterranean. Kahlaoui is especially impressive in resisting the urge to offer a straightforward uncomplicated arc of development spanning the
early medieval and early modern periods; rather, he depicts a nuanced and complex process of development involving multiple influences and as many discontinuities as continuities. His sensitivity to the audiences and objectives of each author/cartographer is equally notable, once again reinforcing the plausibility of his thesis. The main chapters are supplemented by a long and helpful appendix providing a catalogue of the manuscript sources employed. There are, in addition, many detailed tables of evidence as well as fascinating photographs of key maps throughout. [...] there is no doubt that this work makes a solid contribution to the re-creation of a multi-civilisational understanding of the Mediterranean." - Micholas Morton, Nottingham Trent University, in: Al-Masaq (2019)



"...Creating the Mediterranean is an impressive and meticulously researched work that lays the groundwork for countless areas of future investigation." - Giancarlo Cassale, University of Minnesota/European University Institute, in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies 81/3 (2018)



"...there is so much well researched material in this book, that it is a 'must' for the reference shelves of any cartographic library." - Richard Pflederer, in: The Portolan (2019)



"Overall, I have been impressed by Kahlaoui's rigorous and comprehensive approach, which aims to analyze the entire corpus of 'Islamic' maps. Thanks to his careful study and confrontation of texts and maps, he provides many novel and fascinating insights that should be promptly incorporated into general histories of geography and cartography." - Luis A. Robles Macias, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXV/5-6 (2018)



"Tarek Kahlaoui's book is a significant contribution in that it offers a chance to look at Islamic cartographical and geographical production from a new perspective [...] The detailed catalogues in the Appendix, which is comprised of the geographical works and maps the author used, will likely assist researchers in future studies." Kaan UEcsu in Nazariyat