The ''Geography'' (also known as ''Geographia'', ''Cosmographia'', or ''Geographike Hyphegesis'') is Ptolemy's main work besides the ''Almagest''. It is a treatise on cartography and a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire of the 2nd century. Ptolemy relied mainly on the work of an earlier geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers of the Roman and ancient Persian empire.

Manuscript tradition

The ''Geographia'' comprises two parts: Book one, a discussion of the data and of the methods used; and Books 2–5, an atlas. The original work included maps, but due to the difficulties involved in copying them by hand, the original maps have fallen out of the manuscript transmission. Maps redrawn from the coordinates in the text have been re-added to medieval copies of the work

Arabic writer al-Mas'udi, while writing around 956, mentioned a colored map of the Geography which had 4530 cities and over 200 mountains. Byzantine monk Maximus Planudes found a copy of the Geography in 1295, and since there were no maps in his copy, he drew his own based on the coordinates found in the text. In 1397 a copy was given to Palla Strozzi in Florence by Emanuel Chrysoloras.

The oldest copy of the work, the 13th-century Codex Seragliensis GI 57 was found in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. It was used as the base of a new edition of the work in 2006. This new edition was used to "decode" Ptolemy's coordinates of Germania Magna, Gallia Belgica, Raetia and Noricum by an interdisciplinary team of TU Berlin, presented in a 2010 publication.

Relevant research on Ptolemy's Geographia manuscripts and printed editions, concerning the Geographia versions coordinates, is carried out since 1998 by members of the cartography group, school of surveying engineering, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. See, e.g. selective papers in the web journal "e-Perimetron"

The first Latin translation – ''Geographia Claudii Ptolemaei'' – was made in 1406 by Florentine Giacomo da Scarperia (latinized name Jacobus Angelus).

Principles of mapping

As with the model of the solar system in the ''Almagest'', Ptolemy put all this information into a grand scheme. He assigned coordinates to all the places and geographic features he knew, in a grid that spanned the globe. Latitude was measured from the equator, as it is today, but Ptolemy preferred to express it as the length of the longest day rather than degrees of arc (the length of the midsummer day increases from 12h to 24h as one goes from the equator to the polar circle). He put the meridian of 0 longitude at the most western land he knew, the Canary Islands.

Ptolemy also devised and provided instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world (''oikoumenè'') and of the Roman provinces. In the second part of the ''Geographia'' he provided the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. His ''oikoumenè'' spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Canary islands in the Atlantic Ocean to China, and about 80 degrees of latitude from the Arctic to the East Indies and deep into Africa; Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe.

Maps based on scientific principles had been made since the time of Eratosthenes (3rd century BC), but Ptolemy improved projections. It is known that a world map based on the ''Geographia'' was on display in Autun, Gaul in late Roman times.

Reception

Medieval Islamic civilization

Islamic cartographers inherited Ptolemy's ''Almagest'' and ''Geographia'' in the 9th century which is said to have stimulated an interest in geography and map-making, however, they made almost no direct use of the latter in map-making. Muslim scientists then made many of their own contributions to geography and the earth sciences.

Renaissance

Ptolemy's text reached Italy from Constantinople in about 1400. The first printed edition, probably in 1477 in Bologna, was also the first printed book with engraved illustrations. Many editions followed (more often using woodcut in the early days), some following traditional versions of the maps, and others updating them. An edition printed at Ulm in 1482 was the first one printed north of the Alps. Also in 1482, Francesco Berlinghieri printed the first edition in vernacular Italian.

Ptolemy had mapped the whole world from the ''Fortunatae Insulae'' (Canary Islands) eastward to the eastern shore of the ''Magnus Sinus''. This known portion of the world was comprised within 180 degrees. In his extreme east Ptolemy placed ''Serica'' (the Land of Silk), the ''Sinarum Situs'' (the Port of the Sinae), and the emporium of ''Cattigara''. On the 1489 map of the world by Henricus Martellus, which was based on Ptolemy’s work, Asia terminated in its southeastern point in a cape, the Cape of Cattigara. Cattigara was understood by Ptolemy to be a port on the ''Sinus Magnus,'' or Great Gulf, the actual Gulf of Thailand, at eight and a half degrees north of the Equator, on the coast of Cambodia, which is where he located it in his ''Canon of Famous Cities''. It was the easternmost port reached by shipping trading from the Graeco-Roman world to the lands of the Far East. The promontory or cape on which it was situated, the Cape of Cattigara, formed the southeastern point of Asia. In Ptolemy’s later and more well-known Geography, a scribal error was made and Cattigara was located at eight and a half degrees South of the Equator. On Ptolemaic maps, such as that of Martellus, ''Catigara'' was located on the easternmost shore of the ''Mare Indicum,'' 180 degrees East of the Cape St Vincent at, due to the scribal error, eight and a half degrees South of the Equator.

''Catigara'' is also shown at this location on Martin Waldseemueller’s 1507 world map, which avowedly followed the tradition of Ptolemy. Ptolemy’s information was thereby misinterpreted so that the coast of China, which should have been represented as part of the coast of eastern Asia, was falsely made to represent an eastern shore of the Indian Ocean. As a result, Ptolemy implied more land east of the 180th meridian and an ocean beyond. Marco Polo’s account of his travels in eastern Asia described lands and seaports on an eastern ocean apparently unknown to Ptolemy. Marco Polo’s narrative authorized the extensive additions to the Ptolemaic map shown on the 1492 globe of Martin Behaim. The fact that Ptolemy did not represent an eastern coast of Asia made it admissible for Behaim to extend that continent far to the east. Behaim’s globe placed Marco Polo’s Mangi and Cathay east of Ptolemy’s 180th meridian, and the Great Khan’s capital, ''Cambaluc'' (near Beijing), on the 41st parallel of latitude at approximately 233 degrees East. Behaim allowed 60 degrees beyond Ptolemy’s 180 degrees for the mainland of Asia and 30 degrees more to the east coast of ''Cipangu'' (Japan). Cipangu and the mainland of Asia were thus placed only 90 and 120 degrees, respectively, west of the Canary Islands.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus modified this geography further by using 53⅔ Italian nautical miles as the length of a degree instead of the longer degree of Ptolemy, and by adopting Marinus of Tyre’s longitude of 225 degrees for the east coast of the ''Magnus Sinus''. This resulted in a considerable eastward advancement of the longitudes given by Martin Behaim and other contemporaries of Columbus. By some process Columbus reasoned that the longitudes of eastern Asia and Cipangu respectively were about 270 and 300 degrees east, or 90 and 60 degrees west of the Canary Islands. He said that he had sailed 1100 leagues from the Canaries when he found Cuba in 1492. This was approximately where he thought the coast of eastern Asia would be found. On this basis of calculation he identified Hispaniola with Cipangu, which he had expected to find on the outward voyage at a distance of about 700 leagues from the Canaries. His later voyages resulted in further exploration of Cuba and in the discovery of South and Central America. At first South America, the ''Mundus Novus'' (New World) was considered to be a great island of continental proportions; but as a result of his fourth voyage, it was apparently considered to be identical with the great Upper India peninsula (India Superior) represented by Behaim—the Cape of Cattigara. This seems to be the best interpretation of the sketch map made by Alessandro Zorzi on the advice of Bartholomew Columbus (Christopher’s brother) around 1506, which bears an inscription saying that according to the ancient geographer Marinus of Tyre and Christopher Columbus the distance from Cape St Vincent on the coast of Portugal to Cattigara on the peninsula of India Superior was 225 degrees, while according to Ptolemy the same distance was 180 degrees.

See also

Bibliotheca historica

Diodorus Siculus

Geography in medieval Islam

Strabo

References

Berggren, J. Lennart and Jones, Alexander. 2000. ''Ptolemy's'' Geography: ''An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters''. Princeton University Press. Princeton and Oxford. ISBN 0-691-01042-0.

Cosgrove, Dennis. 2003. ''Apollo's Eye: A Cartographic Genealogy of the Earth in the Western Imagination''. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore and London.

Stevenson, Edward Luther. Trans. and ed. 1932. ''Claudius Ptolemy: The Geography''. New York Public Library. Reprint: Dover, 1991. This is the only complete English translation of Ptolemy's most famous work. Unfortunately, it is marred by numerous mistakes (see Diller) and the place names are given in Latinised forms, rather than in the original Greek.

External links

Primary sources

Claudii Ptholemaei Alexandrini liber geographiae cum tabulis et universali figura et cum additione locorum quae a recentioribus reperta sunt diligenti cura emendatus et impressus (Latin translation).

Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia, ed. Karl Friedrich August Nobbe, Sumptibus et typis Caroli Tauchnitii, 1843, tom. I (books 1-4); 1845, tom. II (books 5-8); 1845, tom. III (indices). (Greek original).

Ptolemy's Geography at LacusCurtius (English translation, incomplete)

Extracts of Ptolemy on the country of the Seres (China) (English translation)

1st critical edition of Geography Book 8, by Aubrey Diller

''Geografia cioè descrittione vniuersale della terra partita in due volumi...'', In Venetia : appresso Gio. Battista et Giorgio Galignani fratelli, 1558. ''Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo alessandrino'', In Venetia : appresso gli heredi di Melchior Sessa, 1599. ''Geographia Cl. Ptolemaei Alexandrini'', Venetiis : apud Vincentium Valgrisium, Venezia, 1562. ''Geographia Universalis'', Basileae : apud Henricum Petrum, mense Martio, Venezia, 1540.

Secondary material

Ptolemy the Geographer

Ptolemy's Geography of Asia - Selected problems of Ptolemy's Geography of Asia (in German)

History of Cartography including a discussion of the Geographia

Dennis Rawlins, Investigations of the Geographical Directory 1979-2007

Ptolemy's ''Geography'' in the Renaissance collected essays

Category:Works by Ptolemy of Alexandria Category:2nd-century books Category:Atlases Category:Geographic information systems Category:Cartographic projections Category:Geographic coordinate systems Category:Land surveying systems Category:History of geography Category:Geography books

ca:Geographia de:Geographike Hyphegesis es:Geographia fr:Géographie (Ptolémée) hr:Geografija (Ptolomej) it:Geografia (Tolomeo) ru:География (Птолемей) sr:Географија (Птолемеј) sh:Geografija (Ptolomej)

Mushtaq Ahmad OBE is the Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire. He was the first Asian to serve as Provost of a Scottish council.

Biography

Ahmad was was born in 1942 in British India and grew up in present-day Pakistan. He graduated from the University of Punjab in Pakistan. In 1963 he came to Scotland to study for an MA at the University of Glasgow. He undertook teacher training at Jordanhill College, and went on to teach economics in Scotland and then East London. Returning to Scotland, he organised an adult education programme for 17 years.

Ahmad served as a councillor in Hamilton District Council and then South Lanarkshire Council, and was Provost of South Lanarkshire from 2003 to 2007. He was appointed to the post of Lord Lieutenant on 11 November 2010, following the retirement of Gilbert Cox CVO, MBE, JP.

References

Category:1942 births Category:Lord-Lieutenants in Scotland Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:University of the Punjab alumni Category:Councillors in Scotland Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Scottish people of Pakistani descent

Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
name	Faiz Ahmad Faizفیض احمد فیض
pseudonym	Faiz
birth date	February 13, 1911
birth place	Kala Kader, Sialkot, Punjab
death date	November 20, 1984
death place	Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
occupation	Urdu poet, journalist
nationality	Pakistan
ethnicity	Kashmiri
citizenship	Pakistan
education	M.A. (English Literature)M.A. (Arabic Literature)
alma mater	Murray College, SialkotGovernment College, LahoreOriental College, Lahore
genre	''Ghazal'', ''Nazm''
movement	Progressive Writers' Movement
notableworks	''Naqsh-e-Faryadi''''Dast-e-Sabah'' ''Zindan-nama''
spouse	Alys Faiz
children	Salima (b. 1942) Moneeza (b. 1945)
influences	Allama Iqbal Karl Marx Syed Mir Hasan Yousuf Saleem Chishti
influenced	Urdu poetry, Ibn-e-Insha
awards	MBE, 1946 Lenin Peace Prize, 1963 The Peace Prize (Pakistani Human Rights Society) The Avicenna Award (posthumous) Nigar Awards Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Pakistan's Highest Civilian Award), posthumous in 1990
website	}}

Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911–1984) () was a Pakistani intellectual, poet, and one of the most famous poets of the Urdu language. He was a member of the Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind (All India Progressive Writers' Movement) and an avowed Marxist. In 1962, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. Although Faiz's poetry was inspired by South Asia's Sufi traditions, Pakistani military leaders and Islamic scholars denounced Faiz and his poetry as atheism although Faiz never acknowledged himself as an atheist.

Early life

Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born in Kala Kader village, Sialkot : سیالکوٹ in Punjab in British India to Sultan Mohammad Khan and his youngest wife Fatima.

Following the Muslim tradition in South Asia, at an early age Faiz was sent to the Masjid (Mosque) to be oriented to the basics of religious studies by Maulvi Muhammad Ibrahim Mir Sialkoti. He went on to the Scotch Mission School, Sialkot, for academic education and after matriculation joined Murray College, Sialkot, Punjab for intermediate study and graduation. His most influential teachers were Professor Yousuf Saleem Chishti, who taught Urdu, and Shams-ul-Ullamah Syed Mir Hasan, who taught Arabic. Hasan had also taught the renowned philosopher, poet, and politician of South Asia, Allama Dr. Muhammad Iqbal. Faiz acquired a post-graduate degree from the Government College, Lahore, a Master of Arts in English Literature, and he also attended the Oriental College in Lahore, where he obtained another master's degree in Arabic Literature.

Career

Faiz started a branch of Progressive Writers' Movement in Punjab in 1936. Also he was a Member and Secretary of this branch. He was also an Editor of Mahnama (Monthly). Faiz became a lecturer in English at M. A. O. College, Amritsar in 1935 and then at Hailey College of Commerce, Lahore. He briefly joined the British Indian Army and was promoted to the rank of Lieut. Colonel in 1944. He resigned from the Army in 1947 and returned to Lahore to become the first editor-in-chief of the ''Pakistan Times''. In 1959 he was appointed as Secretary, Pakistan Arts Council and worked in that capacity till 1962.

Return to Pakistan

Returning from London in 1964 he settled down in Karachi and was appointed as Principal at Abdullah Haroon College. Faiz distinguished himself as a journalist and was editor of the Pakistan Times, the Urdu newspaper 'Imroze' and the weekly ''Lail-o-Nihar''. In the 1965 war between India & Pakistan he worked in an honorary capacity in the Department of Information and during that period Faiz was very much close to the senior officers, like Syed Fakhruddin Balley. In exile he acted as Editor of the magazine Lotus in Moscow, London and Beirut.

Faiz wrote poems that opposed the bloodshed during separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan.

Communism

Faiz was a communist and was associated with the Communist Party of Pakistan. He spent much of the 1950s and 1960s promoting the cause of communism in Pakistan. During the time when Faiz was editor of the ''Pakistan Times'', one of the leading newspapers of the 1950s, he lent editorial support to the party. He was also involved in the circle lending support to military personnel (e.g. Major General Akbar Khan). His involvement with the party and Major General Akbar Khan's coup plan led to his imprisonment later.

Sufism

Faiz was an avowed supporter of Sufism. He had close relations with several Sufi saints of his time. He was a favourite of Baba Malang Sahib, a Sufi of Lahore, Wasif Ali Wasif, Ashfaq Ahmad, Syed Fakhruddin Balley and other renowned sufis. Once when he was asked how he could compare Sufis with socialist comrades, he replied, "They [Sufis] are the real comrades". He is also credited for coining the term ''Ana al-Haqq'' in the political sense.

Major works

''Naqsh-e-Faryadi'' (1943)

''Dast-e-Saba'' (1952)

''Zindan-Nama'' (1956)

''Dast-e-Tah-e-Sung (1965)

''Mere Dil Mere Musafir''

''Sar-e-Wadi-e-Sina''

All these have been combined as one book ''Nuskha Haa-e-Wafa'' (Urdu: نسخہ ہاے وفا).

Translations

Faiz Ahmad Faiz's poetry has been translated into many languages, including English and Russian. A Balochi poet, Mir Gul Khan Nasir, who was also a friend of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, translated his book ''Sar-e-Wadi-e-Seena'' into Balochi with the title ''Seenai Keechag aa''. This work by Faiz was translated by Gul Khan while he (Gul Khan) was in jail during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's regime for opposing the government's policies. It was published in 1980, after Zia-ul-Haq toppled Bhutto's government and freed all the political prisoners of his (Bhutto's) regime. Victor Kiernan, British Marxist historian translated Faiz Ahmed Faiz's works into English.

Faiz Ahmad Faiz, himself, has also translated works of notable poets from other languages into Urdu. In his book "Sar-i Waadi-i Seena" there are some translations of the famous poet of Dagestan, Rasul Gamzatov. "Deewa", a Balochi poem by Mir Gul Khan Nasir, was also translated into Urdu by Faiz.

Personal life

In the 1930s Faiz Ahmad Faiz married a British woman, Alys Faiz. They had two daughters, Moneeza and Salima Hashmi. Salima is an eminent artist and Moneeza is a TV producer. Salima and Moneeza are married to brothers Shoaib Hashmi and Humair Hashmi respectively, who are noted media personalities.

Awards

Faiz was the first Asian poet to receive the Lenin Peace Prize, awarded by the Soviet Union in 1963. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize shortly before his death in 1984.

Plays and Dramatic Productions on Faiz

1.'Sheeshon ka Maseeha' by Omer Khawaja and Shabana Azmi.

2.'Dard Aayega Dabe Paon' by Sheela Bhatiya.

3.'Kuchh Ishq kiya Kuchh Kaam' by Omer Khawaja.

References

External links

In-depth special for Faiz Sahab at ''Dawn''

;Profiles and tributes

Faiz Ahmed Faiz - Tum Yeh Kehtay Ho Ab Koee (short film: Ali Kapadia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK5ceY1NKPM&feature;=player_profilepage (Faiz Mela London)

Faiz - aaj kay naam (a multimedia CD on Faiz)

A tribute to Alys Faiz

Mushaira.org entry on Faiz Ahmed Faiz

GetPakistan Profile

Village of Faiz Ahmed Faiz on map

;Works

http://www.jinnahsequaid.com/8048/legendary-works-faiz-ahmed-faiz/

Faiz Ahmad Faiz at Kavita Kosh (Hindi)

Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Complete Poetry at punjabi-Kavita.com in Punjabi/Gurmukhi

Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Urdu translation of Gul Khan Nasir's "Deewa"

Gul Khan reading his Balochi poem while Ata Shaad reads Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Urdu translation of it

Faiz Ahmed Faiz's Urdu Poem "Dua" With Balochi translation by the Baloch poet Gul Khan Nasir

Selected poetry of Faiz

Kuch Ishq Kya Kuch Kam Kya' English translation by Qazi Muhammad Ahkam

Audio recitation and ghazals, nazms, qitaat of Faiz in Roman transliteration

Poem of Faiz in Karachi

Bol Ke Lab Aazad, Singer: Tina Sani

Selected couplets of Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Category:1911 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Pakistani people Category:People from Sialkot Category:People from Lahore Category:Pakistani poets Category:Pakistani Muslims Category:Pakistani Sunni Muslims Category:Pakistani Marxists Category:Lenin Peace Prize recipients Category:Urdu poets Category:Pakistani scholars Category:Ravians Category:Nigar Award winners Category:Punjabi poets Category:Marxist writers Category:Marxist poets Category:Communist writers Category:Communist poets Category:Pakistani revolutionaries

de:Faiz Ahmed Faiz eo:Faiz Ahmed Faiz fr:Faiz Ahmed Faiz ml:ഫൈസ് അഹമ്മദ് ഫൈസ് mr:फैझ अहमद फैझ no:Faiz Ahmed Faiz pnb:فیض احمد فیض pl:Faiz Ahmad Faiz ru:Фаиз Ахмад Фаиз ur:فیض احمد فیض

Ahmed Faiz Bin Marzouq () (born 6 September 1979) is a Saudi Arabian long jumper. His personal best jump is 8.39 metres, achieved in August 2006 in Lemgo.

He won the bronze medal at the 2006 Asian Games and finished eighth at the 2007 World Championships. He won the long jump gold medal at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games, setting a Games record mark of 7.96 m.

He was banned for two years in June 2010 after failing a doping test due to amphetamine use.

See also

List of doping cases in athletics

References

Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:Long jumpers Category:Saudi Arabian athletes

fr:Ahmed Faiz Bin Marzouq