Author: Mohamed Hammam Fekri
Issued by Hasan Bin Mohamed Center for Historical Studies - 2025
This book is an academic and documental extension of the book of Prof. Hassan bin Mohamed “The Gulf: A Historical Reading in Ancient European Maps”. The researcher Mohamed Hammam Fekri presents a cartographic study in depicting the Arabian Gulf through European maps from the classic ages to the modern age.
The idea of this book initiated in the mid-nineties as a part of a project to document and enumerate historical maps in the Library of Islamic and Arab Heritage (Shiekh Hassan’s library before). Later on, it developed into a toponymic study that traces changes of names of Gulf cities and locations from 1478 to the early twentieth century. This was accompanied by the author’s fondness in history, art, and design of maps.
The book focuses on the development of European cartography since the thirteenth century. It attributes the beginning of advancement to the movement of translating Arabic and Greek heritage, huge geographical discoveries, and invention of printing. The book also examines the development of cartography tools such as accurate scales and latitudes and longitudes. In addition, it highlights the most significant historical phases such as Mercator map (1569) and Lambert and Bonne projections in the seventeenth and eighth centuries.
The book also examines cartographic reproduction techniques, ranging from wood and copper engraving to lithographic printing and manual coloring, shedding light on usage of colors, optical symbols and artistic decorations that distinguished each cartographic school, up to the development of accurate survey thanks to tools such as Astrolabe, Sextant Instrument, and Theodolite.
In reviewing the maps, the author adopted an accurate academic methodology based on descriptive elements that include:
Map’s title or its technical location, the author of the person to whom the map is attributed, the date of issue and place of printing, the scales of drawing, the map’s dimensions, the language used, critical comments on accuracy and distortion or copying.
Names of places corresponding to distorted or incorrect names that appeared on ancient maps, like naming Qatar as “Qatma” or Umm Al Quwain as “Mikhewan”, were placed based on comparative review between various sources.
The book also deals with the course followed by Western institutions, like British Survey Office (1791) and United States Geological Survey (1879) in the field of survey.
The author allocated ample space for reviewing the European geographical schools that shaped Europe’s mental map of the Gulf:
- The Dutch School (Mercator, Ortelius) formed the golden age of cartography.
- The Italian School (Gastaldi( introduced the first “pocket” Atlas.
- The French School (Sanson, Delisle) raised the profile of Paris as a center of cartography.
- The British School that reached its peak during the colonial expansion in the 19th century.
In the Arabian Gulf section, the author demonstrates how the natural barriers, like coral reefs and shallow waters, were the cause for delay in the accuracy of the European nautical survey. He combines geographical, literal, and academic narrative relying on the testimonies of travelers and sailors, and on Arab and foreign sources such as the works of Prof. Sultan Al-Qasimi, Khalid Al-Angari, Slot, Tibbetts, and others.
The work culminates in presenting a rare, hard to access collection of European maps, which gives researchers a unique opportunity to know how the visual and cultural representation of the Arabian Gulf has changed in the European perspective.
In conclusion, this book is not a mere book on maps, rather it is a comprehensive knowledge source that documents the geographical and cultural changes in representing the Gulf. Furthermore, it enriches the Arabian library with serious efforts and excellent printing, in an academic partnership that befits the Gulf position worldwide.
