Sea zones: The Balkhi School's conceptual mapping of the Indian Ocean

Abstract

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A set of world and regional maps were drawn in the 4th/10th century by a group of four Muslim cartographers, known as the Balkhī School, who had adopted the Greek model but expanded it to include the Persian or Indian concept of dividing the world into ‘seven regions’. Past scholarship has emphasised the physical, socio-political and spiritual patterns of interpreting world and regional Islamic maps but little has been studied in relation to the physical realities of the maritime charting produced by the School. This article attempts to introduce a new dimension to our understanding of the School’s conceptual thinking of the seascape and the different sea zones.