Nearly 1,300 years of Islamic history brought together in interactive atlas
The “Islam History Atlas,” which enables users to explore nearly 1,300 years of Islamic history through geography, dynasties, scholars, cities and historical events, brings history and geography together on the interactive platform islamicatlas.org.
Covering the Islamic world from 632 to 1924, the atlas compiles data from various sources on a single map.
Through a timeline and multiple layers, users can examine dynasties established in the Islamic world, their rulers, scholars and historical centers according to their periods and geographical locations.
The current version of the atlas includes comprehensive datasets covering 186 Islamic dynasties and 830 rulers, as well as 13,940 biographical records from Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli’s “Al-A'lam,” 8,528 scholar biographies from the Turkish Religious Foundation (TDV) Encyclopedia of Islam and 12,954 geographical records from Yaqut al-Hamawi’s “Mu'jam al-Buldan.”
The atlas also contains records of 3,458 mints, 2,049 settlements identified by Al-Maqdisi, 317 stops by Ibn Battuta, 5,444 stops by Evliya Celebi and 801 architectural structures.
Preparation process
Speaking to Anadolu, Huseyin Gokalp, a faculty member in the Department of Islamic History at Selcuk University’s Faculty of Theology and creator of the platform, said they established the TIMAV Digital Humanities Center, called T-CORPUS, under the Turkish Imam Hatip Foundation (TIMAV), with the Islam History Atlas as its first project.
Gokalp said the atlas was prepared by a large team.
“Following the Islam History Atlas, the Atlas of Islamic Historiography is coming. It is a major project that we will announce very soon,” he said.
“In addition, we have prepared two EU projects and two TUBITAK 1001 projects,” he said, adding: “By incorporating our TIMAV Digital Humanities Center into the methodology of our field, we are striving to increase both the number and quality of the work we can produce.”
“In this sense, the Islam History Atlas became our first experience,” he said.
Gokalp noted that the project was initially based on British historian Clifford Edmund Bosworth’s book “The New Islamic Dynasties,” which chronologically examines 186 dynasties that ruled the Islamic world together with their genealogies.
“We transferred this book into a digital environment in order to display the dynasties between 632 and 1924 comprehensively on a map,” he said.
Gokalp added: “The project includes 186 Islamic dynasties and 830 rulers who governed within those dynasties.”
“Initially designed as an Atlas of Muslim Dynasties, the platform gradually expanded to include different datasets such as travel accounts, cities and battles,” he stated, mentioning: “By comparing how these sources overlap and differ, we revealed the connections between them.”
“Thus, the atlas evolved from being merely a map into a digital humanities project that makes networks of relationships visible,” he said.
Gokalp also highlighted the atlas’s network of relationships.
“For example, when we talk about a scholar, ruler or commander, it is extremely valuable to be able to see at once with whom they formed networks, whom they encountered, and teacher-student, predecessor-successor or family relationships”, he said.
He stated: “This is particularly valuable for those interested in history and the humanities,” adding: “We have built a model of an atlas that establishes multilayered networks that remain in constant interaction and processes data very easily.”
He added that the platform includes a feedback section for users and is continuously updated based on suggestions from researchers and academics.
The team also aims to develop the platform into a mobile application.
Gokalp said their work is not limited to mapping existing historical data but also seeks to examine alternative historical processes through digital humanities methods.
Within this scope, he said they are working on an international project called “Frontiers,” which examines movement and administrative structures in frontier regions between Islamic territories and the early Byzantine borders, involving a broad team from Germany, the US, the UK and Türkiye.
He also said they are conducting studies on how historical events might have unfolded under different conditions, comparing the process to testing different versions in engineering.
As part of this work, they are examining how the outcome of a battle might have changed if it had occurred in a different geographical location or under different seasonal conditions.
Gokalp added that some of these projects have been submitted to TUBITAK and that another area they are studying is the history of Islamic thought.
They aim to reveal, through digital methods, the relationships between the methods of reasoning employed by Islamic thinkers and their intellectual connections with scholars from different periods.
Open-source project
Ali Cetinkaya, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Selcuk University’s Faculty of Technology, said the atlas had attracted far greater interest than expected.
“If we consider this work version one, we want to present the second version in a much broader form,” he said, adding: “Testing and data studies for that version are continuing, and we hope to launch it as soon as possible.”
Cetinkaya said the international OpenITI project is one of the atlas’s key components, explaining that they transform plain text from books into structured data that can be used across different programming languages and platforms.
He said the second version focuses on accurately matching names and locations.
“For example, whether the name 'Abu Bakr' in a book refers to Abu Bakr himself, or which present-day location corresponds to a historical place name, are critical issues,” he stated. “We are striving to provide more refined, accurate and comprehensive data.
Cetinkaya said the atlas is developed entirely as an open-source project.
“If researchers want to use our data, they can download and use it,” he said, adding: “There are already processed and interconnected datasets.”
“Researchers can reach different findings through these datasets, opening the way for new academic studies,” he said.
“At the same time, the atlas can be used as educational material in schools, high schools and universities, especially in history education,” he noted, stressing: “The website may seem a little complicated at first, but after spending some time with it, it becomes a very enjoyable platform that can open different perspectives for people.”
Cetinkaya added that the platform is available in Turkish, Arabic and English, noting that it has also attracted significant interest from users in different countries.
AA
