Geography, Astronomy Cert i Ibn Battutah's 14th century masterpieces provide a detailed view of the geography of the ancient world, The Muslim geographers of the 10th through 15th centuries far exceeded the output by Europeans regarding the geography of these regions well into the 18th century. on geology, hundreds of years before Da Vinci was born. Ibn Sina noted this as well (see pages 100-101). it is probable that Da Vinci first learned of this concept from ALldrisi is best known in the West as a geographer, who made a globe or sphere of silver weighing 400 kilograms for the Chris- tian King Roger II of Sicily. Some scholars regard him as the greatest geographer and cartographer (mapmaker) of the Middle Ages. He put together a geographical encyclopedia with many maps.transiations of Islamic books. He added nothing original to their findings jade original and important contributions to science. He discovered seven different ways of finding the direction of the north and south, and discovered mathematical techniques to determine exactly the beginnings of the season. He also wrote about the sun and its movements and the eclipse. In addi- tion, he invented a few astronomical instruments, Many centuries before the rest of the world, Al-Biruni discussed that the earth rotated on its axis and made accurate calculations of latitude and longitude. Abul Hasan is distinguished as the inventor of the Telescope, which he described to be a "Tube, to the extremities of which were attached diopters" according to Cambridge University. Pere Astronomy Muslims developed the first astrolabe, a great astronomical tool. It was used to determine one's latitude (or place on the earth) by looking at the position of the stars and sun. It was especially im- portant to travelers.