Karen Pinto’s book, “Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration,” was published by the University of Chicago Press. The book brings together the first in-depth exploration of medieval Islamic cartography from the mid-tenth to the nineteenth century.
In exploring the visual record of Islamic history, Pinto focuses on the distinct tradition of maps known collectively as the Book of Roads and Kingdoms, traces their inception and evolution and analyzes them to reveal the identities of their creators, painters and patrons, as well as the vivid realities of the social and physical world they depicted. In doing so, she helps reveal how medieval Muslims perceived themselves and their world.