His work has appeared under various titles. The first and fullest seems to have been, The going out of a Curious Man to explore the Regions of the Globe, its Provinces, Islands, Cities, and their Dinιensions and Situation. This is sometimes abbreviated. Sionita published it under the name of Relaxation of the Curious Mind; but the alternative title of Nubian Geography, which he and his companion imposed, is altogether arbitrary. It contains a full description of the whole world, as far as it was known to the author, who is said to have received reportsfrom a number of learned explorers despatched expressly to collect information for his use. The world is divided i nto seven climates, commencing at the equinoctial line, and extending northwards to the limit at which the earth was supposed to be rendered uninhabitable by cold. Each climate is then divided by perpendicular lines into eleven equal parts, beginning with the western coast of Africa and ending with the eastern coast of Asia. The whole world is thus formed into 77 equal square compartments. The geographer begins with the first part of the first climate, including the western part of Central Africa, and proceeds eastward through the different divisions of this climate till he finds its termination in the Sea of China. He then returns to the first part of the second climate, and so proceeds till he ‰eache3 the eleventh part of the seventh climate, which terminates in the north-eastern extremity of Asia. The inconveniences of the arrangement are obvious; but the author appears to have been writing an illustrative treatise to accompany an actual representation of the world which he had engraved on a silver disk or possibly a silver globe.

Two valuable manuscripts of Edrisi exist in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, and other two in the Bodleian Library. The first of the Engli h MSS., which was brought over from Egypt by Greaves, is written in the Arabic character peculiar to Northern Africa. It is illustrated by a map of the known world, and by 33 other maps, containing each part of a climate, so that there are maps only for the first three climates. The second manuscript, brought by Pococke from Syria, is written in the Arabic character used in that country, and bears the date of 906 A.π., or 1500 A.n. It consists of 320 leaves, and is illustrated by one general and 77 particular maps, the latter consequently including all the parts of every climate. The general map was published by Dr Vincent in his Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. A copy of Edrisi’s work in the Escorial was destroyed by the great fire of 1671.

The geography of Edrisi, in the original Arabic, was printed at Pome in 1592, at the Mediceau press, from a manuscript preserved in the grand-ducal library at Florence. Both the paper and printing are exceedingly neat, but the volume swarms with typographical errors and forms only a clumsy epitome of the original work. The description of Mecca, which is unaccountably omitted, has been supplied by Pococke from his manuscript. In most bibliographical works this impression has been characterized as one of the rarest of books; but Adler, in a visit to Florence, found in the palace there 1129 copies, which were exposed to sale at a moderate rate. In 1619, two Oriental scholars, Gabriel Sionita and Joannes Hezronita, published at Paris a Latin translation of Edrisi’s work, bearing the title of Geographia Nubiensis; but it is far from accurate, particularly in the proper names. George Hieronymus Velschius, a German scholar, had prepared a copy of the Arabic original, with a Latin translation, which he purposed to have illustrated with notes; but death prevented the execution of his design, and his manuscript remains deposited in the university library of Jena. Casiri (Bib. Ar. Ηisp., ii. 13) mentions that he had determined to re-edit this work, but he appears never to have executed his intention. The part relating to Africa, pre-eminent certainly in point of importance, was very ably edited in 1796 by Hartmann, who collected together all the notices relating to each particular countιy, and annexed the statements of the countrymen and contemporaries of Edrisi, so that his work forms nearly a complete body of Arabian geography, as far as relates to Africa. He afterwards published Hispania, 3 vols., Marburg, 1801-1818.

A translation into French of the entire work, based on one of the MSS. of the Bibliothèque Nationale, was published by Μ. Jaubertin 1840, and forms volumes v. and vi. of the Recueil de Voyages issued by the Société de Géographie; but a good edition or the original text is still a desideratum. A number of Oriental scholars at Leyden determined in 1861 to undertake the task: Spain and Western Europe were assigned to Professor Dozy; Eastern Europe aud Western Asia to Doctor Engelmann; Central and Eastern Asia to Defrémery; and Africa to Professor Goeje. The first portion of the work appeared in 1866, under the title or Description de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne par Edrisi, texte arabe publié par R. Dozy et Μ. J. de Goeje; but the other collaborators have hitherto found it impossible to furnish their quota.