Cosmas Indicopleustes

6th-century Greek traveller and merchant

OverviewAI-generated

Cosmas Indicopleustes was a male explorer, astronomer, writer, and geographer from the Byzantine Empire. He was born and died in Alexandria. His native name was Κοσμᾶς Ἰνδικοπλεύστης. He wrote in Ancient Greek and followed the Nestorian worldview. He was a student of Aba I.

His notable work is the Christian Topography. Other works include Kniga glagolemai͡a Kozmy Indikoplova and various volumes of Topographie chrétienne. He flourished around the year 600, though some sources list his date of death as 550 and his birth in the 6th century. He is described in sources such as the Nordisk familjebok, The Nuttall Encyclopædia, and the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition.

Synthesized by Vinony from 20 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Open Library. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, Cosmas Indicopleustes is referenced by 162 other articles, and connects out to Kingdom of Aksum, India and Egypt.

It is catalogued under topics including 6th-century Byzantine monks, 6th-century Byzantine scientists and 6th-century Byzantine writers.

Its subject is documented across 35 Wikipedia language editions.

Person · Open Library

Born: 6th cent.
Works: 22

Top works

Kniga glagolemai͡a Kozmy Indikoplova
Topografia cristiana
Topographie chrétienne, tome 3
Topographie chrétienne, tome 2
Topographie chrétienne

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: male
Citizenship: Byzantine Empire
Place of birth: Alexandria
Place of death: Alexandria
Occupation: geographer
Languages spoken: Ancient Greek
Religion: Nestorianism
Notable work: Christian Topography
Student of: Aba I

Show 7 more facts

Commons category: Cosmas Indicopleustes
floruit: 0600-00-00
date of death: 0550-00-00
date of birth: 0600-00-00
writing language: Ancient Greek
name in native language: Κοσμᾶς Ἰνδικοπλεύστης
Commons Creator page: Cosmas Indicopleustes

Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

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Encyclopedic overview

World map, by Cosmas Indicopleustes. The map is oriented with north to the top. Cosmas Indicopleustes (Koine Greek: Κοσμᾶς Ἰνδικοπλεύστης, lit. 'Cosmas who sailed to India'; also known as Cosmas the Monk) was a merchant and later hermit from Alexandria in Egypt. However, despite his moniker, "Cosmas the Monk", Cosmas himself says nothing that would indicate his involvement with monastic life. He was a 6th-century traveller who made several voyages to the Kingdom of Aksum, and India during the reign of emperor Justinian. His work Christian Topography contained some of the earliest and most famous world maps. Cosmas was a pupil of the East Syriac Patriarch Aba I and was himself a follower of the Church of the East. In fact, Cosmas is the one who provided the earliest most definitive evidence that the Nestorians were in India in the mid sixth century. At this time, Cosmas became a student of the future East Syrian patriarch. Cosmas's careful account regarding the spread of the Nestorian churches shows important information, specifically regarding the Church of the East's southern branch. He shows that Syriac and Persian were coequal in regards to the language of Christian introduction and commerce.

Indicopleustes

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cosmas Indicopleustes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.