The lands west of the River Jordan, being the location of Jerusalem and the setting of the stories of the New Testament, have historically received much attention from western explorers, geographers and map-makers. Indeed, Jerusalem and the Holy Land were anciently regarded in the Christian mindset as not just the spiritual but also geographical centre of the world, as many medieval world maps bear witness. By contrast, the lands on the east of the River Jordan garnered relatively little attention. Aside from being eclipsed in terms of sheer glamour by the lands to the west, they were less well-documented by early geographers, in general they fell somewhat outside the sphere of the crusaders and were difficult for Europeans travelling through the Ottoman Empire to access. It was only in the course of the nineteenth century that anything in the way of a proper understanding of the geography of the area was developed once maps could be compiled on a scientific basis.

Bartlett's work concentrates on the area east of the Jordan and the Wadi Arabah, and from Damascus in the north to the Gulf of ‘Aqabah in the south. It is a pioneering attempt to compile from a wide variety of sources what was known in the western world about these territories, how the western understanding and conception of them changed throughout time, which sources were used for map-making, and even what bearing contemporary European politics had on the portrayal of these territories in western maps.

Bartlett gives an impressive and complete view of the available sources. He begins in the first two chapters with the classical and medieval sources, such as the Notitia Dignitatum and the Tabula Peutingeriana – itineraries and administrative documents from the late imperial Roman period – and also patristic sources, in particular Eusebius’ work on biblical geography, the Onomasticon. The accounts and itineraries of western pilgrims and travellers from the late classical to the period of the crusades are also considered. Of great use to scholars is his painstaking work in tabulating and comparing the mention of places and the use of place-names between these various sources. Particularly with the medieval and early renaissance geographers, it allows us to discern clearly not only the extent of practical knowledge about the territories, but also to consider in depth the concerns of the geographers, and the sources to which they referred. We are able to consider trends, such as the increasing integration of classical sources with biblical authority in the early Renaissance by scholars such as Jacob Ziegler, or else the strong preference, particularly in the case of scholars strongly influenced by the ideals of the Reformation, of biblical testimony to the classical sources or the witness of travellers.

In later chapters, Bartlett goes on to look at the appearance of the first printed maps, for example Lucas Brandis of Lubeck, or more famously Lucas Cranach the Elder, before the explosion of cartographical representations of the Holy Land on the continent in the sixteenth century. He charts the development, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of a movement away from an emphasis on seeing the region purely in biblical terms, and the evolution of an interest in the area purely for its own sake. Wealthier Europeans find themselves able to travel to the area for the first time after the fashion of the grand tour, and cultivate an interest – unknown to the earlier geographers whose interest in the area was a function of their interest in Holy Scripture – in the appearance of villages, flora and fauna. Their practical testimony feeds back into the creation of maps, increasingly prepared after a more rigorous fashion with careful attempts to refine the co-ordinates of settlements, and increasingly bereft of earlier biblical features, such as the conjectured route taken by the Israelites out of the Egyptian captivity.

The later chapters are concerned with the work of the more scientific explorers of the nineteenth century such as Seetzen and Burckhardt, the trigonometric surveys of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and finally contemporary attempts to use modern data to pinpoint the locations of biblical sites – a mission that would be dear to the hearts of the earlier Renaissance scholars. Bartlett includes summary biographical information on the various travellers and the means whereby the range of surveys were brought about, to specific details about the technicalities of the survey – for example the compilation of Arabic place names or the reckoning of distances calculated by the average speed of the camel.

Bartlett's work is both comprehensive and painstaking, introducing us to the full breadth of possible sources as well as analysing them in great depth. It is also fully and beautifully illustrated, with a great number of colour and black and white plates of the various maps described. These are a great aid to clarifying the somewhat, though necessarily, dense prose. It is a valuable and indeed path-breaking addition to the understanding of this area of geography and history.