Spain, Barbary, and probably by the extremest coasts of the Mediterranean, by the common appellation of Majúsi. Is this an. allusion borrowed from the name given to the priests of the Persian fire-worship, and pointing at a supposed general resemblance. between the two races in the one fact of their being idolaters, or is it from the word Majouj, which, in conjunction with Hajouj, is used in eastern geography to denote a race in the extreme north of Asia and perhaps also of Europe-a sort of half men, half demons-the people of Gog and Magog in short, of the Hebrew prophets? The knowledge of Edrisi on the subject of these northern countries is more extended than that of his fellow writers, as might naturally be expected from his position at the court of a Christian prince, and within reach of such geographical information as Europe afforded during the middle ages. Turning southward from Spain and France, we find Italy and Greece, as well, as the countries immediately north of the latter, well known to the writers of the best ages of Arabic learning-well known, that is, comparatively, and always making due allowance for the very singular misconceptions in which the most, learned of the Arabs have indulged. Russia and Poland, before the rise of the Turkish empire, were but little known in the east, and we might extend the remark to the west also. The relations of Persia, and the Mabommedan empire with the Tatars, gave a certain knowledge of their country to the Arab writers, diminishing in accuracy and distinctness with every degree of north latitude, though the conquests of Timour had early made known to the south of Asia the existence of a country where the sun was for many months beneath and as many above the horizon at one time; and where therefore (an important corollary for Moslem soldiers) it was necessary, materially to modify the laws regulating daily prayers and other observances depending upon the revolution of the sun. eastward may be considered as the extreme limit of accurate geographical knowledge in that direction, and the adjective is used with some laxity when thus applied, but much information had been collected by Mahommedan travellers, some of them enjoying peculiar advantages, who had penetrated into that country. China was known as a country of porcelain and perfumes, and desperate Kafirs, though the eastern romances (for we are come now to the point where fact and fiction more than meet) represent the inbabitants of the celestial empire as polished, wealthy, and ingenious.* The sea east of India is the great repository of islands full of marvels (the Arabic romancers are fond of islands, and India China, or Sin, is the scene of one half of the eastern romances, a princess of that country being the frequent object of the errant pursuit of a Mahommedan lover. by choice make them the scene of their stories)-marine monsters, enormous birds, and tremendous serpents. We hardly know whether an Arab topographer would class with real or fictitious existences the mountain of Kaf, the chosen abode of the Anka, Simorg, Phoenix or Griffin-that " secular bird," which in eastern as well as western fable lives a life of many ages, aloof from all other creatures, dies on a pile of its own collecting, and leaves to a single successor its solitary and mournful grandeur. The mountain of Kaf is said to encompass the world, and in some stories a series of seven concentric Kafs is mentioned, each circle the abode of a race of Ginns, or tolerated spirits, something less dangerous than the actual demons-the Deeves or Afrits. Lest however we should be lost in regions" a hundred years beyond the earth," as has happened to the heroes of some of the stories we have been alluding to, we return to our more immediate subject, the earth as described by Edrisi, an Arabic writer of the twelfth century. Such of our readers as are disposed to compare Edrisi with El Bekri may consult the excellent manuscript of the latter in the British Museum, No. 9577, and Mr. Cooley's recently published work on the Negroland of the Arabs. Edrisi's accuracy in many statements is more than disputable when compared with El Bekri. His distances of places are rectified by a comparison with El Bekri. Edrisi certainly copied from El Bekri, with some variations of his own, which are rarely accurate; and it would have been far better for his reputation to have adhered more closely to the source from whence he derived reputation. The circumstances under which this description was composed are sufficiently pointed out in the original preface, which for the information it affords, as well as for the sample it contains of our author's style, we think will be found interesting enough to justify our quotation of the whole. "Thanks be given to God, the existence essentially great and powerful, incorporeal, endued with goodness, beneficence and long suffering, the sovereign judge who has all power, who is clement and merciful, who possesseth infinite knowledge, who hath given perfect forms to all that he hath created, the knowledge of whom is graven in all hearts and reposes in all minds upon visible and incontestable proofs. "His strength and his power are certain and evident indices of his glory. All tongues publish his goodness, which the true faith confirms. The perfect conformation of beings, emanating from his divine will, constrains us to recognize his existence and his eternity. Amongst the master-pieces of this will, the heavens and the earth are signs of high instruction for him whose mind is just and his perceptions right; first he admires the heaven, its immense elevation, the beauty of the stars and the regularity of their courses-amongst them the sun and the moon shining in the firmanent-the sun the focus of light which produces the day, the moon the torch which dissipates the darkness of the night. These miraculous signs tell him of the march of seasons and the revolutions of ages. Then he remarks the earth of which this same will fixed the first site and determined the extent-from whose entrails it caused the waters to spring, the vital principles of vegetation, and the necessary food for the fruitfulness of the fields and the fertility of the meadows; the earth which it left for the delight and the dwellingplace of man, the object of preference in all the movements impressed on the celestial bodies. -Man whom this same divine will inspired with the instinct necessary to distinguish good from evil and useful from dangerous, and granted to him the facility of transporting himself whither he pleased, by sea or by land, across the immensity of space. -All proves the existence of the Creator! "Amongst the number of the beings formed by this divine will, the eye cannot note nor the mind imagine one more accomplished than the illustrious Roger King of Sicily, of Italy, of Lombardy and of Calabria, the Roman prince. This great king, whom heaven has crowned with glory and power, the protector of the religion of Christ, is the most celebrated and the best among all monarchs. His absolute will is the moving principle of his conduct in all affairs. He binds and unbinds according to his pleasure, he governs and judges his people with equity and impartiality, and hears their complaints with patience and attention. He has established in the administration of his estates the most admirable order and the elements of the most perfect happiness; he has carried his victorious arms from the rising of the sun to its setting-witness the countries near or distant which he has brought into obedience to him, witness the sovereigns of the same religion as himself whose pride be has humbled. He owes this astonishing success to the valour of his armies well provided with all things-to the power of his fleets, whose operations heaven protects. His glory shines in the eyes of all men, his name fills the world, is in all mouths, sounds in all ears. What desire does he form which is not followed by the promptest accomplishment? What project, difficult as it may appear, does he not succeed in executing? "Honours and dignities are the portion of his partisans and his friends, ruin and humiliation of bis antagonists and his adversaries. Of how much greatness has he not laid the foundation? The lustre with which he surrounds these dignities shines in the world with the brilliancy of the flowers in a parterre, and is beautiful as the verdure of the shrubs which ornament the groves. "This great monarch joins the good qualities of the heart to nobility of birth, purity of manners to beauty of actions, courage to elevation of sentiments, profundity of judgment to mildness of character, acuteness of mind to an admirable perception of affairs, and a penetrating glance, which, like a rapid arrow, goes straight to the mark and enables him to judge of every thing without error. The gates of future events, closed to others, are open to him. All the art of government has fixed itself in his person; even the dreams of his sleep are benefits for the future, justice and impartiality are the bases of his administration; his liberalities, resembling the waves of the ocean, are as beneficent as the rains which fertilize the earth. His acquirements in mathematics and in literature are immense; the deep study which he has made of the sciences has conducted him to the most extraordinary discoveries, in short the reputation which this great prince enjoys is so superior to that of other sovereigns, that it is useless to seek to prove such a truth by examples, the chief cities of the earth are filled with his name. If I had to enumerate the wonders which he had produced, my lungs would be fatigued, and my breath would not suffice. Who is there, who, wishing to count the pebbles of the universe, could succeed in ascertaining accurately the number of them? "When the extent of his possessions had increased, the respect which his subjects bore him was every where come to its height, and he had subjected to his power dominions conquered from the Christian princes, this monarch, as a consequence of the interest which he took in noble and curious studies, occupied himself with the statistics of his vast states. He wished positively to know not only the limits in which they were circumscribed, the routes by land and sea which traversed them, the climates in which they were situated, the seas which bathed their shores, the canals and the rivers which watered them, but also to add to this knowledge that of other countries than those which depended on his authority in the whole space which it has been agreed to divide into seven climates, resting on the authority of the writers who had treated of geography and had sought to determine the extent, the subdivisions, and the dependencies of each climate. For this end he bade consult the following works: "The book of marvels, of Mas'oudi. "The book of Abu Nasser Said-el-Jibáni. "The book of Abulcassem Adballah ben Khordadbeh. "The book of Ahmed ben al A'dri. "The book of Abulcassem Mohammed el Hankali el Baghdadi. "The book of Janakh ben Khacan-el-Kimaki. "The book of Mousa ben Casem-el-Cardi. "The book of Ahmed ben Yacoub, known under the name of Yacfouli. "The book of Is'hak ben al Hasan, the astronomer. "The book of Kedamah el Bassri. "The book of Ptolemy of Claudias. "The book of Eresios of Antioch. "Instead of finding in these works, clear, precise and detailed accounts, having met only with obscurities and motives for doubt, he sent for persons specially skilled in these matters, and proposed to them questions which he discussed with them, but neither thus did he obtain more light. Seeing that things stood thus, he took the determination of ordering that in all his states they should seek for well informed travellers; he had them called into his presence, and questioned them by means of interpreters, together or separately. Every time that they agreed and their account was unanimous upon a point, this point was admitted and considered as certain. When it was otherwise, their information was rejected and put aside. "He occupied himself with this labour for more than fifteen years, without relaxation, ceasing not to examine by himself all geographical questions, to seek the solution of them, and to verify the exactness of the facts, in order to obtain completely the knowledge which he desired. "After this he wished to know positively the longitudes and latitudes of the places and the respective distances of the points upon which the testimony of the above mentioned travellers was unanimous. For this end he had a table prepared for drawing; he had traced there one by one, by means of the iron compass, the points marked out in the works consulted, and those which had been fixed upon according to the different assertions of their authors, and of which the general confronting bad proved the perfect exactness. Then he ordered that they should found in silver, pure and without alloy, a planisphere of an enormous size, and of the weight of four hundred and fifty Roman pounds, each pound weighing one hundred and twelve drachms. He had graven there by expert artists the configuration of the seven climates, with that of the regions, the countries, the shores near to or distant from the sea, the arms of the sea, the seas and the water courses; the indication of desert and cultivated countries, of their respective distances by frequented routes, either in determined miles or in (other) known measures, and the designation of the ports, prescribing to these workmen to conform themselves scrupulously to the model traced upon the drawing table, without in any manner deviating from the configurations therein indicated. "He caused to be composed, for the understanding of this planisphere, a book containing the complete description of the cities and territories, of the nature of the cultures and habitations, of the extent of the seas, the mountains, the rivers, the plains and the marshes. This book was to treat besides of the species of grain, of fruits, and of plants which each country produces, of the properties of these plants, of the arts and trades in which the inhabitants excel, of their export and import commerce, of the curious objects which are remarked or are celebrated in the seven climates, of the state of the populations, their external form, their customs, religions, dress, and idioms. "I have given to this work the title of 'Recreations of the Man desirous of perfectly knowing the Different Countries of the World.' "This work was terminated in the last days of the month of Shewál, in the year 548 of the Hijra (answering to the middle of January of the year of Christ 1154.)" After this introduction (à propos of which we must remark however that if King Roger's planisphere is faithfully represented in his panegyrist's maps, its accuracy is somewhat overstated)after this introduction our author gives a general notion of the figure of the globe, and of the division of its circumference into 360 degrees, each degree containing 25 fursungs (the parasang of the Persians according to the Greek spelling), each fursung twelve thousand cubits, every cubit 24 fingers (breadths), and every finger six grains of barley, not laid end to end as in our ancient popular scale, but side by side. He states that no lands are habitable VOL. XXVII. NO. LIV. T |