In Northern Mists Volume Ii Part 14

Al-Biruni also has a very primitive map of the world as a round disc in the ocean, indented by five bays, of which the Varangians' Sea is one [cf.

Seippel, 1896, Pl. I]. The peoples who are beyond the seventh climate, that is, in the northernmost regions, are few, says he, "such as the isu [i.e., Wisu], and the Warank, and the Yura [Yugrians] and the like."

[Sidenote: Al-Gazal's voyage to the Ma?us]

The Arabs of the West came in contact with the North through the Norman Vikings, whom they called Ma?us (cf. p. 55), and who in the ninth century and later made several predatory expeditions to the Spanish Peninsula.

Their first attack on the Moorish kingdom in Spain seems to have taken place in 844, when, amongst other things, they took and sacked Seville.

After that expedition, an Arab writer tells us, friendly relations were established between the sultan of Spain, 'Abd ar-Ra?man II., and "the king of the Ma?us," and, according to an account in Abu'l-Kha??ab 'Omar Ibn Di?ya[183] (ob. circa 1235), the former is even said to have sent an amba.s.sador, al-Gazal, to the latter's country. Ibn Di?ya says that he took the account from an author named Tammam Ibn 'Alqama (ob. 896), who again is said to have had it from al-Gazal's own mouth. It is obviously untrustworthy, but may possibly have a historical kernel. The king of the Ma?us had first sent an amba.s.sador to 'Abd ar-Ra?man to sue for peace (?); and al-Gazal accompanied him home again, in a well-appointed s.h.i.+p of his own, to bring the answer and a present. They arrived first at an island on the borders of the land of the Ma?us people.[184] From thence they went to the king, who lived on a great island in the ocean, where there were streams of water and gardens. It was three days' journey or 300 [Arab]

miles from the continent.

"There was an innumerable mult.i.tude of the Ma?us, and in the vicinity were many other islands, great and small, all inhabited by Ma?us, and the part of the continent that lies near them also belongs to them, for a distance of many days' journey. They were then heathens (Ma?us); now they are Christians, for they have abandoned their old religion of fire-wors.h.i.+p,[185] only the inhabitants of certain islands have retained it. There the people still marry their mothers or sisters, and other abominations are also committed there [cf. Strabo on the Irish, vol. i. p. 81]. With these the others are in a state of war, and they carry them away into slavery."

This mention of many islands with the same people as those established on the continent may suit the island kingdom of Denmark; but Ireland, with the Isle of Man, the Scottish islands, etc., lies nearer, and moreover agrees better with the 300 miles from the continent.

We are next told of their reception at the court of the king and of their stay there, and especially how the handsome and wily Moorish amba.s.sador paid court in prose and verse to the queen,[186] who was very compliant.

When Ibn 'Alqama asked al-Gazal whether she was really so beautiful as he had given her to understand, that prudent diplomatist answered: "Certainly, she was not so bad; but to tell the truth, I had use for her...." When he was afraid his daily visits might attract attention, she laughed and said:

"Jealousy is not among our customs. With us the women do not stay with their husbands longer than they like; and when their consorts cease to please them, they leave them." With this may be compared the statement for which Qazwini gives a?-?artus.h.i.+ (tenth century) as authority, that in Sleswick the women separate from their husbands when they please [cf. G. Jacob, 1876, p. 34].

After an absence of twenty months, al-Gazal returned to the capital of the sultan 'Abd ar-Ra?man. In the excellence of its realistic description and the introduction of direct speeches this tale bears a remarkable resemblance to the peculiar method of narration of the Icelandic sagas.

[Sidenote: Al-Idrisi, 1154 A.D.]

The best known of the western Arab geographers is Abu 'Abdallah Mu?ammad al-Idrisi (commonly called Edrisi), who gives beyond comparison the most information about the North. He is said to have been born in Sebta (Ceuta) about 1099 A.D., to have studied in Cordova, and to have made extensive voyages in Spain, to the sh.o.r.es of France, and even of England, to Morocco and Asia Minor. It is certain that in the latter part of his life he resided for a considerable time at the court of the Norman king of Sicily, Roger II., which during the Crusades was a meeting-place of Normans, Greeks and Franks. According to Edrisi's account, Roger collected through interpreters geographical information from all travellers, caused a map to be drawn on which every place was marked, and had a silver planisphere made, weighing 450 Roman pounds, upon which were engraved the seven climates of the earth, with their countries, rivers, bays, etc.[187]

Edrisi wrote for him his description of the earth in Arabic, which was completed in 1154, and was accompanied by seventy maps and a map of the world. Following the Greek model, the inhabited world, which was situated in the northern hemisphere, was divided into seven climates, extending to 64 N. lat.; farther north all was uninhabited on account of the cold and snow. Edrisi describes in his great work the countries of the earth in these climates, which again are divided each into ten sections, so that the book contains in all seventy sections.[188]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Edrisi's representation of Northern Europe, put together, and much reduced, from eight of his maps. (Chiefly after Seippel's reproduction [1896] and after Lelewel [1851].) Some of the Arabic names are numbered on the map and given below according to Seippel's reading

(1) "Khalia" (empty); (2) the first part of the 7th climate; (3) "?azirat Birlanda" (the island of Birlanda, by a common error for Ireland); (4) "kharab" (desert); (5) the island of "Dans" or "Vans" (Seippel reads Wales); (6) "?azirat Angiltara" (the island of England); (7) "?azirat Sqosia" (the island, or peninsula, of Scotland); (8) "al-ba?r al-muslim ash-shamali" (the dark northern ocean); (9) "?azirat Islanda" (the island of Iceland); (10) "?azirat Danamarkha" (the island, or peninsula, of Denmark); (11) "Hrsns" (Horsens); (12) "Alsia" (Als ?); (13) "Sliaswiq"; (14) "Lundunia" (Lund); (15) "sa?il ar? Polonia" (the coast of Poland); (16) "Derlanem" (Bornholm ?); (17) "Landsu(d)den" (in Finland); (18) "Zwada" (Sweden); (19) "nahr Qutalw" (the Gota river); (20) "?azirat Norwaga" (the island of Norway); (21) may be read "Trona" (Trondheim); (22) "'Oslo" (Oslo); (23) "Siqtun"; (24) "bilad Finmark" (the district of Finmark); (25) "Qalmar"; (26) "Abuda" (bo ?); (27) "mabda' nahr D(a)n(a)st" (the beginning of the river Dniestr ?); (28) "ar? Tabast" (the land of Tavast); (29) "Dagwada" (Dago ?); (30) "?azirat Amaza.n.u.s er-ri?al al-ma?us" (the island of the male heathen Amazons); (31) "?azirat Amaza.n.u.s an-nisa" (the island of the female Amazons)]

On the outside of all is the Dark Sea [i.e., Ocea.n.u.s, the uttermost encircling ocean], which thus forms the limit of the world, and no one knows what is beyond it. After describing Angiltara [England] with its towns, Edrisi continues:

"Between the end of Sqosia [Scotland], a desert island [i.e., peninsula],[189] and the end of the island of Irlanda is reckoned two days' sail to the west. Ireland is a very large island. Between its upper [i.e., southern, as the maps of the Arabs had the south at the top] end and Brittany is reckoned three and a half days' sail. From the end of England to the island of Wales (?)[190] one day. From the end of Sqosia to the island of Islanda two-thirds of a day's sail in a northern direction. From the end of Islanda to the great island of Irlanda one day. From the end of Islanda eastward to the island of Norwaga [Norway] twelve miles (?).[191] Iceland extends 400 miles in length and 150 in breadth."

Danamarkha is described as an island, round in shape and with a sandy soil; on the map it is connected with the continent by a narrow isthmus.

There are "four chief towns, many inhabitants, villages, well protected and well populated ports surrounded by walls." The following towns are named: "Alsia" [Als ?], "Tordira" or "Tondira" [Tonder], "Haun"

[Copenhagen], "Horsnes" [Horsens], "Lunduna" [Lund], "Slisbuli" [Sliaswiq ?]. From "Wendilskada," written "Wadi Lesqada" [Vendelskagen], it is a half-day's sail to the island of "Norwaga" [Norway]. An island to the east of Denmark and near Lund is called on the map "Derlanem" [Bornholm ?].

On the continent to the south of Denmark is the coast of "Polonia"

[Poland], and to the east of it, also on the continent, is "Zwada"

[Sweden], and a town "Guta" [Gotaland], also "Landsu(d)den" [in Finland].

We have further the river "Qutelw" [the Gota river], on which is the town of "Siqtun." There is also "Qimia" [Kemi ?]. Farther east is "bilad Finmark" [the district of Finmark],[192] where we still find the river Qutelw with the town of "Abuda" [bo ?] inland, and "Qalmar" on the coast near another outlet of the Gota river. These two towns are

"large but ill populated, and their inhabitants are sunk in poverty; they scarcely find the necessary means of living. It rains there almost continually.... The King of Finmark has possessions in the island of Norwaga."

Next on the east comes the land of "Tabast" [Tavast] with "'Dagwada' [Dago ?], a large and populous town on the sea." In the land of Tabast

"are many castles and villages, but few towns. The cold is more severe than in Finmark, and frost and rain scarcely leave them for a moment."

Farther east Esthonia and the land of the heathen are also mentioned.

"As regards the great island of Norwaga [Norway], it is for the most part desert. It is a large country which has two promontories, of which the left-hand one approaches the island of Danamarkha, and lies opposite to the harbour that is called Wendilskada, and between them the pa.s.sage is short, about half a day's sail; the other approaches the great coast of Finmark. On this island [Norwaga] are three inhabited towns,[193] of which two are in the part that turns towards Finmark, the third in the part that approaches Danamarkha. These towns have all the same appearance, those who visit them are few, and provisions are scarce on account of the frequent rain and continual wet. They sow [corn] but reap it green, whereupon they dry it in houses that are warmed, because the sun so seldom s.h.i.+nes with them. On this island there are trees so great of girth as are not often found in other parts. It is said that there are some wild people living in the desert regions, who have their heads set immediately upon their shoulders and no neck at all. They resort to trees, and make their houses in their interiors and dwell in them. They support themselves on acorns and chestnuts. Finally there is found there a large number of the animal called beaver; but it is smaller than the beaver [that comes] from the mouth of Russia" [i.e., no doubt, from the mouths of the Russian rivers].

"In the Dark Sea [i.e., the outer encircling ocean] there are a number of desert islands. There are, however, two which bear the name of the Islands of the Heathen Amazons. The western one is inhabited solely by men; there is no woman on it. The other is inhabited solely by women, and there is no man among them. Every year at the coming of spring the men travel in boats to the other isle, live with the women, pa.s.s a month or thereabouts there, and then return to their own island, where they remain until the next year, when each one goes to find his woman again, and thus it is every year. This custom is well known and established. The nearest point opposite to these islands is the town of Anho (?). One can also go thither from Qalmar and from Dagwada [Dago ?], but the approach is difficult, and it is seldom that any one arrives there, on account of the frequency of fog and the deep darkness that prevails on this sea."

Edrisi says that there are many inhabited and uninhabited islands in the Dark Sea to the west of Africa and Europe; indeed, according to Ptolemy "this ocean contained 27,000 islands." He mentions some of them. There is an island called "Sara," near the Dark Sea.

"It is related that ?u'l-Qarnain (Alexander the Great ?) landed there before the deep darkness had covered the surface of the sea, and spent a night there, and that the inhabitants of the island attacked him and his companions with stones and wounded many of them [cf. the Skraelings' attack in Eric the Red's Saga, and the island of smiths in the Navigatio Brandani, vol. i. p. 328; vol. ii. p. 9]. Another island in the same sea is called the Isle of Female Devils ('?azirat as-sa'ali'), whose inhabitants resemble women more than men; their eyeteeth protrude, their eyes flash like lightning, their cheeks are like burnt wood; they speak an incomprehensible language and wage war with the monsters of the ocean...."

He also mentions the Isle of Illusion ("?azirat khusran" == "Villuland,"

cf. vol. i. p. 377), of great extent, inhabited by men of brown colour, small stature, and with long beards reaching to their knees; they have a large (broad)[194] face and long ears [cf. the ideas of the Pygmies, dwarfs, underground people and brownies], they live on plants that the earth produces of itself. There was a further large island "al-Gaur," with abundance of gra.s.s and plants of all kinds, where wild a.s.ses and oxen with unusually long horns lived in the thickets. There was the Isle of Lamentation ("?azirat al-mustashkin"), which was inhabited, and had mountains, rivers, many trees, fruits and tilled fields; but where there was a terrible dragon, of which Alexander freed the inhabitants. On the island of "Kalhan" in the same sea the inhabitants have the form of men but animal heads; another island was called the Isle of the Two Heathen Brothers, who practised piracy and were changed into two rocks. He also names the Island of Sheep and "Raka," which is the Island of Birds (cf.

pp. 51, 55).

"To the islands in this sea belongs also the island of 'Shasland'

[presumably Shetland, perhaps confused with Iceland], the length of which is fifteen days' journey, and the breadth ten. It had three towns, large and populous; s.h.i.+ps put in and stayed there to buy ambra (amber ?) and stones of various colours; but the majority of the inhabitants perished in dissensions and civil war which took place in the country. Many of them removed to the coast of the European continent, where large numbers of this people still live...."

What is here said about this island is approximately the same as Edrisi elsewhere states about the island of Scotland, following the "Book of Wonders," which is attributed to Mas'udi.

It will be seen that he has a very heterogeneous mixture of islands in this western ocean. Some of them, like the Island of Sheep and that of Birds, as already suggested (p. 55), probably came from Ireland, and this whole archipelago is evidently related to the numerous islands of Irish legend, and points to an ancient connection, which may have consisted in reciprocal influence; while many of these conceptions travelled from the east through the Arabs to western Europe and Ireland, the Arabs again may have received ideas from the Irish and from western Europe and carried them to the east. Thus Edrisi relates that, according to the author [Mas'udi] of the "Book of Wonders," the king of France sent a s.h.i.+p (which never returned) to find the island of Raka; we may therefore conclude that the Arabs had this myth from Europe. That many of these islands are inhabited by demons and little people, who resemble the northern brownies and the Skraelings, is interesting, and shows that whether the myths came from the Irish to the Arabs or vice versa, there were in this mythical world various similar peoples who may have helped to form the epic conceptions of the Skraelings of Wineland (cf. pp. 12, 75).

Edrisi's map of the world is to a great extent an imitation of Ptolemy's, but shows much deviation, which may resemble the conceptions of Mela, for instance. It might seem possible that Edrisi was acquainted with some Roman map or other. In his representation of the west and north coast of Europe, for instance, there are also remarkable resemblances to the so-called Anglo-Saxon map of the world (cf. vol. i. p. 183; vol. ii. p.

192); this may point to both being derived from some older source, perhaps a Roman map (?).[195]

[Sidenote: Ibn Sa'id, thirteenth century]

Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Sa'id (1214 or 1218-1274 or 1286) says (in his book: "The extent of the earth in its length and breadth")[196] of Denmark (the name of which he corrupts to "?armusa") that from thence are obtained true falcons (for hunting):

"Around it are small islands where the falcons are found. To the west lies the island of white falcons, its length from west to east is about seven days and its breadth about four days, and from it and from the small northern islands are obtained the white falcons, which are brought from here to the Sultan of Egypt, who pays from his treasury 1000 dinars for them, and if the falcon arrives dead the reward is 500 dinars. And in their country is the white bear, which goes out into the sea and swims and catches fish, and these falcons seize what is left over by it, or what it has let alone. And on this they live, since there are no [other] flying creatures there on account of the severity of the frost. The skin of these bears is soft, and it is brought to the Egyptian lands as a gift."

He speaks of the women's island and the men's island which are separated by a strait ten miles across, over which the men row once a year and stay each with his woman for one month. If the child is a boy, she brings it up until it reaches maturity, and then sends it to the men's island; the girls stay on the women's island.

"To the east of these two islands is the great Saqlab island [i.e. the Slavs' island, which is Edrisi's Norwaga], behind which there is nothing inhabited in the ocean either on the east or north, and its length is about 700 miles, and its width in the middle about 330 miles." Then he says a good deal about the inhabitants, amongst other things that they are still heathens and wors.h.i.+p fire, and on account of the severity of the cold do not regard anything as of greater utility than it. This is evidently the same error as in Ibn Di?ya, due to the designation of "Ma?us" (== Magian) for heathen (cf. p. 201).

[Sidenote: Qazwini, thirteenth century]

Zakariya Ibn Mu?ammad al-Qazwini (ob. 1283) has in his cosmography[197]

several statements about the North, some of which have already been referred to (vol. i. pp. 187, 284; vol. ii. p. 144). Of the northern winter he has very exaggerated ideas. Even of the land of "Rum" [the Roman, especially the Eastern Roman Empire; in a wider sense the countries of Central Europe] he says that winter there has become a proverb, so that a poet says of it:

"Winter in Rum is an affliction, a punishment and a plague; during it the air becomes condensed and the ground petrified; it makes faces to fade, eyes to weep, noses to run and change colour; it causes the skin to crack and kills many beasts. Its earth is like flas.h.i.+ng bottles, its air like stinging wasps; its night rids the dog of his whimpering, the lion of his roar, the birds of their twittering and the water of its murmur, and the biting cold makes people long for the fires of h.e.l.l."

He says of the people of Rum [i.e., the Germanic peoples of Central Europe] that "their complexion is for the most part fair on account of the cold and the northern situation, and their hair red; they have hardy bodies, and for the most part are given to cheerfulness and jocularity, wherefore the astronomers place them under the influence of the planet Venus."

Of the cold in "Ifran?a" [the land of the Franks, Western Europe] he says that it

"is quite terrible, and the air there is thick on account of the excessive cold."[198]

"'Bur?an' [or 'Bergan,' as the first vowel is doubtful] is a land which lies far in the north. The day there becomes as short as four hours and the night as long as twenty hours, and vice versa [cf.

Ptolemy on Thule, vol. i. p. 117]. The inhabitants are heathens ['Ma?us'] and wors.h.i.+ppers of idols. They make war on the Slavs. They resemble in most things the Franks [West Europeans]. They have a good understanding of all kinds of handicraft and s.h.i.+ps."