12 illustration(s) from this book
For ourselves, however, it is necessary that we retain in our minds the
opinions first stated, with regard to the form and dimensions of our
earth; agreeing with those Muslims who allow not philosophy to trench
upon revelation or sacred traditions. It is written, say they, that God
hath "spread out the earth,"[18] "as a bed,"[19] and "as a carpet;"[20]
and what is round or globular cannot be said to be spread out, nor
compared to a bed, or a carpet. It is therefore decided to be an almost
plane expanse. The continents and islands of the earth are believed by
the Arabs (as they were by the Greeks in the age of Homer and Hesiod) to
be surrounded by "the Circumambient Ocean," "el-Baḥr el-Moḥeeṭ;" and
this ocean is described as bounded by a chain of mountains called Káf,
which encircle the whole as a ring, and confine and strengthen the
entire fabric. With respect to the extent of the earth, our faith must
at least admit the assertion of the Prophet, that its width (as well as
its depth or thickness) is equal to five hundred years' journey:
allotting the space of two hundred to the sea, two hundred to
uninhabited desert, eighty to the country of Yájooj and Májooj (or Gog
and Magog), and the rest to the remaining creatures:[21] nay, vast as
these limits are, we must rather extend than contract them, unless we
suppose some of the heroes of this work to travel by circuitous routes.
Another tradition will suit us better, wherein it is said, that the
inhabited portion of the earth is, with respect to the rest, as a tent
in the midst of a desert.[22] But even according to the former
assertion, it will be remarked, that the countries now commonly known to
the Arabs (from the western extremity of Africa to the eastern limits of