ARAB GEOGRAPHERS 



ambassador, al-Gazal, to the latter's country. Ibn Dihya says 

 that he took the account from an author named Tammam 

 Ibn'Alqama (ob. 896), who again isi 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 Magus 

 had first sent an ambassador to *Abd ar-Rahman to sue for 

 peace ( ?) ; and al-Gazal accompanied him home again, in a 

 well-appointed ship of his own, to bring the answer and a 

 , present. They arrived first at an island on the borders of the 

 land of the Magus people.^ 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 multitude of the Magus, and in the vicinity 

 were many other islands, great and small, all inhabited by Magus, 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 [Magus] ; now they 

 are Christians, for they have abandoned their old religion of fire-worship, 2 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 is- 

 lands, 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 ambassador paid court in prose and verse to 



1 This island may have been Noirmoutier, in the country of the Normans of 

 the Loire (according to A. Bugge). 



2 It is the name " Magus," from the Greek Mdyo'z (Magian, fire-worshiper 

 cf. p. 55), that led the author into this error. Magus was used collectively of 

 heathens in general, but especially of the Norse Vikings [cf. Dozy, 1881, ii. 

 p. 271]. 



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