THE ARABS AND THE COMPASS. 107 



If, therefore, the eastern Arabs neither invented the 

 mariner's compass themselves nor derived it from the 

 Chinese, the many claims based upon its supposed origin 

 among them must be laid aside. Indeed, it is seldom 

 that recent writers attempt to establish directly the first 

 appearance of the instrument among these people, the 

 usual contention being that the knowledge of it came with 

 the Saracen armies which conquered Egypt, the north 

 African coast, and finally Spain ; and that it was during 

 the period of advanced civilization which that country 

 reached during the Arab-Moor domination that the com- 

 pass found its way into general use on the Arab fleets in 

 the Mediterranean. 



It is certainly not an unreasonable supposition that the 

 people whose attainments and culture shine out with the 

 highest lustre against the black background of the dense 

 and all-pervading ignorance prevailing throughout Europe 

 during the dark ages, and to whom the rejuvenation of 

 physical science was chiefly due, should have been, of all 

 others, the one to bring forth an invention of such trans- 

 cendent importance ; but even the strongest advocates of 

 the Spanish Saracens do not pretend that the compass was 

 discovered on Spanish soil, but allege only in a general 

 way that " the Arabians, finding it in their eastern con- 

 quests among the treasures of natural magic, brought it 

 into Spain certainly as early as the eleventh century, and 

 used it very generally there in the twelfth." 



But if the Arabs of the East, as we have seen, did 

 not have the instrument, it is hardly necessary to remark 

 that the Arabs of the West could not have obtained it 

 from them ; and, therefore, the problem is not to be 

 solved by such an hypothesis. Certain eminent Italian 

 historians (patriotically unwilling to relinquish the credit 

 accorded to Italy for many years during which the claims 

 of Flavio de Gioja of Amalfi were favorably regarded), 

 while conceding the invention to the Saracens, deny it 

 to the Saracens of Spain and ascribe it to the Saracens 



