OF THE UNIVERSE, THE ARABIANS. 217 



tended under the Caliphate of the Ommaiades by the end of 

 the seventh century ( 331 ) to Kashgar, Caubul, and the 

 Punjab), important portions of Asiatic knowledge reached 

 Europe. The acute researches of Heinaud have shewn how 

 much may be derived from Arabic sources, for the knowledge 

 of India. Although the invasion of China by the Moguls for 

 a time disturbed the communications across the Oxus, ( 332 ) 

 the Moguls themselves soon became a uniting link to the 

 Arabs, who, by their own observations, and by laborious 

 researches, have illustrated the knowledge of the earth's sur- 

 face from the coasts of the Pacific to those of Western Africa, 

 and from the Pyrenees to Edrisi's marsh-land of Wangara 

 in the interior of Africa. The geography of Ptolemy was 

 translated into Arabic, according to Erahn, by the command 

 of the Caliph Mamun between 813 and 833 ; and it is even 

 not improbable that some fragments of Marinus of Tyre 

 which have not come down to us may have been used in the 

 translation. ( 333 ) 



Of the long series of distinguished geographers which 

 Arabic literature affords, it is sufficient to name the earliest 

 and the latest : El-Istachri, ( 334 ) and Alhassan (Johannes 

 Leo Africanus). At no period before the discoveries of the 

 Portuguese and Spaniards, did the knowledge of the earth's 

 surface receive a larger accession. Only fifty years after 

 the death of Mahomet the Arabs had reached the extreme 

 western coast of Africa at the harbour of Asfi. Whether, 

 subsequently, when the adventurers known under the name 

 of Almagrurin navigated the " mare 'tenebrosum," the 

 islands of the Guanches were visited by Arab ships, as I long 

 thought probable, has recently been rendered again doubtful. 

 ( 33S ) The quantity of Arabic coins found buried in the 



