448 



SCIENCES AXD SOCIAL ARTS. 



[PART IV. 



to Troyer, took part in the trade between Ceylon and the 

 West. 1 



Of the trade between Ceylon and Kashmir and its 

 progress, the account given by EDRISI, the most re- 

 nowned of the writers on eastern geography, who wrote 

 in the twelfth century 2 , is interesting, inasmuch as it 

 may be regarded as a picture of this remarkable 

 commerce, after it had attained its highest develop- 

 ment. 



EDRISI did not write from personal knowledge, as he 

 had never visited either Ceylon or India ; but compiling 

 as he did, by command of Eoger II., of Sicily, a compen- 

 dium of geographical knowledge as it existed in his time, 

 the information which he has systematised may be re- 

 garded as a condensation of such facts as the eastern sea- 

 men engaged in the Indian trade had brought back with 

 them from Ceylon. 



" In the mountains around Adam's Peak," says EDRISI, 

 " they collect precious stones of every description, and in 

 the valleys they find those diamonds by means of which 

 they engrave the setting of stones on rings. The same 

 mountains produce aromatic drugs perfumes, and aloes- 



1 " La communication entre Kach- 

 mir et Ceylan n'a pas eu lieu seule- 

 ment par les entreprises guerrieres 

 que je viens de rappeler, mais aussi 

 par un commerce paisible ; c'est de 

 cette ile que venaient des artistes 

 qu'on appelait Rakchasas a cause du 

 merveilleux de leur art; et qui 

 exe"cutaient des ouvrages pour 1 u- 

 tilite et pour I'ornement d un pays 

 montagneux etsujetaux inondations. 

 Ceci confirme ce que nous appren- 

 nent les geographes grecs, que Cey- 

 lan, avant et apres le commencement 

 de notre ere, etait un grand point de 

 reunion pour le commerce de 1'Orient 

 et de i'Occident." Rajatarangini, 

 vol. ii. p. 434. 



a Abou-abd-allali Mahommed was 

 a Moor of the family who reigned over 

 Malaga after the fall of the Kalifat 



of Cordova, in the early part of the 

 llth century, and his patronymic of 

 Edrisi or Al Edrissy implies that he 

 was descended from the princes of 

 that race who had previously held 

 supreme power in what is at the pre- 

 sent day the Empire of Morocco. He 

 took up his residence in Sicily under 

 the patronage of the Norman king, 

 Roger II., A.D. 1154, and the work 

 on geography which he there com- 

 posed was not only based on the pre- 

 vious labours of Massoudi, Ibn 

 Haukul, Albyrouni, and others, but 

 it embodied the reports of persons 

 commissioned specially by the king 

 to undertake voyages for the purpose 

 of bringing back correct accounts of 

 foreign countries. See REINATID'S 

 Introduction to the Geography of 

 Abulfeda, p. cxiii. 



