HEVIEWS— SCANDINAVIAN ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORY. 51 



Annaler for NordisJc Oldkyndighed og Historic. Copenhagen, 1858. 



We have received the following notice of a new volume of the 

 Scandinavian Annals of Northern Archaeology and History, from a 

 Danish correspondent, and insert it in the form transmitted to us. 

 It furnishes glimpses of a new source of Hght relative to the Ante- 

 Columbian discovery of America, by the Northmen, from an ex- 

 ceedingly interesting and independent source ; and will thus consti- 

 tute an important supplement to the Antiquitates Americance, pub- 

 lished by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, at Copenhagen, 

 in 1837.. 



The new volume, now issued after an interval of twenty years, 

 opens with a voluminous and instructive historical and geographical 

 inquiry, by A. F. Mehren, " On the general Geographical Knowledge 

 possessed by the Islamitic Peoples, particularly with respect to the 

 Southern and Northern Coasts of the Hemisphere known to them." 



At a time when that flame of science, which had shone so brightly 

 over Greece and Rome, was gradually sinking and expiring, its last 

 rays were preserved in the beginning of the middle ages by a nation 

 hitherto overlooked — the Arabs. This race, after having received 

 from the creative genius of Mohammed a zealous faith and an ordered 

 civil polity, for many centuries occupied the first place among the 

 nations, both for deeds of arms and for careful and high-minded de- 

 votion to study ; and for a time were at the head of that Europe 

 which was sinking into barbarism. By translations from the Greek, 

 their knowledge nearly reached a classical height, and by their own 

 independent inquiries they acquired well-grounded claims to be reck- 

 oned among those nations which have most actively labored in the 

 field of scientific development. 



The distinguished French Professor, Reinaud, and the illustrious 

 geographers, Malte-Brun and Lebwel, have particularly directed our 

 attention to the merits of the Arabs in geographical study. The 

 present treatise is a continuation of the labors of those and other 

 scholars. 



"We have first a classical sketch of the most important Moham- 

 medan geographers, from the eighth to the sixteenth century, accord- 

 ing to our era. We have next, separate chapters on the oldest mi- 



