6 G.G. Hubbard—Geographic Progress of Civilization. 
the earliest times, and the bedouin, the inhabitants of the larger 
portion of its territory, have never passed beyond the nomad 
state. The bedouin have always cherished the poet and have 
a rich literature of poetry and romance, and in every tent of 
Arabia may be heard the recital of the stories of the “Arabian 
Nights.” The Arab sheik with his tribe roams from place to 
place seeking pasture for his horses and herds. Thus, without 
contact of man with man, without schools or education, progress 
in trade or commerce is impossible. 
The Arabs as Mohammedans ruled the whole territory from 
Caspian sea to the Indian ocean, and from the western border 
of India through northern Africa to the Atlantic; they crossed 
the straits of Gibralter and, as Moors, conquered the greater 
part of Spain and southern Gaul, where their further progress 
was stopped by Charles Martel at Tours in the year 752. Wher- 
ever they came in contact with other races they accomplished 
much in science, especially in astronomy, but little in art, 
Even now, through their religion and institutions, they give the 
law to one-eighth part of the human race, while their language 
is one of the most extensively spoken in the world. To the 
Arabs we owe probably our first knowledge of astronomy and 
the Arabic numerals, brought to us from India through Arabia. 
Egypt. 
China may have been inhabited before Egypt, but it is the 
latter country that has influenced the civilization of the world. 
As Egypt has neither game nor fruits for food, nor broad plains 
for cattle to roam, it could not have been inhabited at an early 
period nor by a nomadic race. Its inhabitants must have come 
from the east and not from the south, from Asia and not from 
Nubia, for they are of the Asiatic and not the Negro type. 
The climate is warm but not enervating; the soil, though rich, » 
produces no large trees—indeed the willow seems to have been 
the only tree that grew spontaneously on the river banks,— 
while the indigenous plants were unsuitable for food. It is in- 
closed by deserts on the east and west, and beyond the valley 
by two low mountain ranges called by Arabian writers “The 
Wings of the Nile,” on the south by the mountains of Nubia, 
on the north by a broad band of marsh land and shallow lakes 
extending along the coast that held the people back from the 
