Just one hundred leagues west of the Azores
the earth rises at the Equator and the temperature grows keener. The
summit is over against the mouth of the Orinoco."]
To return to the Arabs: We have seen how they not merely followed Greek
theories, which their own experience as conquerors in the Further East
went to discredit, but, in the great outlines of geography, added to
earlier errors, put prejudice in the place of knowledge, and handed on
to Christendom a half-fanciful map of the world. It only remains for us
to illustrate their leading fault, of a too vivid fancy, with a few
details on minor points.
(1.) Ptolemy's "Habitable Quarter" of the world, amounting to just half
the longitude of the globe, was literally accepted by the Moslem world,
as it accepted the Pentateuch from the moment when it began its study of
science at the Court of Almamoun (813-833). But, as the conquests of the
Caliphs disclosed districts in the east far beyond Ptolemy's limits, it
was necessary, in case of keeping his data for the whole, to compress
the part which alone was to be found fully described in his chart: "On
the west, unhappily, there were no countries newly discovered to
compensate for this abridgment.
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