As they could not recast Aristotle in philosophy, so they could not with
all their new knowledge of the Further East recast the geography of
Ptolemy and Strabo.
A few great ages, the age for instance of Almamoun in Bagdad (A.D. 830),
of Mahmoud in Ghazneh (A.D. 1000), of Abderrahman III. in Cordova (A.D.
950), give us the history of Arabic geography.
Beginning in the latter years of the eighth century, Moslem science was
reformed and organised, in the New Empire, by the patronage of the
Caliphs of the ninth. Itineraries of victorious generals, plans and
tables prepared by governors of provinces, and a freshly acquired
knowledge of Greek and Indian and Persian thought, made up the
subject-matter of study. The barbarism of the first believers was
passing away, and Mohammed's words were recalled: "Seek knowledge, even
in China." By the end of the eighth century Ptolemy's Geography and the
now lost work of Marinus of Tyre had already been translated. Almamoun
drew to his Court all the chief "mathematicians" or philosophers of
Islam, such as Mohammed Al-Kharizmy, Alfergany, and Solyman the
merchant. Further he built two observatories, one at Bagdad, one at
Damascus, and procured a chart fixing the latitude and longitude of
every place known to him or his savants.
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