Before Egypt Was Conquered By The Arabians,
Writings Of Importance In Europe Were Executed On The Egyptian Papyrus; But
After That Period, At Least Till The Beginning Of The Ninth Century, They
Are Upon Parchment.
- This, as Macpherson observes, amounts almost to a
proof, that the trade with Egypt, the only country producing papyrus, was
interrupted.
In consequence of the supply of silks, spices, and other oriental luxuries
which Constantinople derived from the fair at Jerusalem, (still allowed by
the Arabians to be annually held,) not being sufficient for the demand of
that dissipated capital, and their price in consequence having very much
increased, some merchants were tempted to travel across Asia, beyond the
northern boundary of the Arabian power, and to import, by means of
caravans, the goods of China and India.
Towards the beginning of the ninth century, as we have already remarked,
the commercial relations of the Arabians and the Christians of Europe
commenced, and Alexandria was no longer closed to the latter. The merchants
of Lyons, Marseilles, and other maritime towns in the south of France, in
consequence of the friendship and treaties subsisting between Charlemagne
and the Caliph Haroun Al Rasched, traded with their ships twice a year to
Alexandria; from this city they brought the produce of Arabia and India to
the Rhone, and by means of it, and a land carriage to the Moselle and the
Rhine, France and Germany were supplied with the luxuries of the east. The
friendship between the emperor and the caliph seems in other cases to have
been employed by the former to the advancement of the commercial
intercourse between Asia and Europe; for we are expressly informed, that a
Jewish merchant, a favourite of Charlemagne, made frequent voyages to
Palestine, and returned with pictures, - merchandize before unknown in the
west.
Hitherto we have viewed the Arabians chiefly as fostering and encouraging
commerce; but they also deserve our notice, for their attention to
geographical science and discoveries. From the period of their first
conquests, the caliphs had given orders to their generals to draw up
geographical descriptions of the countries conquered; and we have already
noticed some of these descriptions. In 833, A.D., the Caliph Almamon
employed three brothers of the name of Ben Schaker, to measure a degree of
latitude, first in the desert of Sangdaar, betweeen Racca and Palmyra, and
afterwards near Cufa, for the purpose of ascertaining the circumference of
the globe.
We now arrive at the era of a most important document, illustrative of the
commerce of the eastern parts of India and of China, with which we are
furnished by the Arabians: we allude to the "ancient Accounts of India and
China, by two Mahomedan travellers, who went to those parts in the ninth
century, translated from the Arabic by Renaudot." The genuineness and
authenticity of these accounts were for a long time doubted; but De
Guignes, from the Chinese annals, has completely removed all doubt on the
subject.
The most remarkable circumstance connected with this journey is, that in
the ninth century the Mahomedans should have been able to reach China; but
our surprise on this point will cease, when we consider the extent of the
Mahomedan dominions towards the east of Asia, the utmost limits of which,
in this direction, approached very nearly the frontiers of China.
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