He also mentions the Isle of Illusion (“ǵazîrat khusrân” == “Villuland,” cf. vol. i. p. 377), of great extent, inhabited by men of brown colour, small stature, and with long beards reaching to their knees; they have a large (broad)[194] face and long ears [cf. the ideas of the Pygmies, dwarfs, underground people and brownies], they live on plants that the earth produces of itself. There was a further large island “al-Ġaur,” with abundance of grass and plants of all kinds, where wild asses and oxen with unusually long horns lived in the thickets. There was the Isle of Lamentation (“ǵazîrat al-mustashkîn”), which was inhabited, and had mountains, rivers, many trees, fruits and tilled fields; but where there was a terrible dragon, of which Alexander freed the inhabitants. On the island of “Kalhân” in the same sea the inhabitants have the form of men but animal heads; another island was called the Isle of the Two Heathen Brothers, who practised piracy and were changed into two rocks. He also names the Island of Sheep and “Râka,” which is the Island of Birds (cf. pp. [51], [55]).
“To the islands in this sea belongs also the island of ‘Shâsland’ [presumably Shetland, perhaps confused with Iceland], the length of which is fifteen days’ journey, and the breadth ten. It had three towns, large and populous; ships put in and stayed there to buy ambra (amber ?) and stones of various colours; but the majority of the inhabitants perished in dissensions and civil war which took place in the country. Many of them removed to the coast of the European continent, where large numbers of this people still live....”
What is here said about this island is approximately the same as Edrisi elsewhere states about the island of Scotland, following the “Book of Wonders,” which is attributed to Mas’ûdî.
It will be seen that he has a very heterogeneous mixture of islands in this western ocean. Some of them, like the Island of Sheep and that of Birds, as already suggested ([p. 55]), probably came from Ireland, and this whole archipelago is evidently related to the numerous islands of Irish legend, and points to an ancient connection, which may have consisted in reciprocal influence; while many of these conceptions travelled from the east through the Arabs to western Europe and Ireland, the Arabs again may have received ideas from the Irish and from western Europe and carried them to the east. Thus Edrisi relates that, according to the author [Mas’ûdî] of the “Book of Wonders,” the king of France sent a ship (which never returned) to find the island of Râkâ; we may therefore conclude that the Arabs had this myth from Europe. That many of these islands are inhabited by demons and little people, who resemble the northern brownies and the Skrælings, is interesting, and shows that whether the myths came from the Irish to the Arabs or vice versa, there were in this mythical world various similar peoples who may have helped to form the epic conceptions of the Skrælings of Wineland (cf. pp. [12], [75]).
Edrisi’s map of the world is to a great extent an imitation of Ptolemy’s, but shows much deviation, which may resemble the conceptions of Mela, for instance. It might seem possible that Edrisi was acquainted with some Roman map or other. In his representation of the west and north coast of Europe, for instance, there are also remarkable resemblances to the so-called Anglo-Saxon map of the world (cf. vol. i. p. 183; vol. ii. [p. 192]); this may point to both being derived from some older source, perhaps a Roman map (?).[195]
Ibn Sa’îd, thirteenth century
Abu’l-Hasan ‘Alî Ibn Sa‘îd (1214 or 1218-1274 or 1286) says (in his book: “The extent of the earth in its length and breadth”)[196] of Denmark (the name of which he corrupts to “Ḥarmûsa”) that from thence are obtained true falcons (for hunting):
“Around it are small islands where the falcons are found. To the west lies the island of white falcons, its length from west to east is about seven days and its breadth about four days, and from it and from the small northern islands are obtained the white falcons, which are brought from here to the Sultan of Egypt, who pays from his treasury 1000 dinars for them, and if the falcon arrives dead the reward is 500 dinars. And in their country is the white bear, which goes out into the sea and swims and catches fish, and these falcons seize what is left over by it, or what it has let alone. And on this they live, since there are no [other] flying creatures there on account of the severity of the frost. The skin of these bears is soft, and it is brought to the Egyptian lands as a gift.”
He speaks of the women’s island and the men’s island which are separated by a strait ten miles across, over which the men row once a year and stay each with his woman for one month. If the child is a boy, she brings it up until it reaches maturity, and then sends it to the men’s island; the girls stay on the women’s island.
“To the east of these two islands is the great Saqlab island [i.e. the Slavs’ island, which is Edrisi’s Norwâġa], behind which there is nothing inhabited in the ocean either on the east or north, and its length is about 700 miles, and its width in the middle about 330 miles.” Then he says a good deal about the inhabitants, amongst other things that they are still heathens and worship fire, and on account of the severity of the cold do not regard anything as of greater utility than it. This is evidently the same error as in Ibn Diḥya, due to the designation of “Maǵûs” (== Magian) for heathen (cf. [p. 201]).