Qazwînî, thirteenth century
Zakarîyâ Ibn Muḥammad al-Qazwînî (ob. 1283) has in his cosmography[197] several statements about the North, some of which have already been referred to (vol. i. pp. 187, 284; vol. ii. [p. 144]). Of the northern winter he has very exaggerated ideas. Even of the land of “Rûm” [the Roman, especially the Eastern Roman Empire; in a wider sense the countries of Central Europe] he says that winter there has become a proverb, so that a poet says of it:
“Winter in Rûm is an affliction, a punishment and a plague; during it the air becomes condensed and the ground petrified; it makes faces to fade, eyes to weep, noses to run and change colour; it causes the skin to crack and kills many beasts. Its earth is like flashing bottles, its air like stinging wasps; its night rids the dog of his whimpering, the lion of his roar, the birds of their twittering and the water of its murmur, and the biting cold makes people long for the fires of Hell.”
He says of the people of Rûm [i.e., the Germanic peoples of Central Europe] that “their complexion is for the most part fair on account of the cold and the northern situation, and their hair red; they have hardy bodies, and for the most part are given to cheerfulness and jocularity, wherefore the astronomers place them under the influence of the planet Venus.”
Of the cold in “Ifranǵa” [the land of the Franks, Western Europe] he says that it
“is quite terrible, and the air there is thick on account of the excessive cold.”[198]
“‘Burǵân’ [or ‘Bergân,’ as the first vowel is doubtful] is a land which lies far in the north. The day there becomes as short as four hours and the night as long as twenty hours, and vice versa [cf. Ptolemy on Thule, vol. i. p. 117]. The inhabitants are heathens [‘Maǵûs’] and worshippers of idols. They make war on the Slavs. They resemble in most things the Franks [West Europeans]. They have a good understanding of all kinds of handicraft and ships.”
Professor Seippel considers it not impossible that there may here be a corruption of the Arabic Nurmân [== Normans] to Burǵân, and to a layman this looks probable. In any case Burǵân cannot here, as elsewhere in Arab authors, be Bulgar [the Bulgarians]; on the other hand it might be the Norwegian town of Bergen. In any case the description seems to suit the Norwegians best, and the mention of Ptolemy’s latitude for Thule (the longest night of twenty hours) also points to this. That they are said to be heathens is due again to the name “Maǵûs” (cf. pp. [201], [209]).
Qazwînî also[199] tells us that
“Warank is a district on the border of the northern sea. For from the ocean in the north a bay goes in a southerly direction, and the district which lies on the shore of this bay, and from which the bay has its name, is called Warank. It is the uttermost region on the north. The cold there is excessive, the air thick, and the snow continuous. [This region] is not suited either for plants or animals. Seldom does any one come there, because of the cold and darkness and snow. But Allâh knows best [what is the truth of the matter].”