"Sous le gouvernement de Mohammed, le roi de l'ile du Rubis (Djezyret-Alyacout) offrit à Hadjadj des femmes musulmanes qui avaient reçu le jour dans ses états, et dont les pères, livrés à la profession du commerce, étaient morts. Le prince esperuit par là gagner l'amitié de Hadjadj; mais le navire où l'on avait embarqué ces femmes fut attaqué par une peuplade de race Meyd, des environs de Daybal, qui était montóe sur des burques. Les Meyds enlevèrent le navire avec ce qu'il renfermait. Dans cette extrémité, une de ces femmes de la tribu de Yarboua, s'écria: 'Que n'es-tu la, oh Hadjadj!' Cette nouvelle étant parvenue à Hadjadj, il répondit: 'Me voilà.' Aussitót il envoya un députe à Dâher pour l'inviter à faire mettre ces femmes en liberté. Mais Dâher répondit: 'Ce sont des pirates qui ont enlevé ces femmes, et je n'ai aucune autorité sur les ravisseurs.' Alors Hadjadj engagea Obeyd Allah, fils de Nabhan, à faire une expédition contre Daybal."—P. 190.
The "Island of Rubies" was the Persian name for Ceylon, and in this particular instance FERISHTA confirms the identical application of these two names, vol. ii. p. 402. See Journal Asiat. vol. xlvi. p. 131, 163; REINAUD, Mém. sur l'Inde, p. 180; Relation des Voyages, Disc. p. xli ABOULFEDA, Introd. vol. i. p. ccclxxxv.; ELPHINSTONE'S India, b. v. ch. i, p. 260.
From the eighth till the eleventh century the Persians and Arabs continued to exercise the same influence over the opulent commerce of Ceylon which was afterwards enjoyed by the Portuguese and Dutch in succession between A.D. 1505, and the expulsion of the latter by the British in A.D. 1796. During this early period, therefore, we must look for the continuation of accounts regarding Ceylon to the literature of the Arabs and the Persians, and more especially to the former, by whom geography was first cultivated as a science in the eighth and ninth centuries under the auspices of the Khalifs Almansour and Almamoun. On turning to the Arabian treatises on geography, it will be found that the Mahometan writers on these subjects were for the most part grave and earnest men who, though liable equally with the imaginative Greeks to be imposed on by their informants, exercised somewhat more caution, and were more disposed to confine their writings to statements of facts derived from safe authorities, or to matters which they had themselves seen.
In their hands scientific geography combined theoretic precision, which had been introduced by their predecessors, with the extended observation incident to the victories and enlarged dominion of the Khalifs. Accurate knowledge was essential for the civil government of their conquests[1]; and the pilgrimage to Mekka, indispensable once at least in the life of every Mahometan[2], rendered the followers of the new faith acquainted with many countries in addition to their own.[3]
1: "La science géographique, comme les autres sciences en général, notammement l'astronomie, commença à se former chez les Arabes, dans la dernière moitié du viii^{e} siècle, et se fixa dans la première moitié du ix^{e}. On fit usage des itinéraires tracés par les chefs des armées conquérantes et des tableaux dressés par les gouveneurs de provinces; en même temps on mit à la contribution les méthodes propagées par les Indians, les Persans, et surtout les Grees; qui avaient apporté le plus de précision dans leurs opérations."—REINAUD, Introd. Aboulfeda, &c., p. xl.
2: REINAUD, Introd. Aboulfeda, p. cxxii.
3: Ibid., vol. i. p. xl.
Hence the records of their voyages, though presenting numerous exaggerations and assertions altogether incredible, exhibit a superiority over the productions of the Greeks and Romans. To avoid the fault of dulness, both the latter were accustomed to enliven their topographical itineraries, not so much by "moving accidents," and "hair-breadth 'scapes," as by mingling fanciful descriptions of monsters and natural phenomena, with romantic accounts of the gems and splendours of the East. Hence from CTESIAS to Sir JOHN MANDEVILLE, every early traveller in India had his "hint to speak," and each strove to embellish his story by incorporating with the facts he had witnessed, improbable reports collected from the representations of others. Such were their excesses in this direction, that the Greeks formed a class of "paradoxical" literature, by collecting into separate volumes the marvels and wonders gravely related by their voyagers and historians.[1]
1: Such are the Mirabiles Auscultationes of ARISTOTLE, the Incredibilia of PALEPHATES, the Historiarum Mirabilium Collectio of ANTIGONUS CARYSTIUS, the Historiæ Mirabiles of APOLLONIUS THE MEAGRE, and the Collections of PHILEGON of Tralles, MICHAEL BELLUS, and many other Greeks of the Lower Empire. For a succinct account of these compilers, see WESTERMAN'S Hapre [Greek: doxographoi], Scriptores Rerum Mirabilium Græci Brunswick, 1830.
The Arabs, on the contrary, with sounder discretion, generally kept their "travellers' histories" distinct from their sober narratives, and whilst the marvellous incidents related by adventurous seamen were received as materials for the story-tellers and romancers, the staple of their geographical works consisted of truthful descriptions of the countries visited, their forms of government, their institutions, their productions, and their trade.