370
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
kind must make way to correct geographical notions, and must very soon disappear altogether; the only way of rescuing them from total oblivion is to insert them in some journal. The owner of it was a Muhammadan from Junner in the Bombay pre sidency, but could give no clue as to who drew the map and when. Maps of this kind remind us of our own ancient European geographical delineations which were as crude as the present one, and contained analogous superstitious descriptions of unknown and remote countries.
It may be presumed that the draftsman was an Indian Musalman, because he has inserted in no other country so many names of towns and rivers as in India, but he has strangely enough omitted Calcutta and Madras; neither is any European country mentioned by name except Portugal. Farang and Rūs are only general denominations; the former designating all European, and the latter all the Slavonic nations; and it is only within the last few decades since the Russian conquests in Asia that the name has been applied to them specially. Rûm formerly designated the Byzan times who are called by this name in all the Arabic books treating on the conquest of Syria, A. H. 12: now however it means Turkey. In this map the climates were intended to be equal according to Qazviny's scheme, but the execution is not very accurate; especially in the 4th climate, which is so convergent and narrowing towards the West as to catch the eye. Qazviny takes 25 Farsakhs to a degree and makes each climate 235 Farsakhs, i.e., 9.4 degrees broad, or according to another reading 285, i.e., 11 4°. The climates of this map begin at the equator, in which case according to the first reading it would extend to 65.8° N. Lat. -
and according to the 2d to 79-80.
The representation of Africa—for that is evidently meant by Habsh or Abyssinia—is rather small, and its termination does not fall even as far south as the
[Dec. 6, 1872.
added, that it is built of Qaqah stone, and that everyone who looks at it dies laughing, laughing. This addition induces me to
conclude
that the
spelling Qaqah is a blunder, and that the prºjector of the map wrote Qahqahah which, though occur ring in dictionaries, must be considered to be only an onomatopoeia or imitation of a natural sound, like cachinnation : hence the tower was built of the Ha-ha-ha stone.
The word Qalmud does not occur in dictionaries, its sound is like that of Kalmuck, but it is not possi ble to translate it otherwise than by “stove" or some analogous word according to the context. Gog and Magog are two savage nations not defined by traditions except in vague terms, they are said to be descendants of Japhet, the son of Noah ; also
that the Gog are a Turkish and the Magog a Gilāny tribe ; some say they were anthropophagi, and this
appears also from the statement on the map. They are twice mentioned in the Qoran, i. e. Surah xviii and xxi. It may also be observed that the drafts man has omitted to insert the region of the Dural payi, the timber-legged men, and of the Kelyn-posh
the carpet-eared tribes, and other monstrous beings which occur in old Arabic and Persian books, and may easily be recognized as having been taken from Ktesias, or his imitators and embellished.
In the Qoran, Surah xviii., v. 91-96, the follow
ing words occur about Dhulqarnyn : “And he pro secuted his journey [from south to north] until he came between the two mountains, beneath which he
found a certain people, who could scarce understand what was said. And they said, O Dhulqarnyn, verily Gog and Magog waste the land ; shall we therefore pay thee tribute on condition that thou build a ram part between us and them 2 He answered. The [power] wherewith my Lord has strengthened me is better [than your tribute]; but assist me strenuous ly and I will set a strong wall between you and them.
All the other
Bring me iron in large pieces, until I fill up the [space] between the two sides [of these mountains]. He said [to the workmen] blow [with your bellows]
countries are just as much out of proportion as
until it make [the iron red hot as] fire. He said
equator; it is in the first climate, like the southern extremities of Arabia and of India. these.
[further] bring me molten brass that I may pour
The mountains are coloured brown, and a belt of them equal in breadth to one climate, runs across the whole earth occuping a portion of the 4th and
upon it.
the 5th climate, due East and West.
“And He
hath thrown on the earth mountains firmly rooted, lest it should move with you.” (Qurān xvi, 15.) The traditions about Alexander and his doings are endless and contradictory, but all agree with the historical fact of his having founded Alexandria.
Wherefore [when this wall was finished,
Gog and Magog] could not scale it, neither could they dig through it. (Sale, p. 247). This Dhulgarnyn, i.e., two-horned is by the com mentators said to be Alexander the Great ; but at present scarcely any doubt can remain that the rampart” placed here and called the rampart of Gog and Magog is the great wall of China, it was built about the end of the first century of the
In this map also the tower of Alexander, which may
Christian era, and is still called wan-le-chang-ching,
have been a lighthouse, (and is in other documents stated to have reflected in mirrors, events which
ten-thousand-li-long-wall.
took place at distant places, such as Constantinople)
pears on the map is in conformity with the verses of
is laid down, but the extraordinary circumstance is
the Qorán just quoted.
- Caussin da Perceval (vol. I., p. 66) tries to indentify it
with fortifications which
§ºf from the
west shore of
the Caspian Sea to the Pontus Euxinus, built, it is said, b
Alexander the Great, and repaired by Yezdegird II.
The state of ignition in which the rampart ap
Reinegg (Beschreib. des Caucasus, II. 79) makes Gog the same as the mountain Ghef or Ghogh, and the syllabie ma in Magog, the Sanskrit Mahá, great. Koran, pp. 181, 223.-Ed.
Conf. Rodwell's
