‘The Oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century’ [‎8] (61/388)

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Between j ^Jouge and Majouge, and the
northern ocean, and between the deserts of the Blacks and the
other limits of the ocean, all is desolate and waste, without any
buildings. 1 know not what are the roads or stages of those two
deserts which are on the coasts of the ocean, because it is impos
sible to travel in them on account of the excessive heat, w hich
hinders the building of houses, or the residing there. Thus,
also, in the south, no animal can exist, so excessive is the heat,
nor any person dwell there. But between Cheen and the
west V;- 3 ^ Magreh, all is inhabited, and the ground cultivated,
and the ocean surrounds the land like a collar or necklace.
From this ocean proceed the Deryai. Fars, Per
sian Sea or Gulph, and Deryai Roum, Mediterranean,
but not the^L Deryai Khozr, or Caspian Sea. If any
person wish to make a circuit round this sea, he must set out from
Khozr, and proceed through the land of Deilman, and
Taharistan, and ^ Giirkan, and, turning by the
desert, in the vicinity of olx^ Siah Kouh, or the Black Moun
tain, thus come back to the place from which he had set out, as
nothing would impede him but the river which falls into the
Caspian Sea.
The Franks, in general, we speak of as belonging to
Roum (Europe), because they have the same religion and king,
though speaking various dialects.
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