"الجغرافيا الشرقية لابن حوقل، رحّالة عربي من القرن العاشر" [‎٢‎١] (٣٨٨/٣٦)

PREFACE.
xxi
Of the terms used in mensuration, or the computation of
distances hy time, 1 must here notice the extreine uncertainty
which still pervades them, although many ingenious Orien
talists have endeavoured to remove it.
U^e are sometimes informed that one place is distant from
another one month's journey: the extent of this could he
easily ascertained, were the number of miles or leagues in a
day's journey (ol^ exactly known; hut we cannot
expect precision in this computation, since much depends on
the particular mode of travelling, the state of the roads, the
nature of the country, and other circumstances. Equally
vague and uncertain are the terms merhileh and
menzil which occur in the following pages.
G raves, in his Preface to Abulfeda 's Chorasmia, translates
merhileh hy statio, diseta, mansio. According to Edrisi's Geo-
translatlon of Elmakin, is much to my present purpose, I shall give it here. " Nam licet
" Niloticus hunc Codicem Calamus exaraverit, nimium tamen festinantis incuria eundem
" pessime deformarat, crehra imprimis omissione orthographic# punctuationis : quod quidem
" vitium in metris prasertim et propriis mminibus commissum, did haud potest quam omnia
" luxet et incerta reddat: it a ut sapenumero vat em priiis agere debuerit quam interpret em
" possit." Goiii P reef at, ad Erpenii Hist. Saracen. Arab. Lat. folio.