Saturday, September 1, 2012

Al-Masudi: The Arab Herodotus



"... the stars wandered confusedly from their courses, and clashed together with a tremendous noise. The king, although greatly affected by this vision, did not disclose it to any person, but was conscious that some great event was about to take place. ... upon which the king ordered the Pyramids to be built, and the predictions of the priests to be inscribed upon columns, and upon the large stones belonging to them; and he placed within them his treasures, and all his valuable property, together with the bodies of his ancestors. He also ordered the priests to deposit within them written accounts of their wisdom and acquirements in the different arts and sciences. Subterraneous channels were also constructed to convey to them the waters of the Nile. He filled the passages with talismans, with wonderful things and idols, and with the writings of the priests, containing all manner of wisdom, the names and properties of medical plants, and the sciences of arithmetic and geometry, that they might remain as records, for the benefit of those who would afterwards comprehend them." -- Al-Masudi, historian, Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, 947

1 comment:

Fungus the Photo! said...

Inherently unlikely as an explanation of the famous pyramids of Cheops/Kufu etc. They would have made swifter progress employing a tetrahedron, than a pyramid and still have achieved the museum marker effect, intended to alert the survivors of the forthcoming catastrophe?

This is of course typical human behaviour, vide Seed Vault, Norway!