Note 638 — PART IV PROBABILITY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF ISLAMIC MODELS TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE AND PARTICULARLY TO DANTE
Harold Sunderland translation
Ibn Hazm, Fasl, I, 72:
“... the countries in which there are none of the arts and sciences mentioned (i.e., medicine, astronomy and the mechanical arts), such as the countries of the Sudan and of the Slavs and among the majority of peoples, both nomad and settled....”
Said, Tabaqat, 8:
“The other peoples (apart from the Chinese and Turks) that do not cultivate the sciences, resemble rather beasts than men; as regards those that live in the lands of the far North, bordering on the uninhabited part of the globe, the prolonged absence of the sun renders the air cold and the atmosphere in which they live less clear; accordingly they are men of a cold temperament and never reach maturity; they are of great stature and of a white colour, with long and lank hair. But they lack all sharpness of wit and penetration of intellect, and among them predominate ignorance and stupidity, mental blindness, and barbarism. Such are the Slavs, Bulgars and neighbouring peoples. (Ibid. 9) As to the Galicians and Berbers, they are ignorant, rebellious and hostile people.”
It should be borne in mind that by “Galicians” are meant the Christian inhabitants of the North-East of Spain and Portugal, and by “Slavs” and “Bulgars” all the peoples of the North and East of Europe.