Note 158 — IBN BAṬÚṬAH’S JOURNEY.

In order to prove that Kanó was the Ghánah of early writers, it was necessary to assume not only the close resemblance of those names, but also that the name Aghades was a corruption of Aúdaghost. Then the distance between this place and Jermah, according to El Idrísí, is called in as a confirmation. A single particular is taken from that writer, all the others with which it stands connected being disregarded, though the rejected details are founded on experience, and the retained one on inference alone. Yet this arbitrary reasoning cannot after all attain its desired ends. Aghades is not twenty-five but forty-five days from Jermah, and Kanó is not twelve but twenty-eight days from Aghades (Walckenaer Rech. p. 448; Lyon’s Trav. p. 131). The deserts of ʿAhír and Káhir, beyond Aghades, are far from being utterly inhospitable tracts.