The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c11.15

c11.15

“I met a merchant who owned one hundred and forty camels, and fifty slaves and porters. . . . He answered to me: ‘I want to carry sulphur of Persia to China, which in that country, as I hear, bears a high price; and thence to take Chinese ware to Roum; and from Roum to load up with brocades for Hind; and so to trade Indian steel (*pûlab*) to Halib. From Halib I will convey its glass to Yeman, and carry the painted cloths of Yeman back to Persia.’”² On the other hand, these men were not of the learned class, nor would they preserve in treatises any knowledge that they might have, although this knowledge would occasionally reach the ears of the learned as bits of curious information.