Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī (circa 800/805 – circa 870) was a Persian astronomer also known, in Europe, as Alfraganus. His Kitāb al-harakāt as-samāwija wa-Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūm (The Book of Celestial Motions and Compendium of Information Regarding the Stars) was written about sometime between 838 and 861, as a summary of Ptolemy’s Almagest. It was translated into Latin in 1135 by John of Seville (Johannes Hispalensis or Johannes Hispaniensis) and Gerard of Cremona. This was published in Ferrara, Nuremberg and Paris (in 1493, 1537 and 1546, respectively).
Nuremberg edition
There was also a Hebrew edition and a Latin translation of the Hebrew. A separate Latin version was published by Jacobus Golius in the Netherlands (in 1669). Finally, there was also an edition by Romeo Campani of a XIV-th century manuscript found in the Medici library (see the 1910 publication – secondo il Codice Mediceo-Laurenziano, pl. 29, cod. 9 / Alfragano).
The Book of Celestial Motions and Compendium of Information Regarding the Stars
“The sixth clime begins in the East and includes the land of Yagogs [Gog]. Then it includes the country of the Khazars and the middle of the Gurgan Sea, further towards the Byzantine lands. The clime cuts through Gurzan [Gerorgia?], Amaseya, Haraqla/Heraqla [Heraclea?], Halquidun/Halquedun [Chalcedon in Bithynia], Constantinople and the Burgan [Danube Bulgars or Burgundians?] country and reaches the Western Sea [Atlantic?].”
“The [sixth or] seventh clime begins in the East, in the north of the land of Gog. Next it cuts through the land of the Turks, then the northern shore of the Gurgan Sea. Then it cuts through the ar-Rum sea [Black Sea], the land of the Danube Bulgars and Slavs and reaches the Western Sea [Atlantic or Baltic which Arabs thought to be part of the “Ocean”].”
Solanoru more or less
“As regards what lies beyond these climes, until the end of inhabited lands known to us, [such part] begins in the East in the land of Gog. Next it cuts through the countries of the al-Togurgur [Toguzguz?] and lands of the Turks, then the country of the Alans, then through at-Tatar [or al-babe?], then Danube Bulgars, then through the Slavs and [so] reaching the Western Sea [Atlantic or Baltic which Arabs thought to be part of the “Ocean”].”
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