From: Rick McCallister
Message: 54892
Date: 2008-03-09
> In international (cross cultural) trade, numerals____________________________________________________________________________________
> are essential tools of communication. Hence,
> through commerce its vocabulary can be quite
> invasive and will travel across cultures. In
> subsequent exchanges numerals can be diffused by an
> elite scientific community. What comes to mind is
> the history of the spread of "Arabic" numerals,
> starting from their source in India to Western
> Europe.
>
>
> Further examples below are illustrated to support
> this view. Dictionary entries can also be viewed
> by clicking on the following URL:
>
> http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/MILE.html
>
> ______________________________________________
>
>
> 1 - C. Arabic myl: as used by the Arabs, [A mile:]
> the distance to which the eye reaches along a land:
> according to ancient astronomers, three thousand
> cubits: according to moderns, four thousand cubits:
> but the difference is merely verbal: for they agree
> that its extent is ninety six thousand digits;
> [about 5196 feet;] each digit being the measure of
> six barley corns, each placed with its belly next to
> another; but the ancients say that three cubit is
> thirty two digits; which makes the mile three
> thousand cubits.
>
>
> 2 - C. Arabic "hnd": A hundred camels, a hundred of
> other things, two hundred years, and a hundred
> years.
>
>
> ________________________________________
>
> BTW, all of these example are from the gahiyliyah
> period, long before any Islamic expansion took
> place.
>
> If one doesn't come to the logical conclusion that
> "myl" & "hnd" are a perfect match (in form and
> meaning) to "mile" and "hund", then we might as well
> believe in a parallel universe.
>
>
> Ishinan
>
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