Smidt van Gelder-Fontaine, T.A.M.

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Between scorching heat and freesing cold: Medieval Jewish Authors on the inhabited and uninhabited parts of the earth

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The question of which areas of the earth are fit for human habitation and 
which ones are not is dealt with in several Hebrew scientific texts of the 
twelfth and thirteenth century. Medieval Jewish scholars such as Abraham 
bar [Hdotu]iyya, Samuel ibn Tibbon, and the three thirteenth-century Hebrew 
encyclopedists were familiar with theories of the oikoumene and its boundaries 
through Arabic sources. These Hebrew texts display a variety of views 
on the earth's habitability, all of which ultimately go back to antiquity. 
Whereas some texts adopted a division of the inhabited portion of the earth 
into seven climes, others divided the earth into five zones of temperature, of 
which two were habitable and three were not owing to extreme temperatures. 
Some of these Jewish authors also pay attention to the question of 
how climatological or astrological conditions in a given region influence the 
mental constitution of its inhabitants.</jats:p

Resianne Fontaine

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Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

BETWEEN SCORCHING HEAT AND FREEZING COLD: MEDIEVAL JEWISH AUTHORS ON THE INHABITED AND UNINHABITED PARTS OF THE EARTH

https://research.vu.nl/files/1719522/131382.pdf

Between scorching heat and freesing cold: Medieval Jewish Authors on the inhabited and uninhabited parts of the earth

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