The Beládi cubit is still to be found in the East. A half Beládi cubit =
10·944 inches, a convenient foot for Eastern use, passed to Spain with
the Moors and became the Burgos foot, the standard of which was allowed
to go astray after the fall of the Moorish dominion. But the Spanish
shore-cubit (_Covado di ribera_) still exists at the standard of 21·9157
inches.
The Beládi cubit is that used by Posidonius (131-53 B.C.). He gave the
circumference of the globe as 240,000 stadia, which = 666·66 to the
degree, or 11·111 to the meridian mile of 6080 feet or 72,960 inches,
72,960/11.111 = 6566 inches or 10 fathoms of 65·66465 inches, exactly 3
Beládi cubits or 6 half-cubits.
It is interesting to find this Greek philosopher, settled in Rome,
reckoning the circumference of the globe accurately on the basis of the
Beládi cubit of Persia. Coupling this with the use by the Hebrews of the
Bereh equatorial cubit brought back from the Captivity, the date of the
Beládi meridional cubit is evidently at some centuries before the
Christian era.
_The Bereh or Equatorial Land-mile._
The Jews brought back from the Captivity a measure known as the Cubit of
the Talmud. It was 1/3000 of a mile, called the Bereh, which was said to
be 1/24000 the circumference of the earth. Now this latter fraction
corresponds to one-thousandth of an hour of longitude, or of 15 degrees
on the equator, and thus points to the Bereh being an equatorial, not a
meridian mile. It is still extant in the Turkish dominions in Asia.
While the modern, as the ancient, Persian Parasang is 1/7200 of the
meridian, the Turkish Farsang of 3 Bereh should be 3/24000 = 1/8000 of
the equatorial circumference—
1/8000 of 2029·11 yards × 60 × 360 = 5478·6 yards.
This corresponds very closely to the length of the farsang, which is
5483·9 yards. The Bereh, by calculation, is 1826 yards and the Talmudic
cubit, 1/3000 of it, = 21·914 inches.
Each then was one 72-millionth of the terrestrial circumference, but the
Talmudic cubit was measured on the equator, the Beládi cubit on the
meridian.
Talmudic cubit 1/10000 of a league 1/7200 of the equator.
Beládi „ 1/9000 „ „ 1/8000 „ meridian.
5. THE BLACK CUBIT (NINTH CENTURY)
Many centuries after the institution of the Assyrian great cubit and of
the Persian Beládi cubit, another important cubit became a standard of
measure in the Moslem caliphate which reigned over the lands of the
Eastern great kingdoms.
Under Al-Mamūn, son of Harūn al-Rashid, science was flourishing in the
East, while the West was in the dark ages, at least in all the countries
unenlightened by the civilisation of the Moors of Spain. Of Christian
Europe, Provence and the other Occitanian countries alone had that
light, a light that shone over other countries until extinguished by the
Albigensian crusade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account