Possibly These Are Essentially The Same
With Hundwaniy And Alhinde, Pointing To India As The Original Source
Of Supply.
[In the Sikandar Nama, e Bara (or "Book of Alexander the
Great," written A.D. 1200, by Abu Muhammad bin Yusuf bin Mu,
Ayyid-i-Nizamu-'d-Din), translated by Captain H. Wilberforce Clarke
(Lond., 1881, large 8vo), steel is frequently mentioned:
Canto xix. 257,
p. 202; xx. 12, p. 211; xlv. 38, p. 567; lviii. 32, pp. 695, 42, pp. 697,
62, 66, pp. 699; lix. 28, p. 703. - H. C.]
Avicenna, in his fifth book De Anima, according to Roger Bacon,
distinguishes three very different species of iron: "1st. Iron which is
good for striking or bearing heavy strokes, and for being forged by hammer
and fire, but not for cutting-tools. Of this hammers and anvils are made,
and this is what we commonly call Iron simply. 2nd. That which is purer,
has more heat in it, and is better adapted to take an edge and to form
cutting-tools, but is not so malleable, viz. Steel. And the 3rd is that
which is called ANDENA. This is less known among the Latin nations. Its
special character is that like silver it is malleable and ductile under a
very low degree of heat. In other properties it is intermediate between
iron and steel." (Fr. R. Baconis Opera Inedita, 1859, pp. 382-383.) The
same passage, apparently, of Avicenna is quoted by Vincent of Beauvais,
but with considerable differences.
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