Real Revolution — Page 6
6 visions, who had written in his books that across the sea opposite to Spain there was a large land mass; and since the idea that the earth was round was spreading among Muslim scholars and scientists, the disciples of. Hazrat Mohy-ud-Deen Ibn-'Arabee were inclined to believe these visions of the saint referred to India. When. Columbus heard about these things he was fired hy a desire to discover a sea route to India. Lacking, however, the means to finance such a venture, he put his idea before the king. . and managed to impress some nobles at the court, and the queen herself, in his favour. . But when the king called his advisors into council, the repesentative of the Pope ridiculed the idea of the earth being round as extremely foolish, even anti-religious. . He made a powerful speech. "Either Columbus really is mad or he wants to make fools of us all," he said. "If the earth really is round, then India lies at the opposite side, which would mean that the people on that side of the earth are hanging downward in the air. He expects us to believe that there are parts of the earth where the people live with their teet up and heads down, where the trees grow from roots in the earth hanging downward in the air, where the rain spouts up instead of falling down, where the sun does not rise upon the earth but peeps up from down below. " That ecclesiastic expressed his ignorant, hide-bound ideas with such dramatic vehemence that he carried the council into holding that Columbus was a fraud; that no financial help should be extended to him; and for a long time