What others said about Arabic Read in the original
Writing in 1836, after asking an Arab sailor how he measured a star's height:
“He stretched out his arms, when I inquired about the issabah division, and placing his fingers together horizontally, counted with them the height of the polar star, just as I guess must have been the early and rude method of the Arab navigators.”
James Prinsep
1799–1840
British scholar in India, antiquary and numismatist, secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
In Arabic
مدّ ذراعيه حين سألتُه عن وحدة «الإصبع»، وضمّ أصابعه أفقيّاً، وعدّ بها ارتفاعَ نجم القطب، وأحسبُ أنّها كانت طريقةَ البحّارة العرب الأولى البسيطة.
Source
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 5, Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1836, p. 784
He wrote in English. The issabah (iṣbaʿ, "finger") is the Arab navigators' unit for a star's altitude. Huth, who quotes him, spells the name «Pinsep».
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