Also the city of Mecca where Mohammet lieth is of the great deserts
of Arabia; and there lieth [the] body of him full honourably in
their temple, that the Saracens clepen Musketh. And it is from
Babylon the less, where the soldan dwelleth, unto Mecca above-said,
into a thirty-two journeys.

And wit well, that the realm of Arabia is a full great country, but
therein is over-much desert. And no man may dwell there in that
desert for default of water, for that land is all gravelly and full
of sand. And it is dry and no thing fruitful, because that it hath
no moisture; and therefore is there so much desert. And if it had
rivers and wells, and the land also were as it is in other parts,
it should be as full of people and as full inhabited with folk as
in other places; for there is full great multitude of people,
whereas the land is inhabited. Arabia dureth from the ends of the
realm of Chaldea unto the last end of Africa, and marcheth to the
land of Idumea toward the end of Botron. And in Chaldea the chief
city is Bagdad. And of Africa the chief city is Carthage, that
Dido, that was Eneas's wife, founded; the which Eneas was of the
city of Troy, and after was King of Italy.

Mesopotamia stretcheth also unto the deserts of Arabia, and it is a
great country. In this country is the city of Haran, where
Abraham's father dwelled, and from whence Abraham departed by
commandment of the angel. And of that city was Ephraim, that was a
great clerk and a great doctor. And Theophilus was of that city
also, that our lady saved from our enemy. And Mesopotamia dureth
from the river of Euphrates, unto the river of Tigris, for it is
between those two rivers.