catalogue. The British Museum, a long time since one of the richest depôts of oriental manuscripts, is about to publish the catalogue of its Syrian manuscripts, prepared by the late Mr. Rosen, and we dare hope, that this excellent institution will make known the rest of its treasures, which the want of a repository, as well as the existence of very annoying regulations, render of a difficult access. Lastly, your Society proposes to publish among the papers of Schulz, the catalogue of Arabic manuscripts relative to history, which are in thirty-two public libraries of Constantinople. It is extremely desirable, that not only large libraries, but also those which possess only a small number of manuscripts, as well as learned men, following the example of Sir W. Ouseley and M. De Hammer, print their catalogue for the purpose; that every one may be able to know what is to be found in Europe, and accordingly to guide himself in his publications, and especially, that Europeans settled in the East, in full knowledge of the existing wants, may procure manuscripts to complete the collections of the Western world, and may save important works from destruction. A vast number of works, which are considered as lost, are undoubtedly extant in some obscure libraries of the East, but we must hasten to obtain them, as every thing conspires to accelerate their destruction. Everywhere in the East, excepting in China, learning is disappearing; manuscripts are no longer copied, and the libraries are dispersed by the accidents of war, and by the poverty of families. In looking over Musulman manuscripts, every one must have observed the seals of some member of a family effaced, which has become too poor as to retain the books, inherited from its ancestors, and is too proud as to let it become known, that it was obliged to sell them. The introduction of the press also contributes to the destruction of manuscripts by decreasing their prices and lowering the respect paid to them at former periods. It is, however, still time to save many of these treasures, and the publication of the catalogues of the European libraries, by directing the purchasers, must greatly contribute to the accomplishment of this purpose.

We will now state the progress which has been made in the literature of the different nations of the East. We observe, that the Arabian literature has been most actively cultivated. The Committee of the Oriental Translations of London has published the first volume of the History of the Arabs in Spain by Makkari, translated and accom

panied with notes by M. Pascual de Gayangos, an erudite Spaniard.9 Ahmed-al-Makkari-al-Telamsani is a Mogrebin author. Born about the end of the 16th century, he died at Damascus in the year 1631. After having composeda very detailed biography of the celebrated and learned vizier of Granada, Mohammed-Ibn-al-Khatib, he added to it in the form of an introduction, a General History of the Arabs in Spain, from the conquest to their final expulsion. The importance of this work has not escaped those authors who have occupied themselves with this part of the history of the Arabs, and Cardonne, Conde, as well as Shakespear, Reinaud, Lembke, and Fauriel, have made an extensive use of it in their works. It was of course designed for the study of Spanish orientalists; the more so, as Makkari is among the small number of authors who embrace the whole duration of the dominion of the Arabs in Spain. The first volume of M. de Gayangos' translation, which is a very considerable work, is now in your hands, and must be received with gratitude by all the persons who devote themselves to the history of the Arabs. The notes, which by the bye are of very unequal merit, are very numerous with regard to Spain, and contain extracts from a great number of Arabian historians. M. de Gayangos does not exactly give a translation of the original work; he transfers some chapters to introduce a more logical order into the narrative; he omits the life of the Vizier, of which he, however, retains extracts for illustrations; he excludes the fifth chapter, containing the lives of the Spanish Musulmans who travelled to the East, and also the 7th, which gives extracts of the poetry of the Arabs in Spain. It is difficult to judge according to a general principle about this system of translating Oriental works; it is certain, they often contain passages of little interest for the European reader, and relate the facts not in a very natural order; moreover, there is a rage among the Arabian writers, especially at the decline of their literature to quote verses, which is often very annoying for the translator, and of little benefit for the reader, and we may easily understand a doubt of the propriety of translating the whole, yet mature reflection will convince I think, that the system of complete translations involves into less difficulties, than that of incomplete ones. By this last method indeed, a work is produced much more agreeably to the general reader; those,

us,

9. History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, from the text of Al-Makkari, translated by Pasc. de Gayangos. London, 1810, in 4to. vol. i.

however, who would use it for particular researches, cannot consult it but with mistrust, not knowing, whether the translator have not omitted the very facts which they are mostly anxious to obtain. Are there no readers who may regret that M. de Gayangos has rejected the first chapter? For the Spanish Musulmans who travelled in the East, undoubtedly were the most eminent men among their nation, so that their lives must naturally excite our curiosity.

The first book of the Kitab el Aghani, has been edited by Mr. Rosegarten,10 and the second is nearly completed. He has accompanied it with the first part of a very curious dissertation upon the music of the Arabs, in which he endeavours to prove, that they borrowed their music from the Greeks. Whether his assertion be founded or not, will be ascertained by the end of the dissertation, which is to appear with the next book of the text, when the reasons adduced for its validity, will enable the reader to form his own judgment. Great care is bestowed on the text of the Aghani, and there is perhaps no other Arabian work which so much demands it as this collection of the lives of the poets, as it is one of the most curious documents of the political and literary history of the Arabs; for it is generally known, how much poetry had penetrated their whole life, and how almost all the information we have of their social and moral condition before Islamism, is derived from their poems and the commentaries on them. Mr. Lane has completed his translation of One Thousand and One Nights,11 illustrating it to the end with notes, derived from so intimate an acquaintance with modern Egypt, as perhaps no European has ever possessed. The importance of these fascinating tales in oriental literature is incalculable; for they are even at our days the only work of Asia which has become perfectly popular, and these very tales have surrounded it in the eyes of the public with that poetic glory, which inspires so many with the curiosity of studying more deeply the literary treasures of Asia. It is especially this consideration, that every thing contributing to increase the attractions of this book, becomes important for oriental studies, and we must feel indebted to Mr. Lane for his having so well attained this object.

10. Alii Isfahanensis liber Cantilenarum Magnus. Ed. Rosegarten. Gripesvaldiæ, 1840 in 4to.

11. The Thousand and One Nights, a new translation from the Arabic, with copious notes, by E. W. Lane. London, 1839-41, 3 vols. in 8vo.

Mr. Veth has published at Leyden the first half of the text of Lobbal Lobab by Soyouti.12 It is a Dictionary of patronymic names, and of others under which the Arabic authors are much more frequently quoted than under their proper names. The confusion under which the Arabs labour themselves to identify men known under different names, has induced them to prepare dictionaries for obviating this difficulty Samani in the sixth century of the Hegira has published one, in which he does not only explain the sense and origin of these names, but also mentions with regard to every word the true names of the authors who have had them. This work was abbreviated in the succeeding century by Ibnal-Athir, and this extract again shortened by Soyouti. The work of Samani is at present unknown, if not lost, and the extract of IbnalAthir is only known by the specimen given by Mr. Wustenfeld, according to an incomplete manuscript of Gotha. Under these circumstances, Mr. Veth has resolved on publishing the text of Soyouti, who has preserved the definitions of the names, omitting, however, the enumeration of the authors who have borne them, and also the literary details his predecessors had added. The work of Soyouti, is therefore, far from containing all we would wish, but the excellent edition by Mr. Veth is nevertheless an acceptable present, not only because the Lobbal-Lobab explains the often bizarr surnames of the authors, but especially because it contains a great number of names of places, which we in vain are searching in the most complete geographical treatises. It is here perhaps not out of place to call the attention of Oriental travellers to the importance of the treatise of Samani, entitled "Fi'l-Ansab," the discovery of which would much contribute to the progress of Arabic bibliography.

This brings me back to two editions of Ibn Khalli-kan, which at this moment are printing at Göttingen and Paris. Mr. Wustenfeld has published the 7th book of his, while Mr. Slane has finished the excellent text he is editing.13 A pamphlet has been lately published by Mr. Cureton, on an autograph manuscript of Ibn Khalli-kan, discovered by

12. This work has appeared in the form of an academical thesis under the title "Specimen Litterio Orientalibus exhibens majorem partem libri. As. Soyouti de nominibus relativis inscripti proponit Johan. Veth. Lugduni Batavorum, 1480 in 4to. 13. Kitab Wefayat Al-aiyan; Vies des Hommes illustres de l'Islamisme en Arabe, par Ibn-Khalli-kan, publiées par M. le Baron MacGurkin de Slane. Paris, Fermin Didot, 1838-40, in 4to. cahiers i. iv.

him, and he would have fain entrusted it to Mr. Slane, as it seems to contain the second redaction of that work.

Mr. Freitag at Bonn, advertises the third volume of his Proverbs of the Arabs; the two first ones contain the classic work of Meidani, which the third volume will complete, with additional proverbs, not mentioned by this author, and which Mr. Freitag has for the greater part taken from an unedited work of Scherefeddin, and from the proverbs of the Bedooins by Mr. Burckhard. The work will be closed by very copious tables of contents, to enable the reader to find the proverbs which the Arabian authors often indicate by a single word.

Mr. Sprenger, under auspices of the Committee of Translations, has edited the first volume of his English translation of the celebrated work of Masoudi, "The Meadows of Gold."14 Masoudi wrote in times most favourable for a historian; the Khalifat in the beginning of the 4th century of the Hegira had obtained almost its largest extension, the intellect of the Arabs was not yet put down by the grammar, the rhetoric, and the controversies of the sects, their genius was still stimulated by the remains of the ancient civilisation, and by the literature of the conquered nations, and the position of the Khalifat facilitated the most distant travels. Masoudi availed himself of all these advantages; his reading was immense, his travels uninterrupted, and very extensive. According to the custom of the learned men of his time, he has written on almost all subjects which then could interest Musulman readers; but for us his historical works alone are of interest. The first of his compositions is Akhbar-al-Zeman, an enormous work of at least twenty volumes; the second is the Kitab-al-Aouscth, being the complement to the Akhbar ; and the third, the "Meadows of Gold," forming at the same time the extract and the supplement of the two others. This last work alone is known in Europe. Written with a singular want of order and method, it contains the most curious information on a great number of subjects. Not being a mere compiler, as are most of Oriental historians, Masoudi made a great many personal observations and researches on subjects neglected by his predecessors. Mr. Sprenger has compared for his translation the manuscripts of Leyden, Paris, and London, and always added the Arabian orthography of the names, which is of great assistance

14. El Masudi's Historical Encyclopedia, entitled Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems, translated by Aloys Sprenger, vol. i. London, in 8vo.