dise; the subsequent history of our first parent and of his descendants; Cain, the founder of idolatry; and Tubal, whom the Devil taught to make wine; Noah, who survived the deluge three centuries; Abraham; the posterity of Shem; the early kings of Persia; Solomon; Balkeiss, the Queen of Sheba; Nebuchadnezzar; the Jewish captives; the prophet Daniel; Esther and Ahasuerus; Alexander the Great; and various Arabian tribes, until the time of Noushirvân, King of Persia, when, in the year 570, the night of Mahommed's birth was announced by many portentous circumstances: fourteen pinnacles of Noushirvân's palace fell to the ground; the lake of Sawah was suddenly dried up; the sacred fire, which had glowed for a thousand years in the Magian temple at Istakbar, or Persepolis, became unaccountably extinct :-omens indicating the birth of a prophet, who was to overthrow the religion and power of the Persian monarch. Our limits will not allow us to notice Major Price's judicious remarks on the absurd and incredible fables with which even the most respectable Eastern records are found to be replete, whenever we consult them for facts of remote antiquity; and we shall close this short account with the passage which concludes his preliminary address to the reader (p. ix.), where, alluding to Pocock's "Specimen Historia Arabum," he says

The opinion which the author had early formed, that, anterior to the age of Mahommed, the Arabs possessed, in fact, no authentic records of their history, remains however unaltered; and considering that so distinguished an Orientalist as Dr. Pocock could advance no further, the author must abide in the belief that, without launching into the ocean of conjecture, into the mazes of an ever-varying speculation, all attempt to produce a regular history of Arabia, antecedent to that period, will, if the truth be acknowleged, ever terminate in a Specimen or an Essay.

This curious and entertaining work is comprised in a quarto volume of above 260 pages. (London, 1824.)

The second publication which we shall here notice, is likewise a quarto volume, printed at Amsterdam, in the present year (1824), and entitled, "Takyodini Ahmedis al-Makrizii Narratio de Expeditionibus a Græcis Francisque adversus Dimyatham ab A. C. 708 ad 1221 susceptis." For this work, which appears to have been originally published in the Transactions of the Royal Belgian Institute, we are indebted to the learned Professor Hamaker, of Leyden, whose name is already familiar to our readers. (See Classical Journal, No. XLVIII. p. 392, and No. LII. p. 381.) It contains the Arabic text of Makrizi, with a Latin translation, describing the various expeditions undertaken by the Greeks and Franks against Dimyatha (or Damyata) in

Egypt, from the year 90 to 618 of the Mahommedan era, or from 708 to 1221 of Christ; and to the translation is subjoined a body of most valuable notes, illustrating from a variety of authors, both European and Oriental, this very obscure and interesting portion of history. Among the curious and authentic anecdotes furnished by Makrizi's narrative, we might notice some which betray a little of Eastern exaggeration; such as the appearance of an immense fish near Dimyatha (in the year 1017), which was two hundred and sixty cubits long, and one hundred ells in breadth; it was called the Sea-ass: a loaded camel could pass through its belly, and in its skull five men stood upright. However this may be, we are fully inclined to believe our author's account of the scarcity which prevailed in Dimyatha during the last memorable siege (in 1219), when, besides other inhabitants, twenty thousand soldiers were reduced to such distress by famine, that they paid thirty pieces of gold for one hen: to relieve them a camel's body was stuffed with provisions by their friends above the city, and committed to the Nile, which carried this timely supply to the starving garrison; but the Christians having discovered the stratagem, prevented a repetition of it; and, the streets and houses being filled with dead bodies, the place soon after became an easy prey to the besiegers, who scaled the walls, and slew vast numbers of the Muselmans. An engraved map and a plan of Dimyatha are annexed, illustrating the account of this siege.

We now proceed to the third work, an octavo volume published in 1821, at St. Petersburg, under the title of " Das Muhammedanische Munzkabinet des Asiatischen Museums, &c." a very elaborate and curious numismatical treatise, by that accomplished Orientalist Mr. Fraehn, who takes a masterly survey of the various Mahommedan dynasties under which money was coined in different countries of the East, Arabia, Persia, Turkestan, Syria, Asia Minor, India, also Spain, Morocco, &c. The title-page is ornamented with a vignette, very accurately and neatly engraved, representing a silver coin of Nasir el hakk chan el muaijed el adil Ilek Nasr, struck at Bochara, A. Heg. 393 (A. D. 1002), as appears from the inscriptions in Cufic characters; and at the end is given another vignette, exhibiting the inscription, also Cufic, on a coin of Beha-eddaula Arslan Ilek, struck about the year of Christ 1024. This work contains 124 pages.

The fourth article is likewise a numismatical treatise by the same learned author, Dr. Fraehn; printed at Mittau, 1822, and intitled "Die Chosroen-Münzen der frühern Arabischen

Chalifen," relating to those Persian coins which the early Khalifs adopted until they were enabled to strike money with inscriptions wholly Arabic.

To Dr. Fraehn we are also indebted for the fifth article, "De Baschkiris quæ memoriæ prodita sunt ab Ibn-Foszlano et Jakuto." It appears from the Arabic text and Latin translation given in this little tract, that the Bashkirians (or Bashkurdians), whose ancient history is lost in darkness, occupy a region between Constantinople and Bulgaria. An ambassador sent into that country about the year 309 (A. D. 921), described the people as Turks of the worst kind; ferocious and bold in war; cutting off and carrying away the heads of their enemies: they also shaved their beards, and were fond of eating lice, which they considered as a dainty; they seemed to believe in twelve divinities, but chiefly in one supreme God, who inhabited the heavens: many of them, however, worshipped serpents, others fishes, others cranes. But from a subsequent passage we learn that some of these Bashkurdians, who visited Aleppo, declared themselves to be Mahommedans, although in shaving their beards and in their dress they imitated Europeans; their country being situated among Christian states, beyond Constantinople and near Hungary.

The sixth article is also from the pen of Dr. Fraehn, and belongs to the Transactions of the Imperial Academy of Petersburg (vol. v111.), 1822. It is entitled "De Chasaris, excerpta ex Scriptoribus Arabicis," and consists of Arabic passages from Ibn-Foszlan, Ibn Haukal, Schems ed din, and Jakuti; describing the Chasars (or Khozrians), a race of people once very powerful, occupying a country between the Caspian and Euxine seas. Of this extraordinary nation, among whom were found Jews, Christians, and Mahommedans, the fullest account is, probably, that given in the manuscript which Sir William Ouseley translated, and published as the "Oriental Geography of Ibn Haukal;" and to this translation Dr. Fraehn in the tract before us frequently refers. As the English work may be easily consulted by any of our readers, we shall not dwell longer on the subject of those Khozrs or Chasars.

We proceed to another article by Dr. Fraehn, extracted likewise from the Transactions of the Imperial Academy of Petersburg (vol. VIII.), 1822. This bears the title of " Antiquitatis Muhammedana Monumenta Varia," and explains the Arabic inscriptions on a silver case for holding the Koran, now preserved in the Museum of the Imperial Academy, but originally belonging to Urus Chan, a lineal descendant of the great Chengiz Chan.

Next follows the Cufic inscription on a bronze lamp, found eight or nine years ago among the ruins of Bylar, and ascribed by our learned author to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The inscription merely expresses a wish of "prosperity and benediction, joy and felicity, to the possessor of this lamp;" and among its ornaments are four human figures, one playing on a harp, another holding some other instrument, a third a cup, and the fourth perhaps an apple.-Next is an explanation of the Arabic writing, in Cufic characters, on the inaugural cloak of the German emperors, formerly preserved at Nuremberg of this inscription many eminent Orientalists have offered interpretations; but Dr. Fraehn undertakes to correct them, and defends his own explanation by a variety of critical and philological notes. It appears, according to his account, that this cloak was presented, in 1136 or 1137, to Roger II, King of Naples and Sicily, by the Sicilian Arabs; and that it was brought into Germany by the Emperor Henry VI, who had married Constantia, the daughter of King Roger.-Then follows an explanation of some Arabic words embroidered on the silken stockings preserved among various ornaments and ensigns of state formerly used at the inauguration of the German emperors.Next is our author's explanation, differing in many respects from that offered by Tychsen and others, of the Cufic inscription found on the cathedral at Cordova in Spain; an edifice originally constructed for the purposes of Mahommedan worship, and celebrated by Arabian writers as one of the finest mosques in the whole world. It appears from this interpretation of the Arabic lines, that El Mustansir billah Abdullah el Hakem, who reigned as Khalif in Spain from A. D. 961 to 976, caused the inscription to be executed in the year (of the Hegira) 354, or A. D. 965. Dr. Fraehn next describes a remarkable bronze mirror, found among the ruins of Bylar, and exhibiting a double figure of the Borak, a fabulous quadruped with a human face, on which Mahommed is said to have been carried in one night from Mecca to Jerusalem. On this mirror, also, is an Arabic inscription in Cufic letters, expressing a wish that the possessor may enjoy length of life and uninterrupted felicity.-An astroJabe of the thirteenth century, preserved in the public library at Nuremburg, is the next subject of our learned author's remarks: it exhibits a Cufic inscription, which he explains with much ingenuity, showing that the astrolabe was made by Es Sabl of Nishapour, for the use of Melik el Muszaffer Taky ed din, a prince whom he places in the year (of Mahommed) 642, of our era 1244.-We now proceed to another Cufic inscription, worked

on a piece of linen, inserted in a Latin Ms. copy of the Gospels, preserved at Luneburg. To show how materially one learned Orientalist may differ from another in the interpretation of three Arabic lines, we shall here give the celebrated Tychsen's explanation of this inscription:" In nomine Dei misericordis clementis. Et non auxilium meum est nisi in Deo:-donabitur tibi. Abu Muid Elazem Elatab Mumen ben Wakkel (s. Hudal), cujus familiam Deus protegat, insignem reddat et compenset. Sane Deus cum iis est, qui eum venerantur, et bene faciunt." We now subjoin Dr. Fraehn's translation: "In nomine Dei misericordis et clementis. Non secundantur res meæ nisi a Deo: ei confido, throni magni possessori. Et quisquis Deo confidit habet quod sibi sufficiat: nam Deus adest iis qui ipsum verentur, et recte vivunt." This work is illustrated by three engravings.

The eighth and last publication to which we shall call the reader's attention in this article, is intitled "De Antiquis quibusdam Sculpturis et Inscriptionibus in Siberia repertis," by Greg. Spassky, a corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburg, where this volume (consisting only of a few pages of letter-press and seven lithographed plates) was printed in 1822. The plates represent several extraordinary and most rude figures of beasts and men found sculptured on a rock near the city of Tomsk, besides various inscriptions hitherto undeciphered, some of which appear to be Mongol or Manchu, copied from rocks and sepulchral monuments in different parts of Siberia.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

LATELY PUBLISHED.

Stephens' Greek Thesaurus, No. XXIX. The work will be certainly comprised in 39 Nos. or all above given gratis, and will be completed within the year 1825. The copies of some deceased Subscribers may still be had at 17. 5s. Small, and 21. 12s. 6d. Large Paper; but the Prices will be raised to 11. 78. Small, and 27. 15s. Large. Subscribers always remain at the price at which they originally enter. Nos. I. to XXIX. contain above 13,000 words omitted by STEPHENS. Total Subscribers, Large and Small paper, 1086. The copies printed are strictly limited to the number of Subscribers. Nos. XXX. and XXXI. will be published in October.