"قاموس، فارسي، عربي، إنجليزي، مع أطروحة عن لغات أمم المشرق وآدابها وعاداتها" [ظ‎‎٤‎٣] (١٨٢٦/٩١)

Ixx
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
sian historians had been translated into Arabic by an author
named Ebn Mocanna.
The celebrated Khondemir observes, in the Preface to his
Universal History, “ That since the age of reason and discern-
“ nient, he had employed his time incessantly in the reading and
“ research after history, collecting every thing useful and agree-
“ able from the works of the best writers, when having been in-
“ vited by the Amir AIT Shir, to superintend a valuable library,
“ filled particularly with historians, carefully collected at a great
“ expence, he had there resolved to digest the labours of his life.”
This learned and magnificent prince w r as governor of Khurasan
about the end of the fifteenth century. His noble library was
deposited in the city of Harat.
P. xix. Nasser, who is also called AI Nodah, brought,
among other things, from Persia, a written romance of the ad
ventures of Rustam and Asfandiyar. See D’Herbelot, p. 664.
See also Kur’an, chap. 31. A teller of tales, or reciter of histo
ries, is called in Persian niranj.
P. xx. No people in the world are greater genealogists
than the Arabians, Persians, and Tartars. One book of Arabian
genealogies alone, called c-JjJJl allubub, (i. e. the hearts, or
the purity of the noblesse), exceeds one hundred volumes. See
Diet. c_Aj! ansab. See also afrusiyab, CJy turk,
and safl; and this Dissertation, p. viii. ix. xvi. and xvii.
See D’Herbelot under the different articles mentioned in the
text. See likewise Abd’lghazT Khin’s Genealogical History of
the Tartars, chap. ] 1 .
Mahmud Sabuktigln, Sultan of Ghazni, the most powerft
prince of the eleventh century, was the son of a Turkish slavi
Though a patron oflearned men, he seems to have been an ex
ceptionto the general rule; at least I have not discovered tha
he aimed at a superior origin, or considered the meanness of hi
birth asany inconveniency in the government of his empire.
P ‘ XX ' P - xxi - 43 A wri| er called Uaji Khalfa has give
us a catalogue of Oriental historians, to the amount of abov
1300. Even private noblemen have been ambitious of bein,
known to posterity; and the memoirs of their houses have bee
carefully treasured with their archives; a practice which, ther
is reason to believe, is still universally continued; as we ma
even observe in the discussion, relative to the late disputes t
Madras : where frequent reference is made to various public an
private records, ,n the possession of the great men of Hindustan
P" rt ' cu,arl y to a manuscript-hislory of the family of the pre
sent .Nabob of Arcot, compiled by order of his ancestors whe,
K t S ’ m M iTs n0blemen - See LeUer from M^mmad Al
Khan, Nabob of Arcot, to the Court of Directors of the East
India Company, p. 17, 20 , &c.
P. xxii. 44 Selerus, a Greek general, who assumed the purnl,
during the reign of the emperor BasiliusII. in the tenth century
refuge at Bagdad, where he had many private conference
with Azadu’d’dawlah,king of Persia, and AmTru’l Umara tothe
Caliph Al Tay. This prince is also represented as conversing
familiarly with the ambassadors of Nicephoros Phocas. And
an Arabian merchant, whom he had sent to Constantinople as a
private agent, appears to have been so excellent a Grecian, that
he forged in that tongue, and buried, to be dug up at a proper
time, a prophecy of an alliance between the emperor of Greece,
and his master, as king of Persia. A conversation is much ce
lebrated, both by the Greek and Muhammadan writers, between
Sultan Alp Arslan (AmTru’l Umara to the Caliph Al Kaim) and
the emperor Diogenes Romanus, whom he defeated and took
prisoner in the eleventh century. The Muhammadan prince
treated his royal captive with uncommon politeness; and set him
at liberty on the promise of about £700,000 of ransom, an an
nual tribute to the Caliphat of £140,000, and his daughter in
marriage to the Sultan’s son. As the VazTr Nazam was present
at this interview between Alp Arslan and Romanus, the follow
ing account of it may be considered as more authentic than that
of any historian, European or Asiatic. “ After some discourse,
“ Sultan asked the Emperor of Greece, what he should do
“ Wlt h him. The Emperor replied, 4 If you are a butcher,
“ kill me; if a merchant, sell me; and if a prince, set me at li
berty.’ The Sultan had compassion on him, and treated him
with great kindness. Some time after, the army beginning to
“ march back, the Emperor said to the Sultan, ‘ I am here a
prisoner; and it is certain the empire will not be long without
a head ; for doubtless some other will usurp the government,
“ and y° u wil1 then be put to the trouble of marching back to
“ reduce him. Now that all the passes and strong-holds are as
“ yet in the hands of my dependants, if you send me home, I
“ will be one of your tributaries.’ The Sultan then returned him
in a royal manner; and he yearly paid the stipulated tribute;
“ and sent beside3 a quantity of fine cloths of that country as a
present. The misfortunes and death of Romanus, it must be
observed, prevented his paying the whole of his ransom ; but Alp
Arslan having afterwards twice defeated the generals of Michael
Ducas, who succeeded Romanus, the tribute agreed to by Ro
manus was continued to be paid by the emperors of Greece for
many years. See also TSrTkhu’l MuslimTn or Historia Sarace-
mca, p. 277. See likewise Newton’s Chronology, p. 375 . Ge
neral History by Guthry and Gray, Vol. II. p. 195 .
xxiii. ^ Nee Newton’s Chronology, passim.
P. xxm. See Mr. Bryant’s Mythology, Vol. II. p. 97 , Ac.
D’Herbelot, p. 455 .
p . xxm. 47 See Mr. Bryant’s Mythology, Vol. II. p. 478 et
»eq. Dr. Rutherforth’s System of Natural Philosophy, Vol. II.
p. 846. Newton’s Chron. p. 84, &c.
Strabo builds for the Argonauts cities in Colchis, Iberia, Ar
menia Media, along the coast of Sinope on the Euxine; in Crete;
m “ y> ° n llle Adria ‘ic, on the Gulph of Poseidonium, and the