of the African Philosopher Inn Knarpvun. 391 
tion was that the fourth and largest volume, containing the end of the 
second, and the whole of the third part, or the history of the Berbers, 
being by chance put into a separate box, had not suffered any damage, so 
that I have, at least, the satisfaction of possessing the most precious part 
of the manuscript. The loss of the remainder was, however, the more galling, 
as it could not be repaired, even through the politeness and personal friend- 
ship of Srp1 Hassuna, who would gladly have procured me a new trans- 
cript; for the copy, the only one in the possession of any body at Tripoli, 
from which the two volumes now lost were transcribed, was by this nobleman, 
a very short time before my departure, lent to one of the European consuls 
at that residence, who is since dead, but who, dabbling in every kind 
of scholarship, and contrary to all honesty, sent away the manuscript 
to Europe, without saying a word to its unsuspecting, and too obliging 
owner. I hasten, therefore, to communicate these notes to the Royal Asiatic 
Society, whilst the outline and the contents of the two lost volumes are still 
fresh in my memory. 
The preface to Isn Kuarpty’s Prolegomena contains much profound 
reflection upon the usefulness and the importance of history as a science, 
and upon the manner in which annals and chronicles ought to be digested, 
and committed to writing. After this preface follows an essay on historical 
criticism, in which the Author enters into a discussion on various occur- 
rences, which have been believed as true, and often related as such, on the 
authority of the major part of the Arabian historians, although they really 
are either adscititious or totally unfounded, or, at least, highly improbable. 
Of these he chiefly enumerates: 1. the journey of the Israelites across 
the desert, with an army of six hundred thousand warriors, a number 
which he esteems exaggerated; 2. the conquests of the Zobbas, ancient 
Hamyarite kings of Yemen ; 3. the fable concerning the paradise of Irem; 
4. the preposterous assertion, that a love affair betwixt Ja’rar and the 
sister of HArGN-AR-RASHiD brought about the ruin of the Barmacides ; 
5. the scandalous and defamatory anecdotes from the private lives of several 
khalifs; and 6. the story about the origin of the Edrisites, and the Mogh- 
rabine Aghlabites. He next enters upon an elaborate defence of Mana Di, 
the first ancestor of the Mohavides, wherein he lays hold ofthis oppor- 
tunity, to expose the ridiculous assumption of some teachers in the mosques 
and would-be antiquaries, who, in the more modern times of Islamism, 
