404 Account of the great Historical Work of Inn Kuazpvun. 
Arabs, partly professed the religion of Moses; whilst others were either 
Christians or heathens, worshippers of the sun, the moon, the fire, &c. 
This section or chapter, which is very material to the history of Morocco, 
seems to have been little used, either by Arabian or other historiographers, 
who have attempted to collect and lay open what has happened in ancient 
times, amongst the nations who occupy the summits and the sides of the 
Moroccean Atlas, and the two kingdoms of Tandja and Sebtah, so famous 
during the middle ages. In this part of the work, as well as every where 
else, Inn Kuaxptw occasionally offers the most curious and valuable 
information concerning the northern parts of Soudan, or the land of the 
Negroes, and of the warfare and the conquests made by the Berbers to the 
south of the Great Desert. In one word, among all the numerous Arabic 
and other Oriental manuscripts that are mouldering in the rich libraries 
of Europe, and still more, amongst all those that have hitherto been 
published, with or without translations, there is not one that offers such an 
assemblage of worth, rarity, importance, general utility, and extensive 
learning, with respect to the history of Africa, as this most excellent work 
of A’pp-ar-RAHMAN IBN Kuatpty. And I do not consider myself 
going too far in asserting, that the skilful and learned Arabic scholar who 
would undertake to make an abridged and commented translation of this 
classical work, into a generally known European language, would reap ever- 
lasting honour and praise, and at the same time, in a high degree, deserve 
well of the whole commonwealth of letters.* 
Florence, June 11, 1831. 
* The Rev. Professor Lee, is now engaged on a translation of this work, which is to be 
published by the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. 
