560 



CUENZA CUFIC WRITING AND COINS. 



population, 0000. It is a bishop's see. It contains a 

 cathedral, thirteen parishes, six monasteries, an hos- 

 pital, a seminary, and three colleges. It was built 

 by the Moors, on a high and craggy lull, between 

 the rivers Xucar and Hucscar, which makes it natu- 

 rally strong. Here the painter Salmeron, and the 

 famous Jesuit Molina, were lx>rn. The north and 

 east part of the province is mountainous, and fit only 

 for sheep pasture ; the other parts are fertile, pro- 

 ducing corn, hemp, fruit, &c. Population of the 

 province, 296,650 ; square miles, 11,884. 



CUEXZA, or BAMBA ; a town of Colombia, in 

 Quito, capital of a province ; 150 miles S. Quito ; 

 loft. 79 13' W. ; lat. 2" 55* S. ; population 15 or 

 20,000. The streets are straight and broad, and the 

 houses mostly of adobes, or unburnt bricks. The en- 

 virons are very fertile and pleasant. The town con- 

 tains three churches, four convents, two nunneries, 

 an hospital, a chamber of finance, &c. 



CUENZA, SIERRA DE ; a chain of mountains which 

 runs through the province of the same name. See 

 Cwfnza. 



CUEVA, JOHN DE LA ; a poet, born hi Seville, about 

 the middle of the 16th century. A great facility in 

 the composition of verses, in which Ovid was his mo- 

 del, determined him to apply himself to the dramatic 

 art, in which Torres Naharro had successfully resisted 

 the attempts of some learned theatrical amateurs to 

 force the Greek and Latin drama upon the people. 

 In connexion with Naharro, Lope de lluedra, and 

 Christopher de Castillejo, he confirmed the old divi- 

 sion into comedias divinas y humanas, while he made 

 liis pieces more interesting than those of his prede- 

 cessors, by introducing greater variety in the drama- 

 tis persona, by more finished verses, and by the divi- 

 sion into three jornados, or acts. His works, which 

 are now rare in Spain, may be found in the Parnaso 

 Espannol (vol. 8. 16). The earliest of his composi- 

 tions are Poesias Lyricas (Seville, 1582), of the same 

 character with the Corofebeo de Romances historiales 

 (Seville, 1588). His heroic poem, La Conquista de 

 la Betica, in 20 cantos (Seville, 1602, also in Fernan- 

 dez's collection, vols. 14, 15), has beauties enough 

 in the execution to make amends for the defects of 

 the plan. The Comedias y Tragedias, published at 

 Seville, in 1588, were received with applause in their 

 time, in tliis poetical city, but offended, even then, 

 by the introduction of allegorical personages hi the 

 action. In the Parnaso Espannol there is a work of 

 Cueva's, written in terzets, on the art of poetry, which 

 contains many interesting facts with regard to the 

 old Spanish drama. Cueva died at the commence- 

 ment of the seventeenth century. 



CUFIC WRITING and CUFIC COINS. The 

 written characters of which the Arabians now make 

 use, and with which we meet in printed works, viz., 

 the Neskhi characters, are an invention of the fourth 

 century of the Hegira. Before this tune, the Cufic 

 characters, so called from the town of Cufa, where 

 they are said to have been invented, were in use. 

 These old characters have so much resemblance to 

 the ancient Syriac writing, the Estrangel, that it 

 hardly admits of a doubt, that the Arabians borrow 

 ed them from the inhabitants of Syria. Historical 

 traditions confirm this supposition. The Cufic cha- 

 racters, and, perhaps, others at an earlier date, which 

 essentially resembled them, were probably first in- 

 troduced among the Arabians a short time before 

 Mohammed. Although we are, at present, ignorant 

 of the characters which were previously hi use among 

 them, and although the imperfect accounts of the 

 Mussulman writers throw very little light upon the 

 subject, yet it is scarcely credible that the Arabians 

 remained destitute of a written character until the 

 sixth century of the Christian era. Perhaps traces of 



the earlier diameter are to be found in the Palniy- 

 rene and Phoenician inscriptions, and also on die 

 coins of the Sassanides. We find the transition of 

 the Cufic to the Nesklii on the ruins of Cliilminar. 

 The influence which the school of Cufa exerted on 

 Islamism caused the use of the cliaracter wliich pro- 

 ceeded from it ; and when the others liad fallen into 

 oblivion, Cufic writing was the name commonly ap- 

 plied to all kinds of Arabic writing, previous to the 

 cliange made by Ebn Mokla. A knowledge of it is 

 important on account of the many monuments in 

 wliich it is preserved ; especially the coins inscribed 

 with Cufic cliaracters and made in the first centuries 

 of the Hegira. 



Under the name of Cufic coins are comprehended 

 the ancient coins of the Mohammedan princes, gene- 

 rally without emblems, inscribed and circumscrilx'd 

 on both sides, which have been found, in modern 

 times, to be important documents for illustrating the 

 history, languages, and religions of the East. The 

 little art displayed in the impression of these coins, 

 is the reason why the earlier travellers through the 

 East too often overlooked them. These coins are 

 some of gold (dinar), others of silver (dirhem), and 

 others of brass (fuls). The silver corns, however, 

 are the most frequent, and the discovery of large 

 treasures of them on the shores of the Baltic has par- 

 ticularly attracted to them the attention of learned 

 men. Their form was borrowed by the Arabian 

 caliphs from that of the Byzantine and Chosroean 

 silver and copper coins. They are to be considered 

 as the earliest of this class of coins, now daily in- 

 creasing. Agreeably to Adler's suggestion, who 

 first accurately investigated these coins (Museum 

 Cuficum Borgianum), they are divided, according 

 to the dynasties under wliich they were made, 

 into twelve classes, in wliich, without any refer, 

 ence to the country to which they belong, every- 

 thing which ought to be connected with them is com- 

 bined. In the countries around the Baltic, as well 

 as in the central provinces of European Russia, the 

 silver coins most frequently found are those of the 

 caliphs, the Ommiades as well as the Abbassides ; 

 then those of the emirs of the Soffarides, the Buwai- 

 hides, &c., but especially of the dynasty of the Sama 

 nides, which were struck between the middle of the 

 seventh and the beginning of the eleventh centuries 

 of the Christian era. Those of the tenth century are 

 the most common. This fact has not been satisfac- 

 torily explained. Amber, girls for the harem, as well 

 as costly furs, which the Russians at that time brought 

 for sale to the Wolga, according to Fosslan's ac- 

 count of a journey at the beginning of the tenth cen- 

 tury of the Christian era, appear to have been most 

 frequently exchanged for them. Gold, in this com- 

 merce, was used only in bars ; and, in order to make 

 payments, in their transactions, with greater facility, 

 or in order to have a medium of exchange for things 

 of little value, the coins were broken ; of which we 

 have abundant evidence. By accurate investigations 

 in the countries where this money is found, the dili- 

 gence and learning of the orientalists, Adler, Reiske, 

 Ol. Tychsen, Silv. de Sacy, Hallenberg, Malm- 

 stroem, Rasmussen, Fraehn, Castiglioni (who has pub- 

 lished a valuable work upon the Cufic coins of the 

 imperial museum at Milan), Muenter and Th. Tych- 

 sen, have succeeded in arranging a tolerably perfect 

 series of the several dynasties. Th. Tychsen's 

 treatise De Defectibus Rei Numaria Muhammedanor. 

 (in the 5th volume of the Comment. Soc. Gott. recen~ 

 HOT.), will enable the student to understand the de- 

 ficiences of this science. Fraehn, of Petersburg, now 

 counsellor of state (author of a commentary upon the 

 cabinet of the Mohammedan coins in the Asiatic 

 museum at Petersburg), has been reputed to be the 



