Sect. II.] Arabic Literature. 261 



Arabia, by the observations of several travellers, 

 and by the labours of various learned men. 



Early in the century Adrian Reland, of Holland, 

 and John Hudson, and Mr. le Roque *, of Great- 

 Britain, laboured much, and with very honourable 

 success, to illustrate the literature and science of 

 Arabia. They were followed by Albert Schul- 

 tens f , of Holland, and George Costard J, an En- 

 glish divine, who were certainly among the most 

 accomplished Arabic scholars of the age, and 

 whose various publications contributed to extend 

 this species of knowledge. The latter, in particu- 

 lar, distinguished himself by his illustrations of Ara- 

 bian astronomy; and has been pronounced, by a 

 good judge, to be one of the most profound orien- 

 tal astronomers ever born out of Asia. In Arabic 

 literature, also, the labours of the Michaelises, 

 Hezel, Wahl, Paulus, Bode, and Storr, of Ger- 

 many ; of professor White and sir William Jones, 

 of Great Britain ; and of M. Renaudot, the abb6 

 Marigny, and M. de Sacy, of France, deserve to 

 be mentioned with high encomium. To the above 

 may be added the information communicated by 



* Translation of Abulfeda's Arabia, 12mo, Lond. 17I8. And 

 also his Account of Arabian Customs and Manners, 12mo, Lond. 

 1/32. 



-f- Mommenta Antiquissimoe Historic Arohum. Schultens sig- 

 nalised himself by maintaining, in opposition to Gousset and 

 Driessen, that, in order to gain a perfect knowledge of the He- 

 brew, it was necessar}' to join with it not only Chaldeac and 

 Syriac, but also, and more particularly, the Arabic. 



+ See his Letters on the Rise and Progress nf Astronomy among 

 the Ancients, 8vo, 174^: and aho hh General History of Astro" 

 nomy, including that of the Arabians, 4to, 1777. 



