vi ' PREFACE. 



modern discovery, so as to exhibit the whole at one 

 view and within a moderate compass, is the object 

 of the following volumes. In entering upon a field 

 so ample — unfolding in rapid succession a series 

 of wars, revolutions, and vicissitudes of human 

 fortune without parallel in any age or country — the 

 author was not insensible of the numerous diffi- 

 culties to be encountered. With what degree of 

 success his labours have been attended remains for 

 others to determine. At the same time, it is grati- 

 fying to reflect that at no former period could the 

 task have been undertaken with so many facilities 

 and advantages as at the present moment. The 

 barriers of religious prejudice, which so long kept 

 asunder the Christian and Mohammedan nations, 

 are in a great measure broken down ; the shades 

 of ignorance and romance which in the infancy of 

 navigation brooded over the people and the produc- 

 tions of Arabia have been dispelled ; the character 

 of the wandering Bedouin has been studied in his 

 own deserts ; even the Holy Land of Islam has 

 been trodden by the feet of unbelievers, and the un- 

 circumcised stranger has mingled in the sacred 

 ceremonies of the Kaaba. These circumstances, 

 by bringing to light many new and important facts, 

 have furnished the historian with a rich stock of 

 materials which a few years ago no European 

 writer possessed. Of these sources of information 

 the author has not neglected to avail himself; and, 

 while acknowledging his obligations to the distin- 

 guished travellers, Niebuhr and Burckhardt, he 

 ought also to state that he has not omitted to con- 



