LITKRATURE OF THE ARABS. 77 



tion, and the desire to leave no subject untouched, 

 that Ibn Zaid of Cordova, and Abul Mondar of 

 Valencia, wrote a Genealogical History of celebrated 

 Horses ; as did Alasueco and Abdolmalec that of 

 Camels which had risen to distinction. This last- 

 mentioned author and eminent antiquary rendered 

 to his countrymen the same literary service that 

 Bayle and IMoreri conferred on Europeans, by giv- 

 ing them a copious historical dictionary. The Arabs 

 possessed encyclopaedias, gazetteers, and other simi- 

 lar compilations on critical and biographical sub- 

 jects. They were familiar, in short, with all those 

 inventions which curtail labour, dispense with the 

 necessity of research, and afford facilities to indo- 

 lence or curiosity. The Dictionary of the Sciences, 

 by Mohammed Abu Abdullah of Granada, was an 

 elaborate work, consisting of eleven parts, of which 

 a fragment of the seventh and the four last are still 

 extant. A similar compilation was made by the 

 renowned Farabi, who spoke seventy-two languages, 

 and wrote on every science then known. 



With numismatics the' Saracens were well ac- 

 quainted. Namari and IVIakrizi wrote histories of 

 Arabian money ; the latter also produced a treatise 

 on the legal weights and measures. Azaker wrote 

 commentaries on the first inventors of the arts ; and 

 Gazali, in his learned work on Arabian antiquities, 

 treated in a profound manner of the studies and dis- 

 coveries of his countrymen. 



Of geography they had, so far as their limited 

 means went, a tolerably accurate knowledge. The 

 library at Cairo could boast of two massive globes, 

 one of which was of brass, the other of pure silver, 

 constructed by an Arabian cosmographer, which 

 weighed 3000 drachms, and is said to have cost as 

 many thousand crowns of gold. In this department 

 Abuifeda holds a conspicuous rank. The Sheriff 

 Edrisi of Cordova, who made the celebrated silver 

 globe for Roger H.. kincr of Sicilv, is jiTstly distin- 



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