76 LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



ance of provisions of all kinds. There were baths 

 set apart for their use, and a physician employed 

 to attend them at the caliph's expense. 



The example of the sovereign was sometimes fol- 

 lowed by viziers and governors. Achmed ibn Tolun, 

 viceroy of Egypt, distributed every month among the 

 most distinguished ecclesiastics in that country 1000 

 dinars of gold (462, 10s.) ; and sent to Bagdad not 

 less than 2,200,000 dinars (1,01 7,500) for the bene- 

 fit of the poor and the learned in that city. Another 

 vizier founded a college there at the expense of 

 200,000 (92,500), and endowed it with an annual 

 revenue of 15,000 dinars (6937, 10s.) The benefits 

 of public instruction in that capital were communi- 

 cated, perhaps at different times, to 6000 students 

 of every degree, from the son of the noble to that 

 of the mechanic. The celebrity of its schools may 

 be inferred from the vast numbers of poets, histo- 

 rians, physicians, and astronomers, which it pro- 

 duced ; and for several ages it abounded in learned 

 men, in the various departments of science, more 

 than any other place in the Moslem dominions. 



In every considerable town, schools, academies, and 

 libraries, were established. Bussora and Cufa almost 

 equalled the capital itself in reputation, and in the 

 number of celebrated authors and treatises which 

 they produced. Damascus, Aleppo, Balkh, Ispa- 

 han, and Samarcand, became renowned as seats of 

 science. It was the glory of every city to collect 

 the treasures of literature ; and we are told that a 

 private doctor refused the invitation of the sovereign 

 of Bokhara, because the carriage of his books would 

 have required 400 camels. The same enthusiasm 



was carried by the Saracens beyond the frontiers of 



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