LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 77 



Asia. Egypt became a second time the asylum of 

 letters and art ; and the Spanish Jew, Benjamin 

 Tudela, relates in his Itinerary that he found in 

 Alexandria more than twenty schools for the cultiva- 

 tion of philosophy. At a later period Cairo possessed 

 numerous colleges, some of which were so substan- 

 tially built as to serve, during a rebellion, the pur- 

 pose of a citadel for the army. The royal library 

 consisted of 100,000 manuscripts, elegantly tran- 

 scribed and splendidly bound, which were lent out 

 to the students without jealousy or avarice. In its 

 arrangement, the first place was given to copies and 

 interpretations of the Koran ; the next to writings 

 on the traditions of Mohammed ; books on law 

 succeeded; and after these philology, poetry, and 

 science, in their respective order. 



The historians of Africa dwell with pride on the 

 academical institutions which adorned the towns 

 scattered along its northern coasts. Cairoan, La- 

 race, Fez, and Morocco, were endowed with magni- 

 ficent establishments for the instruction of the people ; 

 and their rich libraries preserved to Europe many 

 valuable works which nowhere else existed. It 

 was in Spain that Arabian learning shone with a 

 brighter lustre, and continued to flourish to a later 

 period, than in the schools of the East. Cordova, 

 Seville, and Granada, rivalled each other in the 

 magnificence of their academies, colleges, and libra- 

 ries. The former city, celebrated as the birthplace 

 of the poet Lucan and the two Senecas, possessed a 

 celebrated university in the time of the Romans. 

 Its reputation did not degenerate under the Sara- 

 cens, and Casiri has enumerated the names and 

 writings of nearly 170 eminent men, natives of this 



VOL. II. E 



