CHAP. II.] INDIAN, ARABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 



Abou-zeyd the portions of the " Meadows of Gold " 1 in 

 which reference is made to Ceylon. 



In the order of time, this is the place to allude to 

 another Arabian mariner, whose voyages have had a 

 world-wide renown, and who, more than any other 

 author, ancient or modern, has contributed to familiarise 

 Europe with the name and wonders of Serendib. I allude 

 to " Sindbad of the Sea," whose voyages were first inserted 

 by Galland, in Ins French translation of the " Thousand- 

 and-one Nights." Sindbad, in his own tale, professes to 

 have lived in the reign of the most illustrious Khalif of 

 the Abbassides, 



" Sole star of all that place and time ; 

 And saw him, in his golden prime, 

 The good Haroun Alraschid." 



But Haroun died, A.D. 808, and Sindbad's narrative 

 is so manifestly based on the recitals of Abou-zeyd and 

 Massoudi, that although the author may have lived 

 shortly after, it is scarcely possible that he could have 

 been a contemporary of the great ruler of Bagdad. 2 



One inference is clear, from the story of Sindbad, 

 that whilst the sea-coast of Ceylon was known to the 

 Arabians, the interior had been little explored by 

 them, and was so enveloped in mystery* that any tale of 

 its wonders, however improbable, was sure to gain 

 credence. Hence, what Sindbad relates of the shore 

 and its inhabitants is devoid of exaggeration: in his 



1 A translation of MASSOUDI'S 

 Meadows of Gold in English was 

 begun by Dr. Sprenger for the 

 " Oriental Translation Fund," but it 

 has not advanced beyond the first 

 volume, which was published in 1841. 



2 REIXATJD notices the Ketab-al- 

 ctjayb, or " Book of Wonders," of 

 MASSOTJDI, as one of the works whence 

 the materials of Sindbad's Voyages 

 were drawn. (Introd. ABOTJLFEDA, 

 vol. i. p. Ixxvii.) HOLE published in 

 1797 A.D. his learned Remarks on 

 the Origin of Sindbad's Voyages, and 



in that work, as well as in LANGLE'S 

 edition of Sindbad ; and in the notes 

 by LANE to his version of the ' Arabian 

 Nights' Etdertainjnent" EDRISI, KAZ- 

 WINI, and many other writers are 

 mentioned whose works contain pa- 

 rallel statements. But though Edrisi 

 and Kazwini wrote in the twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries, it does not 

 follow that the author of Sindbad 

 lived later than they, as both may 

 have borrowed their illustrations 

 from the same early sources. 



