124 Meynard's lbn Khordddheh. [No. 2, 



Remarks on Barbier de Meynard's edition of lbn Khordddheh and on 

 the Land-tax of the empire of the Khalyfs. — By Dr. A. Sprenger. 



[Received 23rd February, 1866.] 

 Le livre des routes et des provinces d' lbn KJwrdadbeh, texte arabe 

 pubUe : traduit, et annote par C. Barbier de Meynard. Paris, 1865. 



Monsieur Barbier de Meynard is known to us as the author of the 

 Dictionnaire Greographique de la Perse, and as the editor and translator 

 of the Travels of lbn Batata and of the Golden Meadows (or more 

 correctly, as Grildemeister explains this book title, "the gold washings) 

 of Masvidy. To these important publications he has lately added that 

 of lbn Khordadbeh, and at present he is engaged with Moqaddasy. 

 As soon as he has completed this work, we may say that he has done 

 more for oriental geography, than all Arabists past and living together. 

 Barbier de Meynard has visited the East, and he is an 'Alamdyda and 

 a man of vast erudition. His way of working differs essentially from 

 that of his confreres of the old rotten school. He gives us good texts 

 and close yet elegant translations, and does not waste his time in 

 puerile notes, replete with philological subtleties and nonsensical ex- 

 planations, in which men whose ideas do not extend beyond the 

 narrow limits of the school, delight so much. 



The most ancient MS. of the geography of lbn Khordadbeh is that 

 of Oxford, which has hitherto been considered as unicme. To the 

 zeal of Monsieur Barbier de Meynard and to his knowledge of the 

 East we owe the discovery of another copy, which was found at Con- 

 Btantinople. Notwithstanding this important discovery, it was an 

 extremely difficult task to establish a good text of lbn Khordadbeh^ 

 I do not maintain Barbier de Meynard has succeeded in every in- 

 stance to fix the correct reading, but I assert, without fear of contra- 

 diction, that no Orientalist could have done more for amending the 

 text than he, for no man has a better knowledge of Eastern geography. 

 The editor suffered under one great disadvantage : he could not con- 

 sult the MS. of Oxford, whilst the work went through the press, and 

 the transcript which he made use of was not taken by himself. The 

 Oxonians are as jealous of their literary treasures as an eastern prince 

 of the hundreds of ladies in his harem, and as they have no particular 



