1842.] General Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Paris. 423 



the title of the " History of the Berbers," treats all that during the mid- 

 dle ages refers to the Moghreb. It has charged Mr. de Slane with the 

 publication of this important work, which will be printed at Algiers, 

 and form two large volumes, containing the text of Ibn-Khaldoun, 

 a French translation, and a historical commentary. The editor has 

 succeeded in collecting a sufficient number of manuscripts, and the 

 unwearied kindness of Mr. Weijers, has placed at his disposal the manu- 

 scripts of the library of Ley den. The printing of this work has com- 

 menced, and from all circumstances we may hope, that this excellent 

 undertaking will be brought to a close as speedily as possible. 



Mr. Cureton, conservator of the manuscripts of the British Muse- 

 um, has commenced printing the History of Religions by Scharistani, 

 written in the first years of the sixth Hegira. The labours of Pococke 

 and Hyde had a long time since spread the fame of this work, which 

 successively treats respecting the orthodox and heretic sects of the Mu- 

 sulmans, the philosophic schools, the Persian and Sabean sects, the 

 superstition of the antient Arabs, and especially contains on these last 

 subjects a mass of facts, which elsewhere in vain are to be looked for. 

 It is one of those Arabic works, which in our time, when the history 

 of religions has become the object of so much research, will excite the 

 most vivid interest of the public, and we cannot help congratulating the 

 Society for the printing of Oriental texts, to have selected this as their 

 first publication. As Mr. Cureton has no intention of giving a trans- 

 lation, it is a fortunate circumstance, that Mr. Schmcelder at Bonn has 

 been since some years occupied in preparing a translation and edition of 

 the same work, and it is possible, that the undertaking of Mr. Cureton, 

 from which he may derive so many facilities for his translation, may 

 induce him to relinquish the publication of the text. Mr. Schmcelder is 

 eminently qualified for a labour of this kind by his studies of the philo- 

 sophy of the Arabs, the first result of which he has given in his " Dom- 

 menta Philosophise Arabum, Bonn, 1836," promising at the same time a 

 new work of the same kind, which is to contain some memoirs on the 

 philosophy of the Arabs, preceded by a treatise of Ghazali. This labour 

 has met with the approbation of the Academy of Inscriptions, which 

 has been recommended to the Minister of Public Instruction, to 

 add it to the number of works encouraged by the French govern- 

 ment. 



