1856.] Origin and progress of writing down historical facts. 377 



Abdalla est aussi auteur d' Odhmat (?) almanqM ''an Danial alnabi, 

 qui est un ouvrage tire d' un livre Apocryphe du prophete Daniel, 

 dans lequel les livres d' Adam sout cites sur 1' histoire de la crea- 

 tion du monde. Cet ouvrage de Ben Salam se trouve dans la Bibl. 

 du Eoj, n. 410. 



Next we find an account of the book of Daniel in Leutprand, 

 who in A. D. 968 went as ambassador of the emperor Otto to Nice- 

 phorus at Constantinople. He says (apwd Fabricium, Cod. Apoc. 

 Vet. Test. I. p. 1136) : Sed cur Imp. Nicephorus Phocas exercitum 

 nunc in Assyrios duxerit quasso advertite. Habent Graaci et Sara- 

 ceni libros quos opao-eis, sive visiones Danielis vocant, ego autem 

 Sybyllinos, in quibus scriptum reperitur, quot annos Imperator 

 quisque vivat, quae sunt futura eo imperante tempora, pax aut simul- 

 tas, secundse Saracenorum res aut adversae. Legitur itaquam, 

 hujus Nicephori temporibus, Assyrios Graecis non posse resistere, 

 huncque septennio tantum vivere. 



It appears that on the strength of this prophecy the enlightened 

 monarch went to war. 



Zonaras mentions that the Khalif Mo'awiyah, captured the book 

 of Daniel, which along with the scripture had been translated, by 

 order of Ptolemy from Hebrew into Greek, and had it translated 

 into Arabic. Later in A. D. 1145 it was re-translated from Arabic 

 into Greek by Alexius Byzantius, a prisoner of war, who kuew well 

 Greek and Arabic. This seems to be another book than the pro- 

 phecies of which we are speaking, because of the prophecies there 

 existed an Arabic version before Mo'awiyah, and the Greek em- 

 peror was guided by them two hundred years before Alexius. Zonaras 

 probably means the work on the explanation of dreams. 



It would be important to know from what language the prophe- 

 cies of Daniel were translated into Arabic. It is most probable 

 that they were translated from the Syriac. In the Imperial library 

 of Vienna (see Lambecius, Lib. I. p. 171) exists in Syriac a " Pro- 

 gnosticon singulorum annorum" ascribed to Daniel. It would bo of 

 great importance to know whether its contents coincide with the 

 Odhmat of 'Abd Allah b. Sallam, and it is to be hoped that the great 

 Syriac scholar, J. Koerle, will give to the public a notice of the former 

 aud the learned and energetic Do Fremery of the latter work. The 



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