1854.] Literary Intelligence. 193 



Asiatique. M. Cherbonneau's translation of that part of Ibn 

 Batutah's Travels which relates to Northern Africa and Egypt, is a 

 further contribution to this department of literature. 



" The 1st volume of de Slane's translation of Ibn Khaldoun's His- 

 tory of the Berbers has been published — the text, it will be remem- 

 bered, was brought out some years ago by the same editor. An intro- 

 duction gives an analysis of the entire work, a genealogical list of the 

 Maghrebin Arab dynasties, the life of Ibn Khaldoun, and an alphabe- 

 tical table of geographical names, while an Appendix contains extracts 

 relative to the Arab conquest of Africa from a history of Egypt by 

 'Abderrahman ibn' Abd el Hakim and from the great work of Noweiri. 

 The Abbe Barges has translated another Arabic work on the Berbers 

 called History of the Beni Zeian, kings of Teemcen, a Berber family, 

 which rose to importance on the ruins of the Western Caliphate, 

 and maintained their position from the 13th to the 16th centuries 

 of our era. 



" Sprenger's Life of Muhammad is then noticed as adding many 

 new facts to what was previously known of the prophet's life, together 

 with another work entitled, Life and religion of Muhammad as con- 

 tained in the Sheeah tradition of the Hyat al koloub. The author, 

 Mr. Merrick, is an American Missionary, who lived for some years 

 in Persia, and whose object was to give a faithful exposition of the 

 Sheeah traditions according to the Hadits acknowledged by that 

 sect. Muhammad Baber, the author of the Hyat al koloub was one 

 of the most esteemed of Sheeah writers, and died in 1697. 



" Dr. Juynboll of Leyden, besides continuing his Lexicon Greogra- 

 phicum, has commenced an edition of Abou Mahasen's Annals of 

 Egypt. This author resided at Cairo in the 15th century and was 

 the disciple and rival of Makrisi. The text will occupy 1 2 vols, and 

 is to be accompanied by a translation. Dozy too has added another 

 volume to his materials for a future history of the Arabs in Spain, 

 containing extracts from the several Arab authors who have written 

 on the Abbadian dynasty. Another work by the same author, giv- 

 ing portions of two Chronicles on the subject of the Arabs of Spain 

 and Africa, opens with a valuable introduction which criticises the 

 Arab Spanish historians, exposing their defects and indicating such 

 of the works as it is of importance to recover. 



2 c 2 



