1854.] Literary Intelligence. 195 



which has been published at Cambridge, this being in general 

 use in oriental schools. A treatise of Alkarkhi an Arab mathemati- 

 cian of our 11 th century which has just been brought out by Woepcke 

 will supply a gap in the history of mathematics and fix the true 

 position of the Arabs between the Greeks and the Italians, a 

 position which has given rise to much discussion. 



" The review of what has been done by France and England respec- 

 tively in Turkish Arabia is very short, but a contrast drawn between 

 the style of publication adopted in the two countries, announces the 

 fact that neither Eawlinson nor Layard possesses a copy of Botta's 

 expensive work. 



"Westergaard's edition of the Zend-Avesta of which the first vol. 

 is published will contain the text of the Zoroastrian sacred books 

 with variants from all the MSS. accessible in Europe, together with 

 a translation and a history of Persia prior to the Arab conquest. A 

 Dictionary and Grammar of the Zend language will be added. The 

 same author has published the facsimile of a Pehlevi MS. call- 

 ed the Bundehesch. Spiegel's text and translation of the Avesta 

 are appearing in two separate works, the first vol. of the latter con- 

 taining a very able essay on the religious history of Persia. The 

 principle which he has observed in interpreting the texts is to fol- 

 low as closely as possible the Persian tradition such as it is given 

 in the Pehlevi and Pazend translations, leaving for prosecution 

 hereafter the task of discovering the ancient meaning of these works 

 by the means furnished by a study of the Vedas and by Com- 

 parative Grammar. It is only thus that the true sense of much of 

 the Zend Avesta can be obtained, and indeed on some points we are 

 already better informed than were the translators of Sassanian times. 

 The study of Zend in Germany has made such progress that Lassen 

 has just brought out a class book for use in the universities. 



" Bopp, having published the 6th and last vol. of his Comparative 

 Grammar, is now engaged in revising the first parts of this work. 



" Johnson's new edition of Richardson's Persian Dictionary which 

 has been brought out at the expense of the East India Company, 

 contains 30,000 words more than the previous edition of 1829. The 

 true merit of this edition consists in the greater care with which 

 Johnson has examined the orioinal Persian Dictionaries which form 



