1854.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 407 



The Secretary read an extract from a letter from Dr. Sprenger, 

 dated Alexandria 3rd June, announcing the discovery of a MS. of 

 the original work of Waqidy. 



" I have met with a work of the veritable "Waqidy : I do not mean 

 Ibn Sad, the Secretary of Waqidy, who died in 230, but Mohammad 

 b. 'Omar b. Waqid who was born in 130 and died in 207. Tes, my 

 eyes have seen it and my fiugers have touched it, and what is more, 

 I secured it for the Bibliotheca Iudica ! 



" The work is the <^i&« or Military expeditions of the prophet. 

 It has 392 pp. of 19 lines. The copy was written about A. H. 525 

 or sooner. It belongs to A von Kremer, Dragoman of the Austrian 

 Consulate of Alexandria. He bought it at Damascus, and is 

 anxious to edit it in the Bibliotheca Indica. It is, along with the 

 conquests of Syria, edited by Lees, the most important work in the 

 Arabic literature, infinitely more important than Tabary, being of the 

 first period, and an original work ; whereas Tabary is of the second — 

 a compilation and abstract. 



" I plead guilty to an error and abjure a heresy into which I 

 have fallen in my life of Mohammad p. 71 note 3. If Ibn Qotabah 

 and other old authors quote Waqidy, they mean the veritable Mo- 

 hammad b. 'Omar, and not his secretary, as there stated. 



" As the post will leave this in a quarter of an hour, I cannot give 

 you an outline of the work itself, but the wars of Mohammad appear 

 to be treated in it at three times as great a length as they are in 

 any other known work. He gives us always his authorities and 

 among them, it would appear in some instances written ones, as for 

 instance, Abu Mahsar." 



The Librarian submitted his usual monthly report. 



Libeaey. 

 The following accessions have been made to the Library since the last 

 meeting. 



Presented. 

 Selections from the Eecords of the Madras Government No. II. Report 

 on the Central Museum.— By the Madeas Goveenment. 



Madras Meteorological Observations, 1846— 1850.— By the Same. 

 Natuurkundig Tijdschriffc yoor Nederlandsck Indie, Peel VI. aflevering 

 I. and II. — By the Society of JNatuealists of Netheeland's India. 



