1866.] MeynanVs Ibn KlwrcUdbeTi . 125 



predelection for Eastern lore (they have in fact better things to do), 

 they derive abont as mnch advantage from them. I copied the 

 Oxford MS. for my own use, and in some instances I prefer my own 

 reading. Baron de Slane published in the " Journal Asiatique" an 

 account of Qodama's work on the Kharaj, a book which I shall fre- 

 quently quote in this paper. I might probably have avoided many 

 mistakes arising from the incorrectness of my extracts from Qodama, 

 if I had had the good fortune to consult the Baron's remarks, but 

 unfortunately I do not possess the Journal. 



Ibn Khordadbeh wrote about A. H. 250 (A. D. 864.) His geography 

 is small, and fills only 127 pages octavo, but it is of immense importance, 

 inasmuch as it consists almost exclusively of official documents, and 

 contains the caravan and dawk stations of the whole empire of the 

 Khalyfs, and the amount of revenue of every district. I have inserted 

 his itineraries in my " Post-und Reiserouten des Orients," and some of 

 them will be taken from that compilation and embodied, as Mr. Hyde 

 Clark writes to me, in Murray's Guide for the East. 1 therefore give 

 here a short account of the revenue of the Khalyfs, extracted from 

 Ibn Khordadbeh. 



I must premise a few remarks on the weights and measures of the 

 Arabs, making use of the researches which I made on the weights in 

 my Lebenund Lehre des Mohammad, Vol. III. p. 141, and in an essay 

 on the Wegmasse und Gradmessung der Aegypter, Griechen und 

 Araber, which is not yet published. 



The standard of the Musulman weights is the Aureus of Constan- 

 tine: 72 Aurei = 1 Roman pound = 5256 English grains Troy accord- 

 ing to Gibbon, = 6165 grains de Paris according to Bockh. The 

 Aureus, considered as the unit of weight, is called Mithqal, and may be 

 taken = 4.6 Grammes or somewhat more. This weight of pure gold 

 is according to the present value of the precious metals = 15.97 

 Francs. The Musulman Dirham is in weight = T 7 ^- Mithqal, and if 

 consisting of pure silver, its value is = 72 Centimes. 1 Baghdadian 

 ro/1 pound (the one mentioned in law-books) = I28f Dirhams = 

 90 Mithqals = 1J Roman pounds = 409.536 Grammes = 1.1 pound 

 Troy (nearly). 



All other Musulman weights we must reduce, if possible, to the 

 Mithqal (= Dynar = Aureus) ; for there existed various systems : 

 17 



