Xii INTRODUCTION. 



It is true, Mr Chalgrin, a young French fludentin archf- 

 tecture,accepted thepropofal, andfentaneat fpecimen of rec- 

 tilineal architecture. Even this gentleman might have 

 been of fome ufe, but his heart failed him ; he would have 

 wiflied the credit of the undertaking, without the fatigues 

 of the journey. At lafl Mr Lumifden, by accident, heard of a 

 young man who was then ftudying architecture at Rome, a 

 native of Bologna, whofe name was Luigi Balugani. I can 

 appeal to Mr Lumifden, now in England, as to the extent of 

 this perfon's practice and knowledge, and that he knew 

 very little when firft fent to me. In the twenty months 

 which he ftaid with me at Algiers, by affiduous application 

 to proper fubjects under my inftruction, he became a very 

 conliderable help to me, and was the only one that ever I 

 made ufe of, or that attended me for a moment, or ever 

 touched one representation of architecture in any part of my 

 journey. He contracted an incurable diflemper in Palefline, 

 and died after a long ficknefs, foon after I entered Ethiopia, 

 after having fufFered conftant ill-health from the time he 

 left Sidon. 



While travelling in Spain, it was a thought which fre- 

 quently fuggefted itfelf to me, how little informed the 

 world yet waj in the hiftory of that kingdom and mo- 

 narchy. The Mooriih part in particular, when it was moil 

 celebrated for riches and for fcience, was fcarcely known 

 but from fome romances or novels. It feemed an under- 

 taking worthy of a man of letters to refcue this period 

 from the oblivion or neglect under which it laboured. 

 Materials were not wanting for this, as a conliderable num- 

 ber of books remained in a neglected and almolt unknown 

 language, the Arabic. I endeavoured to find accefs to fome 



of 



