i 54 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER:. 



We patted out at the fouth gate; of the town, into the firft . 

 fmall fandy plain.. A very little to our left, there. are a num- 

 ber of tomhftones with infcriptions in the Cufic character^, 

 which travellers erroneoufly have called unknown language,,, 

 and letters, although it was the only letter and language 

 known to Mahomet, and the moft learned of his feet in the. 

 firft ages. 



The Cufic characters feem to be all written. in capitals,., 

 which one might learn to read much more eafily than the. 

 modern Arabic, and they more referable the Samaritan. 

 We read there — Abdullah el Hejazi el Anfari — Mahomet Ah* 

 del Shems el Taiefy el Anfari. The firft of thefe, Abdullah' 

 el Hejazi, is Abdullah born in Arabia Petrea. The other is, 

 Mahomet the flave of the fun, born in Taief. Now, both of 

 thefe are called Anfari, which many writers, upon Arabian 

 hiftory, think, means, r bom in Medina; becaufe, when Maho- 

 met fled from Mecca, the night of the hegira, the people of 

 Medina received him willingly, and thenceforward got the 

 name of * Anfari, or Helpers. But this honourable name 

 was extended afterwards to all thofe who fought under Ma- 

 homet in his wars, and after, even to thofe who had been 

 born in his lifetime. 



These of whofe tombs we are now fpeaking, were of the 

 army of Haled Ibn elWaalid, whom Mahomet named, Saif 

 Ullah, the ' Sword of God,' and who, in the califat of Omar, , 

 took and deftroyed Syene, after lofinggreat part of his army 



before 



* This word, improperly ufed and fpelled by M. de Volney, has nothing to do witki 

 thefe j&nfaris. 



