196 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 



ence upon the revival of letters in Christendom. The house of 

 Abbas, which reigned at Bagdad in the eighth century, produced 

 three illustrious protectors of arts and letters, the caliphs Abou 

 Djafar Manzour, more familiarly called Almanzor ; Haroun al 

 Raschid, celebrated in that attractive work. The Arabian Nights; 

 and his son Abdallah Mamoun, or Almamon, conspicuous above 

 the rest as a benefactor to science, and whose name deserves to 

 be transmitted to the lastest posterity. The favourite pursuit of 

 this caliph, who flourished in the early part of the ninth century, 

 was astronomy : numerous observatories were constructed during 

 his reign, in which the measure of a degree of the meridian was 

 taken. Bagdad, the seat of his government, was renowned for 

 its cultivation of the sciences ; camels entered its gates loaded 

 with manuscripts, which the munificence of the caliph had col- 

 lected, and all those productions which were calculated to en- 

 large the minds of his subjects, were selected and translated into 

 Arabian. Their knowledge of the works of Plato and Aristotle, 

 had been derived from the Greeks, and one of the conditions of 

 the peace, which Almamon imposed upon the Greek emperor 

 Michael the III., was a tribute of works in the Greek tongue. 

 Every branch of knowledge was protected by this sovereign of 

 the Saracens — astronomy, poetry, classics, medicine, and chem- 

 istry — he even caused books to be drawn up on the utility of ani- 

 mals, and to be illustrated with figures of beasts, birds, and fishes. 



The poetry of the Arabians began at a very early period, 

 favoured by the lively minds, and fertile imaginations, of that 

 free and roving people. There is a collection extant of their old 

 national songs, with remarks upon the manners of the ancient 

 Arabs, entitled Aghany ; made by Aboul Faradge Ali, a native 

 of Ispahan, who died A. D. 966. > Such was the estimation in 

 which poetry was held, that Mahomet himself was flattered by one 

 of the chapters of the Koran, being judged worthy to be suspend- 

 ed in the temple of Mecca, with seven celebrated poems, that had 

 received that honour. Colleges and schools soon arose in every 

 quarter. Under the Fatimite caliphs, Egypt presented a spec- 

 tacle it had not known since the days of the Ptolemies ; and Fez 

 and Morocco, now plunged in the darkest ignorance, rivalled 

 Egypt in the cultivation of letters. But in no part of the world 

 do the attainments of the Arabians shine with greater lustre than 

 in Spain. Cordova, Grenada, Valencia, Seville, abounded in 



