^ xii P R E F A G T:. 
ment and hiftory of the country, have no fentiment 
of antient glory, and are wholly immerfed in gain 
or pleafure. 
Settled in the compofure of ignorance, they can- 
not conceive the motive of minute inquiries; and 
timid and refer ved, they fear to difeover even what 
they know. 
The more liberal among the Mohammedan eccle- 
fiaftics, may be fafely confulted for what concerns 
literature and the laws, and fome few of them are 
communicative ; but in general they defpife ftran- 
gers, and do not readily anfwer queftions not of the 
moft ordinary occurrence. On the whole, the moft 
intelligent and communicative among the people of 
Kahira are the Mohammedan merchants, of a cer- 
tain rank, who have viiited various parts of the em- 
pire, and who have learned to think that all wifdom 
is not confined to one country or one race of men ; 
and who having been led to mix, firft by neceflity 
and then by choice, with various nations, preferve 
their attachment to their own perfuafion, without 
thinking 
