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PREFACE.
indefensible, the outworks must fall. The authorities here principally relied on are beyond fair exception, viz. Sale and Gibbon: the former of whom has been styled half a Musulman and the latter not half a Christian[1]. Their references, it is well known, besides the best modern authors, include the names of Abul-feda[2] and Abul-pharagius; to which maybe added, Beidawi, Elmacin, Jallaòddin, Jannabi, Zamacshari, and others of acknowledged celebrity in questions of this description; though, after all, it is remarkable, that they cannot appeal to any writers within the first century of the Hegira[3].
After the expiration of two hundred years,
- ↑ See Maltby.
- ↑ Gibbon, who is certainly entitled to the praise of sparing no pains to collect the earliest and most authentic materials, fairly allows, that both Abul-feda and Jannabi are modern historians, and that they cannot appeal to any writers of the first century of the Hegira,—See Maltby's Illustrations.
- ↑ See Maltby.
