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poses of idolatry; and also to their improvement in physic and anatomy, from the foolish superstition respecting the examination of the sepulchre. At one period of their history there flourished among them poets, astronomers, historians, orators, and physicians, Al-hazen improved optics, and Mahomet Mose is said to have discovered algebra. During the reign of Al-mamon[1], which may be termed their Augustan age, the learning of the Greeks was transfused into the Arabian language, learned foreigners were invited, schools and colleges founded, whilst Europe comparatively was in ignorance, and to their translations we are indebted for the recovery of several
- ↑ Al-mamon, the seventh Caliph of the family of the Abassides, who flourished about the year 820, has the honour of being the founder of the modern Arabian learning, Almanzor, about fifty years before Al-mamon, commenced the literary reform, when he moved the imperial seat from Damascus to Bagdad, and extended the Arabian literature, which had been confined to medicine, and a few other branches, to sciences of every denomination, Al-mamon completed the work which Almanzor begun.
