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any mention. Notwithstanding this omission, his work (the "Habib al Siyar") fills three very bulky

volumes.

Neither has the excellent author of the "Rauzet al Safá," however extensive and voluminous

so, The "Garden of Purity," by Mirkhond, (as we a part of this celebrated author's full name, which was Muhammed ben Khávend

میرخاوند generally abridge Mir Khavend

We محمد بن خاوند شا بن (محمود Shah ben Mahmoud

امیر خاوند شاه or Emir Khavend Shah (محمد میر خاوند شاه)

(

sometimes find it written Muhammed Mir Khávend Sháh

The Rauzét al Safá or, "Garden of Purity," which Casiri, in his Catalogue of the Escurial MSS. (vol. ii. p. 68) styles "The Garden of Delights," (Hortus Deliciarum,) consists of seven jild () or portions, each forming a volume, besides the Khátemáh (l) or Appendix. Sir W. Ouseley, in the Catalogue of his Oriental MSS., thus notices the Rauzét al Safá—“a celebrated work of Emir Khávend, generally called Mirkhond. The seven parts and the geographical appendix (so seldom found) are comprised in seven volumes folio (the fourth and fifth parts being bound together), all in the original magnificent and uniform binding. The value of this work is well known to Orientalists; odd volumes of it are preserved in many collections, but few possess the complete series of seven parts with the appendix." It may be here added that Mirkhond died in the month Dhúl Kaadah of the (Muhammedan) year 903, (corresponding to June, 1498, of the Christian era) aged sixty-six years. This appears from a passage in the Habib al Siyar of his son, Khondemir quoted

this chronicle, perfectly executed the design of such a general compilation, as would afford satisfaction by minute details of all the dynasties; for in his accounts of some he is diffuse and prolix, while of others he furnishes a mere compendium or summary.

Thus, of the BENI OMMIAH he treats very

by M. Am. Jourdain ("Notices et Extraits des MSS." &c. tome ix. p. 6).

بني

أميه :

The sons or descendants of OMMIAH, a considerable personage among the Arabs: he was the son of ABD AL SHAMS. The Ommiah family possessed the supreme government or Khalifat during ninety-one, or, according to some historians, a hundred years; that is, from the year 32 to 132 of the Muselman era (or of the Christian era from 652 to 749). D'Herbelot enumerates the fourteen Khalifahs or sovereigns of the family, which would have been totally exterminated by the BENI ABBAS or ABBASIDES, had not ABDAR RAHMAN BEN MOAVÍAH preserved it in Spain, where he began to reign in the year 139 of the hejrah (or of our era 756) and the Ommiah dynasty continued in that country until the year 424 (or of Christ 1032). See the “Bibliotheque Orientale" of D'Herbelot (in the article Ommiah), and a detailed account of this dynasty in Major Price's most excellent work, the "Retrospect of Mohammedan History." The Tarikh or Chronicle of the Khalifahs (5) composed in Arabic by ASSIÚTI () gives a history of the Ommiah who reigned in Spain.

fully, and to some eminent personages of the BENI ABBAS family he devotes a considerable portion of his chronicle, while others he notices but slightly.

The great sovereigns of Irán and Túrán (Per

We learn from D'Herbelot, that of this بني عباس 6

dynasty (which he denominates the ABBASSIDES) thirty-seven KHALIFAHS reigned during a space of 523 years, from the year of the hejirah 132 until the year 656 (or from 749 of the Christian era to 1258). The Abbassides proved so prolific, that under the Khalifat of MÁMÚN (A. H. 200, of Christ 815) the number of males and females of this family amounted to thirty-three thousand persons. D'Herbelot gives a list of the thirty-seven ABBASSIDE Sovereigns; see the "Bibliotheque Orientale," in Abbassides, and Major Price's "Retrospect of Mohammedan History," quoted in the preceding note.

7

و

Under this name (Iran), says the learned De Sacy, Eastern writers comprehend all that extent of country which is included within the River Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, the River Jaihún (or Oxus) and the River Indus, whilst they express by the name of Túrán all that part of Asia which lies beyond the River Jaihún. (See the "Memoires sur diverses Antiquités de la Perse," &c. p. 52.) Thus the word Túrán implied Scythia, Transoxiana, Turkomania, the country of Tátárs (or, as we call it, Tartary), &c. It appears from various Pahlavi inscriptions deciphered by M. de Sacy, (see the work above quoted,) and by Sir W. Ouseley, in his "Observations on Medals and Gems bearing Pahlavi Inscriptions" that during two or three centuries the reigning Sassanian monarch of Persia styled himself" King of the Kings of

8

sia and Turkomania) chiefly occupy his pages; but the Arabian, Egyptian, and Syrian monarchs have been wholly rejected by his pen; even the petty or minor kings of Persia he has omitted."

In the same respect, other compilations of general history are liable to the charge of deficiency or omission, which must be supplied or corrected from the examination of different works relating distinctly to particular dynasties.

10

Originally the learned men of Maghreb 1o and Andalus (Africa and Spain) employed great skill

11

Irán and Anírán”—names equivalent in signification to the modern Irán and Túrán. We learn from the dictionary "Burhan Kateâ " (in voce) that "Túrán is the name of a region lying on the farther side of the Ab i Amú," or the River Amú (the Jaihún or Oxus), that is, the country of Máwer al nahr (Transoxiana); and as FERIDÚN (one of the most ancient monarchs) had bestowed the supreme government of this country on his eldest son TÚR, it was after him named Túrán—

توران نام و لایتر است بر انطرف آب آمو يعني ماورا النهر و چون این ملک را فریدون بتور پسر بزرگ خود داده بود بتوران

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8 The kings of Arab (c) Arabia; Misr (a) Egypt;

and Shám ((^), Syria.

9

بلکه ملوك خورد و ریزه ایران را نیز ننوشته

10 See the second note in page 3.

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But this name is accented in the MS. thus

Undulus. So likewise in the Burhan Katea. This dictionary,

in historical compositions, and have written a "Táríkh" (,) or Chronicle on the affairs, not only of every kingdom or province, but of every district and city.

Next to them, the ingenious historians of Egypt and Syria have most ably exerted their talents in this line of literature.

Then may be placed those of Hejáz 12 and Ye

men,

13 and after them the Iránian or Persian au

however, informs us that the two first syllables are sometimes accented with fat-hhah, justifying the pronunciation of Andalus ); and as this accords better with the Spanish Andalusia,

it is adopted throughout the following pages.

12

We learn from some remarks prefixed by the editor to "Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia," that certain Eastern writers divide Arabia into two parts, Yemen and Hejáz; others into five great provinces, Yemen, Hejáz, Nejed, Tehama, and Yemama; but the three last mentioned, however extensive, are often regarded as portions of Hejúz, which comprises those territories considered by Muselmáns as sacred, the cities of Mekkah and Medinah, &c. But this name (Hejáz) is not used by the Arabian Bedouins in the usual acceptation of the word; they call Hejáz exclusively the mountainous country comprehending many fertile valleys south of Tayf, &c. (See "Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia," Pref., pp. viii, ix, x.) By some writers Hejáz is identified with Arabia Petræa or the Stony; by others confounded with Arabia Deserta.

13

يمن

Arabia Felix, or the Happy.

"Iaman, ou Yemen,"

says M. D'Herbelot, "province de l'Arabie, qui fait la troi

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