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moving to tears and now so diverting as to excite laughter. The
works of al-Jahidh and Ibn Khuidadhbah* remain to be
noticed. They are, however, too short to be of much use. 8 5.
These are the only works on this subject that I have met with
after much inquiry and search and a thorough examination of
public and private libraries. I have endeavoured not to repeat 6
anything which those writers have recorded, nor to narrate any
particulars they have related, 4 except in case of necessity, in order
1 Abu 'Uthman 'Amr ibn Bahr al-Juhidh (ob • 255 H). He was a man of
great learning, but had very imperfect ideas in geography (Reinaud's
Introduct., p. 52). See also in Haji Khal. Vol. V., p. 52, what al-Mas'iidi says
of his work Kitabu-l Amsar
2 Abu-l Qasim 'Ubaidu-llah ibn Khurdadhbah (ob • 300 H.), author of al-
Masdhh wa-l Mamalik. See de Gome's Preface to his edition of this work,
part VI of the Bibho. Geo. Arab series.
8 For these paragraphs C has • I have also seen a book with maps in the
library of as-Sahib, the authorship of which is generally ascribed to Abu Zaid
al-Balkhi. 1 afterwards saw a copy of the same book in Naisabur, transcribed
from the manuscript of ar-Ra'is Abu Muhammad al-Mikali; but this was
without the name of the author, and some have supposed it to bo the work of
Ibnu-l Marzuban al-Karkhi. I have also seen a copy of it in Bukhara, inscribed
with the name of Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi as its author. The
latter statement is the most correct, for I have met with a number of persons
who had come in contact with him and had actually seen him in the act of
composing it, among them al-Hakim Abu Hamid al-Hamadhani and al-
Hakim Abu Nasr al-Harbi. The maps are well executed, but he has fallen into
utter confusion in many parts of his work , while his description is not exhaustive,
nor is there any division of the provinces into districts. I have also
seen a book written by Ibnu-1 Faqih al-IIamadhani in five volumes, in
which he follows a different course. He mentions only the larger towns. ..
The Kitabu-l Amsar of al-Jahidh is a small book This work and that of
Ibnu-l Faqih are on the same lines ; but the latter contains more irrelevant
matter and stones Their apology for doing this is that ' the reader may
find something to divert him in case he is tired.' I have had occasion
sometimes to look in the work of Ibnu-l Faqih, and turn wherever I would
I have always found trivial stories and rhetorical flourishes of composition
in the account of one town or another. I personally did not look upon this
with favour; still, I have put in some stories and dissertations pertinent to
the subject in hand, and not such as to cause one to lose sight of the principal
matter I have also put some parts into rhyme for the entertainment
of the common people; because, while the educated classes prefer simple
prose above rhyme, the masses are better pleased with rhymes and rhyming.
4 C adds : For the range of particulars in this science is too comprehensive
we consider to put us in need of repetition, copying from a book, or pilfering