phanis Confessoris Chronographia, Gr. et Lat. cum notis
Jacobi Goar. Paris, 1665, in folio) and the Abridgment of Nicephorus,
(Nicephori Patriarchae C. P. Breviarium Historicum, Gr. et Lat. Paris,
1648, in folio,) who both lived in the beginning of the ixth century,
(see Hanckius de Scriptor. Byzant. p. 200-246.) Their contemporary,
Photius, does not seem to be more opulent. After praising the style of
Nicephorus, he adds, and only complains of his extreme brevity, (Phot.
Bibliot. Cod. lxvi. p. 100.) Some additions may be gleaned from the more
recent histories of Cedrenus and Zonaras of the xiith century.]

[Footnote 11: Tabari, or Al Tabari, a native of Taborestan, a famous
Imam of Bagdad, and the Livy of the Arabians, finished his general
history in the year of the Hegira 302, (A.D. 914.) At the request of his
friends, he reduced a work of 30,000 sheets to a more reasonable
size. But his Arabic original is known only by the Persian and Turkish
versions. The Saracenic history of Ebn Amid, or Elmacin, is said to be
an abridgment of the great Tabari, (Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol.
ii. preface, p. xxxix. and list of authors, D'Herbelot, p. 866, 870,
1014.)]

[Footnote 12: Besides the list of authors framed by Prideaux, (Life of
Mahomet, p. 179-189,) Ockley, (at the end of his second volume,) and
Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de Gengiscan, p. 525-550,) we find in the
Bibliotheque Orientale Tarikh, a catalogue of two or three hundred
histories or chronicles of the East, of which not more than three or
four are older than Tabari. A lively sketch of Oriental literature is
given by Reiske, (in his Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifae librum
memorialem ad calcem Abulfedae Tabulae Syriae, Lipsiae, 1776;) but his
project and the French version of Petit de la Croix (Hist. de Timur Bec,
tom. i. preface, p. xlv.) have fallen to the ground.]

[Footnote 13: The particular historians and geographers will be
occasionally introduced. The four following titles represent the Annals
which have guided me in this general narrative. 1. Annales Eutychii,
Patriarchoe Alexandrini, ab Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon. 1656, 2 vols. in
4to. A pompous edition of an indifferent author, translated by Pocock
to gratify the Presbyterian prejudices of his friend Selden. 2. Historia
Saracenica Georgii Elmacini, opera et studio Thomae Erpenii, in 4to.,
Lugd. Batavorum, 1625. He is said to have hastily translated a corrupt
Ms., and his version is often deficient in st