blic instruction,
appointing Abdul Latif to be the chief librarian, and another man to
be the director of studies. He kept up intercourse with the great
scholars of the East and of the West, with sundry persons in Syria,
with learned men in Egypt, and with Abul Faraj Al-Ispahani (author of
the great anthology 'Kitab-ul-Aghani') in Irak, giving houses and
salaries to those who chose to reside at his court.

A few words must be said about the establishment of places of learning
which were celebrated at the time. The first university, in the sense
in which such an institution is at present understood, was flourishing
in Syria long before any seat of learning of this kind had been
established in Europe; and there was another in Egypt. The first
institution was called 'The Society of the Brethren of Purity,' and
the second (opened at Cairo on the 24th May, A.D. 1005) was founded by
Al-Hakim-bramrillah, and bore the name of Dar-ul Hikinat, or Abode of
Wisdom. It was under this same name that the library of the Khalifs
was formerly known at Baghdad. Later on the great vizier Nizam-ul-Mulk
founded a high school at Baghdad, in A.D. 1066. It was not the first
that had been established in Islam, but it eclipsed all others of the
kind by the abilities of the professors who worked there, viz., the
Imam Abu Ishak Shirazi, Al-Ghazali, and others. With the Society of
the Brethren of Purity, mentioned above, there were two men closely
connected, viz., Al-Tavhidi, who died A.D. 985, and Al-Majridi, who
died A.D. 1004, the former in the East, the latter in the West, and
both of them are deserving of the general name of philosopher. So much
for the Eastern Khalifates. As regards the Western Khalifate, still
greater attention was paid to education and learning there. The
schools and lectures were attended by many Europeans, who were not,
perhaps, sufficiently grateful to the Arabs for keeping up a progress
in literature and science while Europe itself was struggling for
emancipation from the dark ages which followed the higher cultures of
Greece and of Rome.

THIRD PERIOD.

From the fall of Baghdad, in A.D. 1258, to the present time.

The conquest of Baghdad by the Mughals is a most remarkable period,
not only in the literature, but also in the history, of the Arabs. It
marks the final extinction of the Abbaside dynasty, from whom the
ancient power and glory had vanished to such a degree that the
authority of the Khalifs may almost l