t his native town, Tangiers, in A.D. 1324,
and travelled all over the East, performing his pilgrimage to Mecca in
A.D. 1332. The travels of Ibn Batuta were translated by the Rev. S.
Lee, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund, as their first
work, in A.D. 1829. This traveller has been noticed by Kosegarten in a
Latin treatise, and his travels have been also translated into French,
with the Arabic text above, by C. Defremery and R. Sanguinetti, at the
expense of the French Government (1874-1879).

Abul Feda Ismail Hamawi is well known as an historian, and is
frequently mentioned by Gibbon as one of his authorities. He wrote an
account of the regions beyond the Oxus, and also an abridgment of
universal history down to his own time, and as he is supposed to be
very exact, and his style elegant, his works are very much esteemed.
He died A.D. 1345, having succeeded his brother Ahmad as King of Hamat
in Syria, A.D. 1342.

Ibn Khaldun, the African philosopher, was born in Tunis, A.D. 1332,
and passed his youth in Egypt. He served a short time as Chief Justice
at Damascus, and returned to Egypt, where he became Supreme Judge, and
died there A.D. 1406. His principal and most remarkable work is the
'History of the Arabs, the Persians, and the Berbers.'

During the ninth century of the Hijrah (A.D. 1398-1495) Arabian
literature can still boast of a few great names. Ibn-Hajar was not
only the continuator of Ibn Kesir's universal history, called 'The
Beginning and the End,' but also the author of biographies of
celebrated men who had lived during the preceding century, and of
other works besides. He died A.D. 1449. Ibn Arabshah was the writer of
a history of Timour, or Tamerlane, which has some celebrity, and has
been translated into Latin and French. He was a native of Damascus,
and died there A.D. 1450.

Majr-uddin Muhammad Bin Yakub, surnamed Firuzabadi, a learned Persian,
was the author of the largest and most celebrated Arabic dictionary in
existence at the time, called the 'Qanus,' or Ocean, a standard work
to this day, and always greatly praised, and also used by European
lexicographers.

Taki-uddin, of Fez, composed the best history of Mekka, and A'ini, who
died A.D. 1451, wrote two celebrated historical works. But the
greatest historian of this time was Al-Makrisi, whose proper name was
Taki-uddin Ahmad, and who was born at Makris, near Baalbec, in A.D.
1366. He early devoted himself to the study of history, g