Bawwab improved after him by imparting rotundity
and clearness to the new letters, and which Ibn Yakut Al-Mausili
brought afterwards to the greatest perfection in A.D. 1200.

Ibn Mukla, who was born in A.D. 885, and died A.D. 941, was vizier to
the Khalifs Al-Kahir-billah and Al-Radhi-billah; but, falling into
disfavour through the intrigues of his enemies, he first had his hand
cut off in A.D. 937, and eventually his tongue was torn out, and he
was allowed to perish in the dungeon without any assistance being
offered to him.

Ibn-al-Bawwab, the Penman, is said to have possessed a skill in
penmanship to which no other person ever attained in ancient or modern
times. He died at Baghdad A.D. 1032, and the following verses were
composed as his elegy:

'Thy loss was felt by the writers of former times, And each
successive day justifies their grief. The ink-bottles are
therefore black with sorrow, And the pens are rent through
affliction.'

During the eleventh century of the Hijrah (A.D. 1592-1689) there lived
Mustafa bin Abdullah Katib Jelaby, otherwise known as Haji Khalfa, and
commonly called Mustafa Haji Khalfa, a man of science as a Turkish
historian and geographer, but an Arabic encyclopaedist and
bibliographer. He was the compiler of a work containing many thousands
of titles of Arab, Persian, and Turkish books, with the names of their
authors. Fluegel edited this great work under the title of 'Lexicon
Enciclopaedicum et Bibliographicum,' with a Latin translation in seven
bulky volumes, and it is an extremely valuable work of reference, put
together with the most astonishing and persevering care, and consulted
by all who desire information on Arabic, Persian, and Turkish
literature. This was printed by the Oriental Translation Fund between
A.D. 1835 and 1850, and will always remain as one of the most valuable
works printed by that most useful society, whose extinction must ever
be regretted by all Orientalists and persons interested in Oriental
literature. Haji Khalfa wrote another interesting work, giving a
detailed account of the maritime wars of the Turks in the
Mediterranean and Black Sea and on the Danube, which has been
translated by Mr. James Mitchell. The date of Haji Khalfa's death is
uncertain. He is known to have been alive in A.D. 1622, and still in
1652, and he is supposed to have died in A.D. 1657.

The works of Abul Khair, previously mentioned, and of Haji Khalfa,
embody a ma