Page:The Chinese Repository - Volume 01.djvu/21

, seemed the harbinger of any thing but good to the progress of letters, yet the 8th and 9th centuries formed a bright period in the history of Arabia. It was by the inspiration of this bold impostor, and by the immediate command of his successor, that the impious incendiary applied the torch to the invaluable library of Alexandria, that rich deposit of whatever the wisest and best of the ancient world had been accumulating for ages. At the commencement of the 8th century, when the empire of the Caliphs was of immense extent, stretching from the confines of India to the Atlantic, Bagdad became the rallying point for men of enterprise, both commercial and literary. On the banks of the Tigris the power of the Caliphat did much to foster genius; and schools and libraries were established; and thither men of letters were invited to come from all people and nations, and to bring with them every work of science and literature they could command. Philosophy, astronomy, and the healing art received particular attention. Under the patronage of the Abassides the fine arts flourished extensively, and geography was by no means neglected. It is not wonderful, that in such circumstances, enterprising Mussulmen should have obtained some knowledge of the people inhabiting the eastern borders of their own continent. Our wonder is that so little information was obtained, or rather, that so little has been preserved; for we still hope, thouh it be against hope, that something "may yet be discovered in Western Asia, or in Egypt, to throw light on the early history of the Chinese.

Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, whose work, we purpose to notice at another time, returned from his travels in the East, near the the close of the 13th century. The Portuguese first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, A. D. 1497. "But," says Renaudot, in his preface, "we may be satisfied that our two authors are more ancient, and that the two dates they give, the one of the year 237 of the Hejra, which is that of the first traveller, and the other of the year of the same 264, when a great revolution happened in China, are true and just."

Commencing the Mohammedan era, A. D. 613, as both the second traveller and his translator have done, the two dates will correspond with the years of Christ 850 and 877. Renaudot's preface is rather long, but, like the notes and dissertations, which he has added to the work by way of appendix, it contains much valuable matter, elucidating the text. He made his translation about the commencement of the last century. He was a learned and accurate scholar, and possessed an extensive acquaintance with the orientals, and their literature, for which reason we shall be willing the oftener to quote his opinions. The best proof, however, of the correctness of the "ancient account," is its internal evidence; of this the reader shall be his own judge. The second traveller commences with the following prefatory remarks.