TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. "I ENTREAT gentlemen who may hereafter ... attend my lectures, to bear in mind this last saying. If they wish to understand History, they must first try to understand men and women. For History is the history of men and women, and of nothing else; and he who knows men and women thoroughly will best understand the past work of the world, and be best able to carry on its work now. If, therefore, any of you should ask me how to study history, I should answer-Take, by all means, biographies; wheresoever possible, autobiographies; and study them. Fill your mind with live human figures; men of like passions with yourselves; see how each lived and worked in the time and place in which God put him. Believe me, that when you have thus made a friend of the dead, and brought him to life again, and let him teach you to see with his eyes and feel with his heart, you will begin to understand more of his generation and his circumstances than all the mere history-books of the period would teach you." Thus spoke Dr. Kingsley, when, as Professor of Modern History, he delivered his inaugural lecture before the University of Cambridge. His advice is sound, but good advice is seldom the worse for wear. And in the present day, when, for the most part, every one, whether educated or uneducated, is content to adopt the thoughts of anonymous writers, how can it be possible to "see with the eyes" and " "feel with the hearts" of those old-world giants of thought and research? In European history, moreover, the vast change which has taken place even during the last few centuries, not only in the physical and religious distribution of power amongst nations, but in customs and habits of thought, and even language itself, raises a barrier against the assimilation of the modern with the ancient mind. In Oriental history, however, particularly the history of the Arabs, this barrier need not stand in the way of an earnest student. Language, habits, mode of life, amongst the Arabs. of the desert are little changed from what history represents them to have been more than twelve centuries ago. This fact may possibly create an interest in a record of those times. When, at the instance of my kind friend Mr. Frederick Ayrton, of Cairo, I undertook the translation of the following tales and anecdotes, it was with no idea of appending historical notes. But when, in connection with the translation, I studied the history of the times to which these tales refer, I felt that in submitting them to the public, it would be advisable to add such explanatory notes as might possibly induce some of my readers themselves to engage in researches into the history of that interesting period. I have rarely given my authority for the notes, because they are for the most part condensed from various authors. But I subjoin a list of the principal works whence they have been drawn :— Abu 'l-Fedâ, Annales Muslemici Badger, Imams and Seyyids of 'Omân (Hakluyt Society) - Hafniæ, 1789-94. Burton, Pilgrimage to El Medinah and London, 1871. - London, 1857. - Paris, 1847. Caussin de Perceval, Histoire des Arabes Ibn-Khallikan, Biographical Dictionary (trans Paris, 1697. London, 1797. lated by Baron Mac Guckin de Slane) Paris, 1871. B Lane, Modern Egyptians Playfair, A History of Arabia Felix or Yemen (printed for Government) Sale, The Koran Weil, Geschichte der Khalifen London, 1846. - London, 1780-84. Bombay, 1859. - London, 1812. Mannheim, 1846. The Reverend George Percy Badger, to whom I am indebted for much valuable help, informed me that some of the tales in the following volume had been already translated and offered to the English public in the notes to an edition of Mr. Lane's "Thousand and One Nights" (commonly called The Arabian Nights). I was unaware of this at the time of translating the tales, and since referring to Mr. Lane's volumes, have found that the rule which applies to most of the Eastern tales with which I am acquainted holds good in this instance, viz., that though the foundation of the story may be the same, yet that the details have been varied. This may be partly caused by the fact of so many Oriental tales and anecdotes having been handed down orally for several centuries. And it may be due in part to the flexibility (if I may use such a term) of the Arabic language, which admits of considerable latitude in translation, while the sense in every case is, according |