On these subjects he also consulted Mr. Sale, in praise of whom too much cannot be said; Volney and Savary have little more than copied or translated him; and he availed himself of Professor White's elegant and eloquent sermons. What is said on the conquests made by Mahomet and his companions, is taken from Mr. Ockley's History of the Saracens;—that a person, of so much learning, should have been permitted to languish within the walls of a prison, was a disgrace to England, and a general misfortune to the republic of letters. The author's account of the universal caliphs, was extracted from Marigny's Histoire des Arabes, a work which answered the author's purpose, but which would not suffice for a writer, who should wish to enter more fully into the subject.

The mention of the caliph Walid's order, 'that the Arabic should be substituted in the place of every other language through the whole territory of the caliphate, led the

author to give some attention to a subject, which opens a new and ample field of discussion,-the influence of conquest on language. Six events in history will be found to deserve the particular consideration of any person who shall engage in it; the Macedonian, Roman, and Saracen conquests; the emigration of the Sclavonian tribes; the general use of the French language in consequence of the victories of Lewis the 14th, and the literary merit of the writers of his reign; and the probability of the English becoming the popular idiom of the whole Western hemisphere.

What is said on the Mahometan dynasties in Persia and Egypt is taken from D'Herbelot and Volney; Mr. Gibbon observes, we are amused by Savary, and instructed by Volney; but over Volney, Savary has the advantage of understanding the Arabic originals. The Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous la domination des Arabes, and the Recherches historiques sur

les Maures furnished the author with what he has said on the Mahometan dynasties in Africa and Spain. The account of the Mahometan conquests in Hindustan is taken from Colonel Dow's History of Hindustan, Mr. Orme's Introduction to his History of Hindustan, and Major Rennell's Introduction to his Memoir: where the author found these writers differ, he preferred the last. His account of the Ottoman empire is chiefly taken from the Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire Ottomane, par M. de la Croix. Mr. de Guignes and Mr. Gibbon left him little to desire on the subjects of Genghiskhan and Timour. On the Crusades, he did not look beyond L'Esprit des Croisades, and Vertot. A good history of them is much wanted: that part of Mr. Gibbon's history which treats of them, is the worst executed portion of his work. The account of the literary history of the Ottoman empire, is taken from the Abbé Toderini's View of Turkish Literature, and the Tableau Géné

ral de l'Empire Ottoman of the Chevalier D'Ohsson, a splendid and useful work.

X.

THE preceding pages may be found to contain some account of the religion of Mahomet, and of the conquests made by him and his disciples: the following may be found to give some notion of the books accounted sacred, in the infidel countries conquered by them, and some particulars respecting the Edda, the book supposed to have been accounted sacred by the antient Scandinavians.

X. 1.

Following the progress of the Mahometan arms in the East, we cross the Persian Gulph, and reach the country of the ZENDAVESTA, the supposed Bible of the antient Persians.

The religion of the antient Persians has been discussed by many modern writers of profound learning. One of the earliest

works on the subject, is Lord's History of the Persees, 4to. London, 1630. Mr. Thomas Stanley's valuable treatises on the Chaldaic, Persian, and Sabian doctrines, form a part of his History of Philosophy, and have been printed separately. The writings of Dr. Pococke, particularly his Specimen Historia Arabum, and his edition of Abul-Farajus, abound with much information on the subject. But the most learned work upon it, which has yet made its appearance, is Dr. Hyde's Historia Veterum Persarum, published at Oxford, first in one volume 4to. in 1700, afterwards, with additions, in two volumes 4to. 1767. A concise, but clear view of the subject, is inserted by Dr. Prideaux, in the 4th book of the first part of his Connection of the History of the Old and New Testament: it gave rise to a learned correspondence between him and Mr. Moyle his nephew, published in the second volume of the works of the latter. Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis, and Brucker's Historia