The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-06

l
Farghani, OF whom we know nothing be
yond the fact that in A. ID. s8l he bull
q new nilometer in Egypt, wrote an as
Economical treat ise which rendered hin
famous all over Europe under the nam
of Alfraganus. II was translated int
Latin, and published at Amsterdam
1869 The great astronomer who wa
| known to Europeans in the Middle Age
as Albumaser, but who belonged to Balkl
in Central ASIA died in A. ID. 1886. If Flu
rope admired his astronomical attain
ments The East marveiled at his powers
of divinaton and his astrological perform
ances, whereby it was believed that he
discovered treasures and recovered objects
which had gone astray. Mohammed ibn
Jabir al-Batt ami, famous In Europe under
the name Of Albategnius. lived at haqqa
on the Euphrates. where he took astron-
omical observations from A. d. 1892 to 800
and there drew up the Tables which
are now at the Escorial, and which are
being translated into Latin and pub
lished at Milan. As late as the end OF the
| eighteenth century his tables were still
| valued by Iaande. A Persian astron-
omer who died in $50 wrote in Arabic
description of the fixed stars which was
translat ed into French and published at
| ST. Petersburg In 1874. He also wrote
memoir on the astrolabe, Of which Bernard
! Dorm has made use for one OF his studies.
There seems to be no doubt that the
| Arabian physicians we're far in advance
| of their Christian confreres during the
| Middle Ages. A treatise on medicine in
| ten books, and book on smallpox by
| Rhazes, who died in the early part OF the
tenth century, were translated into Hebrew
| and Latin at an early date A contem-
porary of his wrote at Bagdad memoir on
| the diseases of the eye and their treatment,
which was much consulted by European
surgeons during the period following his
| death. 1t was printed at Venice In 1883.
Ibn Ridwan, body physician to the Caliph
| al-Hakin left treatise on the classification
| of diseases and on diagnosis. in which the
| examination OF a patients urine is much
| insisted upon. His commentary on Galen' .
AIRS Parva" was translated into Latin, and
' published at Venice in 1496. We should
not omit to mention that Albucasis, great
| surgeon of Cordova under Caliph Abdal-
Rahman III; frequently resorted to cauter-
| ization. Maimonides, the great Jewish
| philosopher of Cordova, was also a
student of medicine. He held the post
| OF body physician to Saladin and to Sal
adins successor. Among his medical
works is treatise on the venom OF rep
tiles, and on the method OF curing their
| bites.
After the destruction OF Bagdad by the
| Mongols in the thirteenth century Arabic
| literature rapidly declined, and we pass
| over the pages allotted to this branch OF the
authors theme 1t s interesting, on the
| other hand, to note that in the nineteenth
| century there has been kind Of revival OF
| literature in Egypt, Syria, Tunis, Algeria
and even Morocco, all of which are Arabic
! speaking countries. The revival Is evinced.
| not only by the publication OF number OF
| newspapers, but also by the production Of
| various works in book form. Beirut,
Damascus and Cairo have been centres Of
the literary movement. Not only the
official printing presses at Bulaq. but pri-
vate printers in the Egyptian capital have
been gagged for some time in placing the
Moslem classics within the reach Of all men.
Even the cities Of nInis and Algiers can
boast of few Arabic publications. A bio
graphical dictionary of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries of the Hegira has been
written and printed in quite recent years at
Fez At Mecca itself was printed in 1885
political history Of Islam. Regarding
the future of Arabic literature, M. Huart ex-
! presses the opinion that the Arabic tongue,
with its skilfully composed grammar, Is
sufficiently malleable to enable it to ex-
press modern thought, and at the same
time to supply the whole of the Moslem
East with the new technical terms in chemis-
try, medicine and most sciences, AS yet,
however, there is an obstacle between a
publisher and his readers, to wit, the I'M
certainty attending the reading of Ian
guage in which the vowels are very seldom
marked In our authors opinion, an i'm
mense service would be rendered to the
Eastern reading public if publishers would
consent to mark the vowels invariably in
the case of words which may bear double
meaning, and in the case of s,lbstantives the
sense of which changes according to the
spelling. II clearness could be thus se-
cured, he thinks that brilliant career might
be predicted for Arabic literature. NJ. W. H..
Light on the Second French Revolution.
In a volume entitled Paris in ~, published
| by John Murray in London and James Pott
and Company in New York, We have the
! letters of an eye witness Of the French Revo-
| luton Of that year the Baroness BONDE,
| edited and supplemented with explanatory
| notes by Constance f. War;. The writer
| of these lett ers was daughter oil Sir Rich
| ard Robinson of Rokeby, in Ireland, who
| during a residence in Paris OF thirty years
from 1919 to lSi9-had come to know
most Of the leading French statesmen ofthe
| time. and TO attain an intimate knowledge
| of French politics during that tumultuous
period. Her letters 10 English correspond
ents-etters the interest of which will be
| obvious to the readerhave remained I'M
published for more than fifty years. 1t
| was not until 1900 that the Baroness felt
| that the time had come when they could be
given to the world without hurting any
suscept ibi, les. The notes appended by her
! friend Mrs. War; are intended merely to
| furnish historical details sufficient to ex-
plain the writer's illusions to the men and
incidents Of the time. Mrs. War; has added
a short sketch Of the events which pre-
coded the political crisis, and we should
| mention that here and there she has sub
:, tut ed English for the French phraseology
employed by the writer.
| Before looking at these letters, the reader
| NAV like I q learn some Diet ails Of the write a