guese, within seven miles of our establishment of Fort St. George, in the coast of India.

The rise and fall of these four empires, and the several remarkable matters and facts transacted in them, while they stood, cannot but afford a very fitting and plentiful subject for an excellent history; and there are sufficient materials for it, in the writings of the East, were they carefully and judiciously put together. As to the authors of this sort, which are in the public library of Oxford, there is a full account given of them in the large catalogue of the MSS. of England, printed at Oxford, about twenty-five years since. Among these, are the two famous historians of the East,* Abul-Feda and Al Jannabius, which are now printing at Oxford, in Arabic and Latin, by Mr. Gagnier, a French gentleman, well skilled in this kind of learning. But, if my lord Pembroke (to whom my most humble duty) desires further to be informed of what the East can afford us of this nature, I beg leave to recommend to him Mr. Herbelot's Bibliotheca Orientalis, a book written in French, some years since; wherein he gives account of all the Eastern writers, that fell within his knowledge, whether historical, philosophical, or of any other subject. Since that, another Bibliotheca of the Eastern writers hath been projected at Rome, which pretends to supply the defects of Herbelót, and give us an additional account of many other Eastern writers, more than are to be found in that author. It is designed to be in three volumes in folio, of which, the first volume, I hear, is already published.

As to Mr. Jones, whom my lord Pembroke makes mention of, I do not know the gentleman, neither have I ever heard of him. To make him adequate to it, requires a thorough skill in the Arabic language, which cannot, without long and sedulous application, be attained unto; and it adds to the difficulty, that most of the books, to be made use of in this matter, lie in manuscript, which cannot be easily come at, or easily read. For I know but of three Arabic histo

*See Dr. Prideaux' Life of Mahomet-his Account of Authors, 4to Edit, p. 153, 160—Churchill's Collect. of Voyages, vol. i. Introduct. lxxix.

rians, that are in print, *Elmacinus, Abul-Pharagius, and Eutychius; the first, published by Herpenius, and the other two, by Dr. Pocock: but these are only jejune epitomes, containing no more than the bare bones of the Oriental history: the full substance of it, to make it a perfect body, is to be sought from other books.

The greatest difficulty, in compiling such an history, would be the reconciling the Arabic and Byzantine writers, who often give us accounts of matters, which are inconsistent with each other: and the same is to be said of the Latin writers, that treat of the holy war, they often giving narratives of it, quite different from the Arabic; for both sides frequently choose to gratify their hatred and bitter aversion against each other, by reason of their different religions, rather than give us the naked truth of the facts they write of. The Arabic writers, it must be confessed, are more exact in their chronology, than the Byzantine, and, in some other particulars, seem to be more impartial, and to come nearer to the truth, than the other.

In order to understand the Oriental history, and the writers of it, from the time of Mahomet, a new Oriental geography is necessary; for the names of the countries and cities in the East, which the Romans and Greeks called them by, are now altogether unknown in the East. Abul-Feda is as famous for his geography as for his history: were that printed, with a good version, it would answer the matter: this has been several times attempted, but hitherto, without

success.

About one hundred and fifty years after Mahomet, the Saracens, from the Greek books (which, in their several inroads upon the Grecian empire, they had plundered out of the Grecian libraries) having the learning of the Greeks among them, and it having flourished there for four hundred years after, the Arabic writers are, from that time, as full of their accounts of their famous scholars, as they are of their famous warriors, and equally record what is remarka

* See the Life of Mahomet, ubi supra, p. 153, 164, 165. Seld. Tom. II. p. 410.-Gen. Pref. xvi.-vol. i, p. 1069, 1702, 1703, 1884.-ibid. 1356, 1703, 1866.

ble of both. If the history of the East, here proposed to be made, should follow the same method, and equally give us an account of the progress of their learning, as well as of their arms, it would render the work the more acceptable to the learned world.

Thus far have I endeavoured to answer your letter, as well as my shattered head would give me leave to dictate it. It will very much please me, if it prove to your satisfaction; for I am, Sir, your most faithful humble servant,

Norwich, Feb. 5, 1721-2.

H. PRIDEAUX.

PREFACE.

THE calamitous distemper of the stone, and the unfortunate management I fell under, after being cut for it, having driven me out of the pulpit, in wholly disabling me for that duty of my profession, that I might not be altogether useless, I undertook this work, hoping, that the clearing of the sacred history by the profane, the connecting of the Old Testament with the New, by an account of the times intervening, and the explaining of the prophecies that were fulfilled in them, might be of great use to many. What is now published is only the first part of my design. If God gives life, the other will soon after follow; but if it should please him, who is the Disposer of all things, that it happen otherwise, yet, this History, being brought down to the times when; the canon of the Hebrew scriptures was finished, it may of itself be reckoned a complete work: for it may serve as an epilogue to the Old Testament, in the same manner as what after is to follow, will be a prologue to the New.

Chronology and geography being necessary helps to history, and good chronological tables being most useful for the one, as good maps are for the other; I have taken full care of the former, not only by adding such tables in the conclusion of the work, as may answer this end, but also by digesting the whole into the form of annals under the years before Christ, and the years of the kings that then reigned over Judea; both which are added in the margin at the beginning of every year, in which the actions happened that are related. And as to the latter, since Dr. Wells, Cellarius, and Reland have sufficiently provided for it, both by good maps of the countries this history relates to, and also by accurate descriptions of them, I need do no more than refer the reader to what they have already done in this matter. What Dr. Wells hath done herein, being written in English, will best