The best of our chronicles, both for the original and version, yet how far below the name of Abulfeda! We know that he wrote at Hamah in the xivth century.
The three former were Christians of the xth, xiith, and xiiith centuries; the two first, natives of Egypt; a Melchite patriarch, and a Jacobite scribe.] [Footnote 14: M.D.Guignes (Hist.

des Huns, tom.i.pref.p.xix.

xx.) has characterized, with truth and knowledge, the two sorts of Arabian historians--the dry annalist, and the tumid and flowery orator.] [Footnote 15: Bibliotheque Orientale, par M.D'Herbelot, in folio, Paris, 1697.

For the character of the respectable author, consult his friend Thevenot, (Voyages du Levant, part i.chap.

1.) His work is an agreeable miscellany, which must gratify every taste; but I never can digest the alphabetical order; and I find him more satisfactory in the Persian than the Arabic history.