nto paper has
been diffused from the manufacture of Samarcand over the western world.
[43]

[Footnote 40: It was valued at 2000 pieces of gold, and was the prize of
Obeidollah, the son of Ziyad, a name afterwards infamous by the murder
of Hosein, (Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 142, 143,) His
brother Salem was accompanied by his wife, the first Arabian woman (A.D.
680) who passed the Oxus: she borrowed, or rather stole, the crown and
jewels of the princess of the Sogdians, (p. 231, 232.)]

[Footnote 41: A part of Abulfeda's geography is translated by Greaves,
inserted in Hudson's collection of the minor geographers, (tom. iii.,)
and entitled Descriptio Chorasmiae et Mawaralnahroe, id est, regionum
extra fluvium, Oxum, p. 80. The name of Transoxiana, softer in sound,
equivalent in sense, is aptly used by Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de
Gengiscan, &c.,) and some modern Orientalists, but they are mistaken in
ascribing it to the writers of antiquity.]

[Footnote 42: The conquests of Catibah are faintly marked by Elmacin,
(Hist. Saracen. p. 84,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Catbah, Samarcand
Valid.,) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 58, 59.)]

[Footnote 4211: The manuscripts Arabian and Persian writers in the royal
library contain very circumstantial details on the contest between the
Persians and Arabians. M. St. Martin declined this addition to the work
of Le Beau, as extending to too great a length. St. Martin vol. xi. p.
320.--M.]

[Footnote 43: A curious description of Samarcand is inserted in the
Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 208, &c. The librarian Casiri
(tom. ii. 9) relates, from credible testimony, that paper was first
imported from China to Samarcand, A. H. 30, and invented, or rather
introduced, at Mecca, A. H. 88. The Escurial library contains paper Mss.
as old as the ivth or vth century of the Hegira.]

II. No sooner had Abubeker restored the unity of faith and government,
than he despatched a circular letter to the Arabian tribes. "In the name
of the most merciful God, to the rest of the true believers. Health and
happiness, and the mercy and blessing of God, be upon you. I praise the
most high God, and I pray for his prophet Mahomet. This is to acquaint
you, that I intend to send the true believers into Syria [44] to take
it out of the hands of the infidels. And I would have you know, that
the fighting for religion is an act of obedience to God." His messengers
returned