coin, struck
at Waset, A. H. 88, and preserved in the Bodleian library, wants four
grains of the Cairo standard, (see the Modern Universal History, tom. i.
p. 548 of the French translation.) * Note: Up to this time the Arabs had
used the Roman or the Persian coins or had minted others which resembled
them. Nevertheless, it has been admitted of late years, that the
Arabians, before this epoch, had caused coin to be minted, on which,
preserving the Roman or the Persian dies, they added Arabian names or
inscriptions. Some of these exist in different collections. We learn
from Makrizi, an Arabian author of great learning and judgment, that in
the year 18 of the Hegira, under the caliphate of Omar, the Arabs had
coined money of this description. The same author informs us that the
caliph Abdalmalek caused coins to be struck representing himself with a
sword by his side. These types, so contrary to the notions of the Arabs,
were disapproved by the most influential persons of the time, and the
caliph substituted for them, after the year 76 of the Hegira, the
Mahometan coins with which we are acquainted. Consult, on the question
of Arabic numismatics, the works of Adler, of Fraehn, of Castiglione,
and of Marsden, who have treated at length this interesting point of
historic antiquities. See, also, in the Journal Asiatique, tom. ii. p.
257, et seq., a paper of M. Silvestre de Sacy, entitled Des Monnaies des
Khalifes avant l'An 75 de l'Hegire. See, also the translation of a
German paper on the Arabic medals of the Chosroes, by M. Fraehn. in the
same Journal Asiatique tom. iv. p. 331-347. St. Martin, vol. xii. p. 19,
--M.]

[Footnote 9: Theophan. Chronograph. p. 314. This defect, if it really
existed, must have stimulated the ingenuity of the Arabs to invent or
borrow.]

[Footnote 10: According to a new, though probable, notion, maintained by
M de Villoison, (Anecdota Graeca, tom. ii. p. 152-157,) our ciphers are
not of Indian or Arabic invention. They were used by the Greek and Latin
arithmeticians long before the age of Boethius. After the extinction of
science in the West, they were adopted by the Arabic versions from the
original Mss., and restored to the Latins about the xith century. *
Note: Compare, on the Introduction of the Arabic numerals, Hallam's
Introduction to the Literature of Europe, p. 150, note, and the authors
quoted therein.--M.]

Whilst the caliph Walid sat idle on the throne of Damascus, whilst his
lieut