gic point, and its garrisons were to
keep the surrounding country in subjection. Eventually it became the
centre of learning and civilization, and an Arab author wrote of it as
follows: 'Baghdad is certainly the capital of the world, and the mine
of every excellence. It is the city whose inhabitants have always been
the first to unfurl the banners of knowledge, and to raise the
standard of science; indeed, their subtlety in all branches of
learning, their gentle manners and amiable disposition, noble bearing,
acuteness, wit, penetration and talent are deservedly praised.'
Baghdad, at the beginning of the ninth century of the Christian era,
was the centre of all that was grand and brilliant in the Muhammadan
world. Art and commerce, literature and science, were cultivated to a
high degree, and the luxury and extravagance of court life exceeded
almost the imagination of temperate European minds.

Everything curious, romantic and wonderful, narrated in the 'Nights'
is connected with Harun-ar-Rashid's name, or supposed to have happened
in his reign. Thus, his vizier, Jaafar, the Barmekide, the
superintendent of his harem, Mesrur, and his spouse, Zobeida, were
first made known to novel-readers, and their importance as historical
personages were duly appreciated afterwards, when Erpenius, Pococke,
Herbelot, and Reiske elucidated the history of the Khalifate by
translating the works of the Arab chroniclers Abul-Faraj, Al-Makin,
and Abul-feda. Later on still further information was made public
about the translations made from Greek and Syriac into Arabic during
his reign, as also concerning his position, not only as a lover of
tales, but as a promoter of jurisprudence, a patron of the medical and
mathematical sciences, and a builder of magnificent and useful
edifices. His court was also well attended by poets and singers.

Harun was not, indeed, the first prince who made arrangements for
translations from the Greek and the Syriac. In this he had been
preceded, as already mentioned, by the Omaiyide prince, Khalid, the
alchemist. But during the reign of Harun the business of translation
was carried on to a much greater extent than it was under his
predecessors, the Khalifs Mansur and Mahdi, during whose time
translations were undertaken from Greek into Syriac, from Indian
(Sanscrit) into Persian, but not yet into Arabic. The translators were
mostly Christians and Jews. Theophilos of Edessa, the Maronite
translator of Homer and