red so celebrated as the persons above mentioned, who are
regarded as the founders of the principles on which Arabic grammar has
been established.

In the middle of the third century of the Hijrah (A.D. 816-913), the
Arabs first began to distinguish themselves as travellers and
geographers. When Muslim Homeir was, in A.D. 845, ransomed from his
captivity among the Byzantines and returned to his country, he wrote a
book with the title of 'Admonitions on the Countries, Kings and
Offices of the Greeks.' Forty years afterwards Jaafar bin Ahmed al
Mervezi produced the first geographical work under the title of
'Highways and Countries,' which was followed by those of Ibn Foslan,
Ibn Khordabeh, Jeihani, Al-Istakhri, Ibn Haukul, Al-Beruni, Al-Bekri
and Idrisi. The great historian, Masudi, was also a writer of travels
and an ambassador. Ibn Foslan was sent by the Khalif Muktadir (A.D.
908-932) to the King of the Bulgarians. Abu Dolaf, who accompanied an
ambassador from China to the frontiers of that country, made, on his
return, a report which Yakut afterwards embodied in his voluminous
geographical Dictionary.

A few details will be given about the six chief geographers and
travellers of this period, viz., Ibn Khordabeh, Al-Istakhri, Ibn
Haukul, Al-Beruni, Al-Bekri and Idrisi.

As regards the first-named, it would appear that he has been the
object of considerable controversies among the Orientalists of Europe.
After employment in the post and intelligence departments in the
provinces, he subsequently came to the court of the Khalif Motamid
(A.D. 870-892), and became one of his privy councillors. He is the
author of several works on various subjects, but his 'Geography,' says
Sir H.M. Elliot, is the only work we possess of this author, and of
this there is only one copy in Europe, in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford. He died about A.D. 912.

Al-Istakhri, who flourished about the year A.D. 951, obtained his name
from Istakhar (_i.e._, Persepolis), where he was born. He was a
traveller whose geographical work has been translated into German by
Mordtmann. When Istakhari was in the Indus Valley he met another
celebrated traveller, Ibn Haukul, whose book Sir William Ouseley
translated in A.D. 1800 into English, under the title of 'The Oriental
Geography of Ibn Haukul.' Haukul, who died A.D. 976, had travelled for
nearly twenty-eight years in the countries of Islam with the works of
Ibn Khordabeh and Jeihani in his hands, and his