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XXIV.—An Account of the great Historical Work of the African Philosopher Ibn Khaldún

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

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Extract

Few nations, either ancient or modern, have surpassed the Amazirgs, or lineal descendants of the primitive inhabitants of northern Africa, in power to produce a more ingenious and contemplative writer than the one now before us. And yet this writer, equally profound as an historian and as a statesman, has hitherto been so little known in Europe, that the majority of our Arabic scholars have but very confused notions of his scientific and literary merits, and to many, even his name is almost unknown. In the East, and in Africa, however, the great historical work he has composed, has given him a celebrity which no lapse of time, nor any vicissitude of events, will ever impair or lessen.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1834

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References

* For the translation, see page 394, chap. 2.

* Here ends my Mauritania manuscript of the Prolegomena. What follows has consequently been taken from the transcript I obtained at Tripoli, before I had the misfortune of losing it, as I have already stated.

* The Rev. Professor Lee, is now engaged on a translation of this work, which is to be published by the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland.