601. Tully’s Letters from Tripoly. 3 vols. 8vo.—Much curious information on the domestic life and manners of the inhabitants, and more insight into female manners and character, than is generally gained respecting the females of this part of Africa.
602. Captain Lyons’ Travels in Northern Africa, from Tripoly to Mouzzook. 1821. 4to.—Though the object of these travels was not accomplished, they contain much information on the geography of central Africa collected during them. On this important point, the Quarterly Review should be consulted.
603. Schousboe Betrachtungen uber das Gewaesrich, en Marokko. Copenhag. 1802. 8vo.—This work, translated from the Danish, relates chiefly to the botany, metereology, soil and productions of Morocco; and on other topics it gives accurate and valuable information.
604. Viaggio da Tripoli alto Frontiere dell’ Egitto. 1817. P. Della Cella.—The scene of these travels must give them an interest and value, since they embrace “one of the oldest and most celebrated of the Greek colonies,” and a country “untrodden by Christian feet since the expulsion of the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprising disciples of Mahomet,” The work, however, proves that its author was not qualified to avail himself of such a new and interesting field of enquiry, remark, and research, to the extent which might have been expected.
Whoever wishes to be informed respecting the state of Egypt and its inhabitants during the remotest ages to which they can be traced, must have recourse to the accounts given of them in the Scriptures, and by Herodotus and other ancient writers. During the dark and middle ages, as they are called, information may be drawn from the following sources.
605. Abdollatiphi Historiae Egypti Compendium, Arabice et Latine. Oxford, 1800. 4to.—There are several editions of this work: the one, the title of which we have just given, was edited by Professor White. He also published a preceding one without the Latin version; which was republished at Tubingen, with a preface by Paulus. An interesting and instructive “Notice de cet ouvrage,” was published by Sacy, the celebrated orientalist, at Paris, in 1803. The Arabian author relates what he himself saw and learnt in Egypt, and is particularly full on the plants of the country; the historical part occupies only the two last chapters; he lived towards the end of the twelfth century.
606. Abulfedae Descriptio Egypti, Arabice et Latine, notas adjecit J. Michaelis. Gottingen, 1776. 4to.—This author lived in the fourteenth century, and was celebrated for his geographical knowledge, of which this work is a valuable proof.
607. L’Egypti de Murtadi. Paris, 1666. 12mo.—This work of the middle ages, translated from an Arabic manuscript belonging to Cardinal Mazarin, is curious, but extremely rare.