The particular historians and geographers will
be occasionally introduced. The four following titles
represent the Annals which have guided me in this general
narrative. 1. Annales Eutychii, Patriarchoe Alexandrini, ab
Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon. 1656, 2 vols. in 4to. A pompous
edition of an indifferent author, translated by Pocock to
gratify the Presbyterian prejudices of his friend Selden. 2.
Historia Saracenica Georgii Elmacini, operâ et studio Thomae
Erpenii, in 4to., Lugd. Batavorum, 1625. He is said to have
hastily translated a corrupt Ms., and his version is often
deficient in style and sense. 3. Historia compendiosa
Dynastiarum a Gregorio Abulpharagio, interprete Edwardo
Pocockio, in 4to., Oxon. 1663. More useful for the literary
than the civil history of the East. 4. Abulfedoe Annales
Moslemici ad Ann. Hegiroe ccccvi. a Jo. Jac. Reiske, in
4to., Lipsioe, 1754. The best of our chronicles, both for
the original and version, yet how far below the name of
Abulfeda! We know that he wrote at Hamah in the xivth
century. The three former were Christians of the xth,
xiith, and xiiith centuries; the two first, natives of
Egypt; a Melchite patriarch, and a Jacobite scribe.