‘The Oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century’ [‎17] (32/388)

PREFACE.
xvii
any endeavour to reconcile the various readings, and to
supply the deficiencies, or to correct the errors of manuscripts.
The instances, however frequent, of incorrectness and vari
ations which occur in the present work, do not hy any means
surprise me. After a close application to Eastern literature
for nine or ten years, during which I have turned over some
thousands of written volumes, and attentively collated pas
sages in several hundreds, I no longer expect to find in
Arabick, Persian, or Turkish manuscripts (the Koran always
excepted), either accuracy of transcribing, fidelity of trans
lation, or exactness of quotation. Thus, a heavy cloud of
uncertainty and confusion still hangs on the Geography of
Edrisi, notwithstanding the learned labours of Kurzmann
and of Hartmann, who notice the numei^ous defects of the
printed editions, the variations of the manuscript copies, the
different titles of the same book, the uncertain age and
country of the author, &cC
/
O/ 7 Ebn Hatjkal's work, had there been found a perfect
copy in the original Arabick, it is most probable that the
pleasure of offering this translation to the Publick would not
have been reserved for me. <( We must lament," says the in-