Faithful. Other kings take the title malec, (that is, of king) but feldom that of fultan. The coins of the defcendants of Saladin, who reigned in Egypt and other provinces, are easily diftinguished by the various lines, like ftars, by which they are adorned. Coins of later times, with figures and images, are of Selgiuc or Turcoman princes. دنانير دراهم them. In refpect to the metal of these coins, the most ancient are of gold and filver; feldom in the firft centuries of the Mahomedans, were there any of brafs. Thofe of gold were called i denarii, and of filver drachmæ ; but the former not being uniformly of the fame purity, were further diftinguished by the addition of the chalif's name upon From the twelfth century of the vulgar æra, brass coins became common, and those of gold and filver rare. In the Borgian collection, are five coins of glafs; whether, however, they were confidered as money, Dr. Adler juftly doubts. To us, Mr. Tychfen's conjecture in refpect to them (see our last Appendix, p. 488.) appears highly probable. As to the ufe and value of the Cufic coins, which is the next object of inquiry, Dr. Adler remarks, that though difcuffions like his fhould be productive of no benefit to letters, this advantage would refult, at leaft, from them, that others would be faved a repetition of the labour; at the fame time that the voyager feels pleafure, and, on returning to his native country, will receive praise, though the island he hath difcovered fhould never be tilled.-In refpect, however, to the coins in question, it may be faid that there is fcarce one which The does not clear up fome mystery in the Arabian history. infcription exhibits the time and place of coinage, with the name of the prince. But befide thefe general uses, it is evident that much light is reflected by the Cufic money on manners and customs. From the prefent collection, it will appear that the Aiubite princes that governed at Aleppo, were not, as De Guignés, in his Hiftoire des Huns, afferts, abfolute; but, on the contrary, were fubject to the kings of Damafcus. Veftiges of the commerce that anciently tubfifted between Bochara and other cities, with thofe on the Baltic, the Cufic coins, ploughed up in the north, point out. They fhew alfo that the emperors of Africa, Egypt, and Sicily, defcendants of Fatima, who affumed the title of chalifs, were not like those of Damafcus and Bagdad, Sunnites, but Schiites; and thence evince the enmity of the firft against the chalifs of Bagdad, to have proceeded from religious zeal. They ftrikingly confirm the custom of the Turks, fo learnedly explained by abbé Barthelemy, of transferring the figures and devices of the Greek and Latin coins of Chriftians to their own, fubjoining certain L14 marks marks and figns of computation. Laftly, they fhew that thofe princes of the Arabs who did homage to the chalifs, were not content with naming them in their prayers, but by the infcriptions on their coins, teftified whofe authority they admitted as chalif. To the geographer, the ancient coins of the Arabians will be of material importance, fince from them the proper names of places may be learnt, as well as the divifions of districts and their principal cities. Nor will the epochs of them and of kingdoms be any longer unknown, as the times of their becoming feats of governments, and being furnished with mints, will obviously be gathered from them. Nor are thefe coins of ufe only in refpect to history, geography, and chronology; for it will be eafily perceived that the paleography of the Arabians, and philology in general, will be greatly benefited by them. As to the origin of the Cufic character, it is known from Arabian authors whofe works are unpublished, that Marar, a little before the مرارين مره الانباري fon of Morra time of Mohamed, began to write the Arabic language in Syriac characters, or to change the ancient Arabic into a resemblance of the Syriac. This cuftom began to prevail firft at Hirta, a city of Mefopotamia, near Cufa; whence it paffed to Mecca, and at length, the Coran having been written in these characters, they were diffufed through all Arabia, and all the provinces conquered by the Arabians. Their ufe being first eftaplished at Cufa, they thence obtained the name of Cufenfian, or Cufic. Thefe characters, it is obfervable, were grofs and large, written by a fiyle or point, instead of a flit pen, wide, angular, diftinguifhed where they refemble each other by diacritical marks, and at length ornamented by red points, which ferved for vowels. But as ufe in all alphabets introduces variations, fo this has not retained its original forms, The Arabians, from too fcrupulous an attention to the beauty of writing, by various little lines and ornaments, made fuch additions as difguifed the character fo much, that at first view, it affumed the appearance of a new one, and became greatly inferior to the fimplicity and majefty of the genuine Cufic. This style of writing has been named by Europeans Carmatic, but inaccurately, fince in the manufcript Lexicon of Firufabad, the Carmatic characters are termed thin and fine. The ancient Arabic coins are chiefly adorned with the Čufic; whilst sepulchral monuments, and the like, exhibit the Carmatic: this rule, however, is not univerfal. As, however, the finer ftrokes of thefe letters cannot be formed in metal or tone, it became neceffary to introduce fueh variations as were compatible with both both, and thence a flight difference arofe between the characters of infcriptions and books, which, in exploring the Cufic coins, has been the fource of confiderable perplexity. After a digreffion of fome length hence refulting, Dr. Adler goes on to obferve, from a Borgian coin, that the first evidence of the ufe of cifers, or numeral notes, by the Arabians, is referable to the year 1189. Now, as in all the other Cufic coins, the date is expreffed by words at length, and it being the practice of later times with the Arabs to date by numeral notes, a probable conclufion is drawn as to the time of the change. The vulgar tradition ftates that the Arabians learned this practice from the Indians, in their wars of the eleventh century. This opinion, however, has no other support than the admiffion of the Arabians, that these numerals were of Indian origin. To the Indians, as their inventors, they are afcribed by Al Sephadi. Kircher reprefents them as fo many fections of the circle invented by the Brachmans; and Maximus Planudes, who lived in the thirteenth century, intitles his Arithmetic (of which the MS. is in the Vatican) Пaveng Infopopia xar' INAOTE-according to the INDIANS. When, however, the Arabians adopted them, is not abfolutely certain. The coin of the Cardinal is, nevertheless, of the utmost value, as retaining the earlieft evidence of their use.-Obfer vations follow on the use of these figns by the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. From this fubject Dr. Adler reverts to the Arabic alphabet, and presents some general obfervations upon it, which have much more than their novelty to recommend them. The various changes which this alphabet has undergone, he divides into three periods, with refpect, indeed, not to the changes of the 'letters as to form, and the time of them, but as to their number and order. The remoteft origin of thefe characters is enveloped in darkness; but Dr. Adler is induced to suppose that they were feventeen only in number, without any marks of diftinction, but pronounced with a variety of accents as circumftances required; and of the fame number will the prefent alphabet be feen to confift, if the diacritical figns be removed: ين هي ا ب ح درس ص ط ع ف كل م و Yet what was the original form of these letters, must remain for ever unknown. In later times, inconvenience having been experienced from this fimplicity, additions were made to favour pronunciation, and the firft augmentation of this kind, was that which preçeded the Cufic, called by the Arabians o Mofned. Hence Hence began the fecond period, probably comprehending the first age of the Cufic, of which it is doubtful whether any genuine monuments remain. The Arabians at that time began to difpofe of their letters, which correfponded in number, in the fame order with the Hebrew; yet so as not to add new forms to the characters of the alphabet, but only new figns to fome of the letters. Thus arofe a feries of letters conformable to the Hebrew, and which on that account was ftyled Abgad Heves, a word expreffive of the fix first letters of the alphabet arranged in the Hebrew order. خ The third period extends from the Cufic to our own time. The Arabians having applied themselves, before the birth of Mohamed, to the improvement of their language, introduced a variety of fuperfluous rules and fubtle diftinctions of grammar, and added new figns to their alphabet, for the purpose of accenting every modification of the voice, and determining the articulation by a written diftinction. Hence arose an alphabet of XXVIII letters, difpofed according to fimilitude of figure, and as they occur in prefent ufe. The figns added fe, pronounced like ts, cha, fomewhat stronger than the Arabic ha; dfal, like ds; dad, like d hard; ↳ dfa, almost in the fame manner as dfal; and έ gain, which before a, o, u, anfwers to g. Thefe niceties, however, of pronunciation, are only obferved by the more learned grammarians, and that chiefly in reciting the poets. In familiar converfation fome (as and ) are never diftinguished, others (as L) are seldom or but obscurely (as →) accented, dad and gain excepted, which feem to be generally received. To the foregoing remarks, Dr. Adler has annexed a philological and critical obfervation on the Cufic coins, which is of too much importance to be entirely omitted. It is well known that the Arabian grammarians prescribe it as an inviolable law, to write an aleph quiefcent in the participle of verbs (for inftance ), in the third conjugation (A), at the end of the third perfon plural of the preterite (is), and apocopated future(); likewise in the plural of feminines, (as ☺), and in a, lor, with fome others. There rules have been دينار واحده adopted in all our prefent grammars. It is, however, evident from |