PERSIAN HISTORICAL TEXTS.
The Lubcibu '1 Allxib (Second Part) of Muhammad 'Awfi. Edited by Edward G. Browne. "Persian Historical Texts," Vol. II. (Luzac and Co.)--English students of Oriental languages owe a heavy debt of gratitude to Professor Browne. It is due in no small measure to his untiring enthusiasm and industry that the Oriental school at Cambridge is beginning to assume an important position among its European contemporaries. It does not seem too much to hope that if his efforts are en- couraged we may some day have a school at Cambridge which shall rival even such admirable institutions as the Oriental Seminary at Berlin, or the Ecole des Langues Orientales at Paris. Meantime, we have to thank him for the second volume of his series of "Persian Historical Texts." The Lubcibu Aibifib of Muhammad 'Awfi is a work of very considerable interest, of which only two MSS. are known to exist,—one in England, one in Berlin. Mr. Bland, who first called attention to it. concludes from internal evidence that it must have been com-
posed during the last twenty-five years of the sixth century after the Hejra. Its value depends not so much on the biographical notices of the poets mentioned in it as on the fact that it hail preserved for us selections from the works of men of whom we should otherwise know little or nothing. Professor l3rowne's volume contains only the second half of the book, chaps. 8-12. It is sincerely to be hoped that the trustees of the John Rylands Library in Manchester, to whom the more important of the two codices belongs, will see their way to allowing Professor Browne access to the work, that he may complete his task by publishing the first seven chapters. To such scholars as Professor Browne it should be an honour to accord facilities.
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