On the spikenard of the ancients / By Charles Hatchett.

  • Charles Hatchett
Date:
[1836]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the spikenard of the ancients / By Charles Hatchett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Men of every country and of every religion who were distinguished by their abilities and acquirements were invited, were rewarded, and were honoured at his court;* and such was his admiration of learning, that strange to say, he actually invaded the dominions of the Emperor Theophilus in the year 830, for no other apparent reason than the refusal of that Emperor to permit Leo the learned Archbishop of Thessalonica to avail himself of an invitation on the part of Al-Mamon to visit the court of Bagdad. That the Caliph should have made war on Theophilus for no other reason than his having prevented the visit of the learned Leo, certainly seems most extraordinary; Helen is said to have been the cause of the Trojan war, and Thais occasioned the burning of Persepolis ; but how surprised would Horace have been if he had lived in the time of Al-Mamon, and had learned that the names of Helen and Thais were to be coupled with that of an old Archbishop of Thessalonica, in a sort of co-partner- ship concerning their respective claims as the “ teterrima belli causa!!!” But if this question be seriously considered, we may be allowed to observe, that enmity had long prevailed between the Caliph Mamonis tempora referenda esse, qui ita se statorem literarum omnium maxime Philo- sophicarum praebuit, ut aeternum sibi nomen famamque inter veteres et recentiores comparaverit; idque non immerito. Ut enim Natura dotibus eum prorsus singula- l ibus exornaverat, quibus et imperio praeesse feliciter, et bonis artibus literisque paren- tem se et promotorem prcbere possit, ita hunc potissimum sibi Divina Providentia principem deligerat, cujus studio barbarici qute omnem fere orbem occupare coeperat, Obex poneretur, et inter Arabes scientiarum studia excitarentur.”— Historia Critica Philosophic, Bruckeri, Tom. III. pp. 31, 32. * “ Khondomir finit le portrait de Mamon en disant qu’il fut sans contredit le plus grand et le plus renomme Prince de la Race des Abbassides, Race le plus feconde en grand personnages de toutes celle qui ont regne parmi les Musulmans. Son regne fut de vingt ans et huit mois, pendant lesquels il favorisa indifferement toutes les personnes doctes de quelque Religion qu’ils fussent, lesquels reciproquement contribuoient beaucoup a la gloire de ce Monarque par les presents qu’ils lui faisoient des leurs Ouvrages
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