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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Al Bîrûni, in his Vestiges of Ancient Nations, written A.D. 1000 (A.H. 390), while describing the customs of the Sabeans, cites the authority of Ibn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in these words:
“Likewise Abd al Masîh ihn Ishâc al Kindy, the Christian, in his reply to the Epistle of Abdallah ibn Ismaîl al Hâshimy, relates of them (the Sabeans) that they are notorious for Human sacrifice, but that at present they are not able to practise openly the same.”
page 1 note 1 Chronology of Ancient Nations, p. 187, by DrSachau, , London, 1879Google Scholar.
page 1 note 1 I subjoin the Arabic text:
page 5 note 1 On this, see notes in Khallicân, Slane's Ibn, vol. i. pp. xxvii and 355.Google Scholar
page 6 note 1 1 
. This, of course, is a mistake, as our Apologist was staunch Nestorian. There may have been some other Kendy a Jacobite; or rather the epithet ibn Y´cûb has been so misunderstood and misapplied.
page 6 note 2 Relation de l'Egypte par Abd Allatîf, de Sacy, M., Paris, 1810, p. 487.Google Scholar
page 7 note 1 Bibliotheca Orientalis, Assemani, A.D. 1725, vol. iii, p. 213. The assumption that he wrote in Syriac is unfounded. But the treatise was probably translated into that language, as well as transliterated from the original into Syriac writing.
page 7 note 2 Pol. und Apolog. Literatur in Arab. Sprache, Leipzig, 1877, p. 126.
page 7 note 3 Those who care to prosecute the inquiry further, will find an elaborate article on Al Kindi der Philosoph der Araber, Ein Vorbild seiner Zeit und seiner Volkes, by DrFlügel, G., Leipzig, 1857.Google Scholar The paper is founded mainly on the authority of Ibn Abi Oseiba and Ibn Kufti, and is learned and exhaustive. A curious astrological treatise by the same Al Kindy is given by DrLoth, Otto, p. 261, Morgenländische Forschungen, Leipzig, 1875.Google Scholar The cycles of Arabian history are there ascribed to astronomical conjunctions, and the essay closes with a prophecy of the eventual ascendancy of Islam over all other faiths.
There is also a short article with an exhaustive list of Ibn Ishâc's works, by Joljol, Ibn, the Spanish writer, in the Bibliotheca Escurialensis, Casiri, Matriti, 1760 A.D. vol. i. p. 357.Google Scholar
page 9 note 1 p. 81.
page 9 note 2 p. 47. The name is erroneously printed 
. But there can be no douht that Bâbek Khurramy 
is the correct reading.
page 9 note 3 
The words imply “two hundred and odd years,” or a little over 200. The edict against the eternity of the Goran was issued I think about the year 211 or 212 A.H.; and our Discussion took place probably a year or two later, say 215 A.H.
page 10 note 1 See my Rede Lecture on the Early Caliphate, Smith, and Elder, , 1881, p. 21.Google Scholar
page 11 note 1 The action of Al Hajjâj (who has been sufficiently misrepresented and abused by the Abbasside faction) appears to have been mainly confined to certain additions in the way of diacritical marks. See Khallikân, Slane's Ibn, vol. i. p. 359Google Scholar and note 14, p. 364. But it was natural, at an Abbasside Court, to vilify that great, but stern, Viceroy of the Omeyyads.
page 12 note 1 This pious salutation at mention of the Prophet, universal among the Mahometans, occurs only here in the Caliph's address, and not in any other part of our Author's writing.
page 14 note 1 He also objected to the word Qarîb (p. 3)Google Scholar as applicable by a Mahometan to a Christian.
page 15 note 1 See pp. 129, 144, 95, and 121.
page 17 note 1 DrSteinschneider, 's letter will be found at page 315Google Scholar of the Zeitschrift der Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. xxix.Google Scholar The passage referred to in Casiri is as follows: 
. Bibliotheca Arab. Hisp. Casiri, Michaelis, Matriti, 1760 A.D., vol. i. p. 310.Google Scholar
page 17 note 2 There is the MS. in Paris referred to by de Sacy as No. 257 of the Bibliothèque Orientale. And there is also that mentioned by Steinschneider, No. 112, “Kindi, Jacob? Vertheidigung der Christlichen Religion gegen den Islam, in Karschunischen MSS.” See his Polemische und apologetische Literatur in Arabischer Sprache, Leipzig, 1877, p. 131.Google Scholar In this last, the letter of al Hâshimy (we are told) is given in an abridged form.
page 18 note 1 An account of the Apology, with a few extracts, has already appeared in the Indian female Evangelist for 04, 1881Google Scholar, but it was necessarily brief.