[13] The art and genius of history have ever been unknown to the Asiatics; [14] they are ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our monkish chronicle of the same period may be compared to their most popular works, which are never vivified by the spirit of philosophy and freedom. The Oriental library of a Frenchman [15] would instruct the most learned mufti of the East; and perhaps the Arabs might not find in a single historian so clear and comprehensive a narrative of their own exploits as that which will be deduced in the ensuing sheets. [Footnote 10: For the viith and viiith century, we have scarcely any original evidence of the Byzantine historians, except the chronicles of Theophanes (Theophanis Confessoris Chronographia, Gr.
et Lat.
cum notis Jacobi Goar.
Paris, 1665, in folio) and the Abridgment of Nicephorus, (Nicephori Patriarchae C.P.Breviarium Historicum, Gr.