illusive.’”—The above-quoted tradition of the Prophet has often occasioned other points of dispute to be settled in the same manner, by a dream; and when the dreamer is a person of reputation, no one ventures to contend against him. The remark made at the commencement of this chapter implies that there are, in the present day, many learned men in the metropolis of Egypt; and there are some also in other towns of this country. One of the most celebrated of the modern ’Ulama of Cairo is the sheykh Hasan El-’Attár, who is the present sheykh of the Azhar. In theology and jurisprudence, he is not so deeply versed as some of his contemporaries, particularly the sheykh El-Kuweysinee, whom I have before mentioned; but he is eminently accomplished in polite literature. He is the author of an “Insha,” or an excellent collection of Arabic letters, on various subjects, which are intended as models of epistolary style. This work has been printed at Boolák. In mentioning its author, I fulfil a promise which he condescended to ask of me: supposing that I should publish, in my own country, some account of the people of Cairo, he desired me to state that I was acquainted with him, and to give my opinion of his acquirements.—The sheykh Mohammad Shiháb is also deservedly celebrated as an accomplished Arabic scholar, and elegant poet. His affability and wit attract to his house, every evening, a few friends, whose pleasures, on these occasions, I sometimes participate. We are received in a small, but very comfortable room: each of us takes his own pipe; and coffee alone is presented to us: the sheykh’s conversation is the most delightful banquet that he can offer us.—There are also several other persons in Cairo who enjoy considerable reputation as philologists and poets.—The sheykh ’Abd-Er-Rahmán El-Gabartee, another modern author, and a native of Cairo, particularly deserves to be mentioned, as having written a very excellent history of the events which have taken place in Egypt since the commencement of the twelfth century of the Flight.[339] He died in 1825, or 1826, soon after my first arrival in Cairo. His family was of El-Gabart (also called Ez-Zeyla’), a province of Abyssinia, bordering on the ocean. The Gabartees (or natives of that country) are Muslims. They have a riwák (or apartment appropriated to such of them as wish to study) in the Azhar; and there is a similar provision for them at Mekkeh, and also at El-Medeeneh.