Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, In the Seventeenth Century - Softcover

The narrative of an Asiatic traveller, enthusiastically fond of seeing foreign countries, and unwearied in his investigation of their history, condition, and institutions, is in itself so great a singularity, and so deserving of attention, that no apology seems requisite for thus presenting Evliyá Efendí in an English dress: and the name of the Ritter von Hammer, by whom this work was abridged and translated, is a sufficient voucher for its intrinsic merit and the accuracy of the version. It is requisite to inform the reader, that throughout the work the Asiatic words and proper names are spelt according to the system of orthography adopted by Sir William Jones and Sir Charles Wilkins, which gives to the consonants the sound they have in our own, but to the vowels that which they have in the Italian and German languages; and by assigning to each Arabic character its appropriate Roman letter, enables the Oriental student to transfer the word at once from one mode of writing to the other.