lęsa Majestas of the State is ever ready to treat an attack on Islam as high treason of an unpardonable stamp. But the evidence of Al Bīrūni shows that, having survived, our Apology was actually in circulation, in a Mahometan country, a century and a half after the time, it which it first appeared. This is almost a greater marvel than that it should even have been written in the first instance; for, under the tolerant sway of the free-thinking Al Māmūn, that was possible, which a few years later would have been utterly impossible. And one may be very certain that, when orthodox views again prevailed, every effort would be made to suppress and exterminate an Apology, obnoxious not only for its attack on the religion of the State, but also for the political sentiments therein advocated as to the divine right of Ali, the usurpation of Abu Bekr, and the manner in which the Coran was compiled. But the work had in all likelihood, from its intrinsic excellence, already so spread during the reign of Al Māmūn and his immediate successors (who shared his Motįzelite views), that its entire suppression became, no doubt on that account, impossible. And so copies survived, although stealthily, here and there in Mahometan countries. But why this remarkable book was not better known and valued in Christian countries, is very strange,—indeed, to my mind, altogether unaccountable.
