Abd-ul-Latif

Abd-ul-Latif, a celebrated Arabian writer, was born at Bagdad in 1162. By way of education he committed to memory the Koran, the chief poets, and not a few grammatical treatises. To complete his culture he betook himself to Damascus, where the famous Saladin had gathered round him the most learned men of the time. He then settled in Egypt for some years, and taught medicine and philosophy at Cairo; he afterwards lectured at Damascus. His numerous works were mainly on medicine; but his best-known book is a valuable descriptive work on Egypt, translated into Latin by White (Oxford, 1800), and into French by De Sacy (1810). He died at Bagdad in 1231, on his way to Mecca.