THE first edition of the APOLOGY OF AL KINDY was published five years ago. It contained an "Essay on its Age and Authorship," which is now again prefixed to the Apology; and which, having been read before the ASIATIC SOCIETY, was published in the Journal of that Institution. The conclusions thus submitted to the judgment of learned Orientalists¹ have not been questioned anywhere, and may, therefore, with some confidence, be now accepted.

The APOLOGY has been largely circulated in the original text in the East, and has also been translated into the vernacular of India. It is important, therefore, that its substance should be accessible in English to our Missionaries and others interested in the work, as well as the arguments on which its claim to authenticity is grounded. And it is chiefly with this view that the present edition is published.

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
December 1886.