Page:Arabian Nights Entertainments (1728)-Vol. 2.djvu/30
of the right Eye, I muſt of Neceſſity give you the whol Account of my Life.
I was ſcarce paſt my Infancy when the King my Father (for you muſt know, Madam, I am a Prince by Birth) perceiv’d that I was endow’d with a great deal of Senſe, and ſpared nothing that was proper for improving it, he employ’d all the Men in his Dominions that excell’d in Sciences and Arts, to be conſtantly about me.
No ſooner had I learnt to read and write, but I learn’d the Alcoran from the Beginning to the End by Heart. That admirable Book which contains the Foundation, the Precepts and the Rules of our Religion: And that I might be throughly inſtructed in it, I read the Works of the moſt approved Authors, by whoſe Commentaries it had been explained. I added to this Study, that of all the Traditions collected from the Mouth of our Prophet, by the great Men that were co-temporary with him. I was no! ſatisfied with the Knowledge alone of all that had any Relation to our Religion, but made alſo a particular Search in our Hiſtories. I made my ſelf perfect in polite Learning, in the Works of Poets and Verſification. I applied my ſelf to Geography, to Chronology, and to ſpeak our Arabian Language in its Purity, nor forgetting, in the mean time, all ſuch Exerciſes as were proper for a Prince to underſtand. But one thing which I was mightily in love with, and ſucceeded into Admiration, was, to form the Characters of our Arabian Language, wherein I ſurpaſſed all the Writing-Maſters of our Kingdom that had acquired the greateſt Reputation.
Fame did me more Honour than I deſerved, for ſhe not only ſpread the Renown of my Parts through all the Dominions of the King my Father, but carried it as far as the Indian Court, whoſe Potent Monarch, deſirous to ſee me, ſent an Ambaſſador with rich Preſents, to demand me of my Father, who was extream glad of this Embaſſy for ſeveral Reaſons; he was perſwaded that nothing cou’d be more commendable in a Prince of my Age than to travel and ſee foreign Courts; and beſides he was very glad to gain the Friendſhip of the Indian Sultan. I departed with the