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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

great difficulty in finding their exact form, not having at my disposal all the necessary verification elements. I have placed explanatory notes at the bottom of the pages, some of which point out the Nestorian heresies of Raban Sauma. My learned friend, M. Rubens Duval, was kind enough to review the proofs, and I address all my thanks to him.

I have divided the work into chapters, and I have introduced paragraphs to make it easier to read. The passage that goes from the word ܘܦܪܚܘ and they flew (p. 86, l. 7) up to the word ܚܕܝܘ they rejoiced (p. 89, l. 1), is found in my manuscript after the word ܢܦܩܘ they went out (p. 91, l. 11); there is an obvious copyist error that makes the narrative unintelligible; I had to restore the order of the facts and sentences as it must have been in the original, and I placed this passage after the word ܒܕܘܟܬܐ (ܒܕܘܟܝܬܐ) in the place (p. 86, l. 7).

The account of the journey of the embassy sent to Europe was written in Persian by Raban Sauma himself. It was then translated into Syriac by our anonymous author, who abbreviated it.