Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 2.2

2.2

It is agreed and confessed amongst those that look on the register of time, and the vicissitudes of days and nights, that books of history, and a review of the different stations and various successions of men are of manifold conveniency, and produce an infinity of advantages, as if the inspection of the historical page afforded an insight into the phenomena of the Almighty Artist's full powers, and a glimpse into the most glorious part of the Creator's performance. It affords information likewise about the several races of mankind, and an insight into the institutions and good qualities of their principal leaders, as well as in the actions of their followers, and in the imitative motions of those that have copied those actors of so exalted a stage. On the other hand, men, by such an inspection of the meanness of insolence, and of the turpitude of oppression, are often put upon their guard, and often reclaimed from their shameful conduct: All truths so well known to the intelligent and virtuous, and so universally admitted amongst those endowed with experience and penetration, that it would be needless to insist upon them,