The Fall of the Roman Empire

The great historian Issa Iskandar Maalouf is at work on translating the book The Fall of the Roman Empire into Arabic, by the English historian Gibbon. He said in the introduction to this book, which runs to seven volumes in English and contains absorbing studies: The Roman state fell, in its last days, for fifteen reasons, namely: (1) they were much inclined to amusement; (2) they spent their money without knowing where it was spent, nor how it was spent, nor why it was spent; (3) parties multiplied among them and they failed to check them, so the body of the realm came apart and fell behind; (4) they did not look far, but only before them or behind them; (5) they never settled upon one state, but wavered like a feather fallen in the path of the wind. And so on with the rest of these reasons. The book contains delightful studies of the civilization of the lands they possessed and ruled for a long time, and of the monuments they left behind, which remain clear testaments to this day; but its last days turned bad, as is the nature of states.

● Mr. Fuad Badr, director of Dar al-Kitab, made a journey to Egypt, accompanied by his esteemed wife, Mrs. Wadad. In Egypt Mr. Badr visited the great cultural institutions.