The description of Assyria is furnished by Herodotus (1. i. c. 192, etc.), who sometimes writes for children, and sometimes for philosophers; by Strabo (1. xvi. p. 1070-1082 [p. 736-746, ed. Casaub.]); and by Ammianus (1. xxiii. c. 6). The most useful of the modern travellers are Tavernier (part. i. 1. ii. p. 226-258), Otter (tom. ii. p. 35-69, and 189-224), and Niebuhr (tom. ii. p. 172-288). Yet I much regret that the Irak Arabi of Abulfeda has not been translated.