Note 56 — GHÁNAH — Aúdaghost — Aúlíl.

The name Tádmekkah signified The Likeness of Mekkah, (Not. et Extr. p. 653.) But Ned Roma, as Leo informs us (pt. IV. c. 6), signified The Likeness of Rome. A single point in Arabic writing discriminates between these two prefixes. But since El Bekrí, who writes Tádmekkah, also writes Nádrúmah, we must be satisfied to ascribe the apparent discrepancy, in this case, to difference of dialect. But it may be here remarked, that the pages of Leo Africanus are not quite free from the inaccuracies which originate in an unpointed Arabic text. They offer, for instance, Perzegreg for Ber Zegzeg, Nefreoa for Nefzeoa, Amarig for Amazig, and frequently Ibn Racu for Ibn Rachic. In the early French translation of Leo (by Jean Temporal, 1556), we find also Cairaran frequently written for Cairaoan, Azarad for Azaoad, and Araran for Araoan. Whether these errors have been all copied from the version of Leo in the first edition of Ramusio’s first volume, we have not had the means of determining; but the second edition of Ramusio (1554) is free from the more glaring of them.