1 The Persian text transliterates this author’s name as “Draybár” and titles his work The Progress of Peoples. The reference is apparently to John William Draper, 1811–1882, celebrated chemist and widely-translated historian. Detailed material on Muslim contributions to the West, and on Gerbert (Pope Sylvester II) appears in the second volume of the work cited. Of some of Europe’s systematically unacknowledged obligations to Islám the author writes: “Injustice founded on religious rancour and national conceit cannot be perpetuated for ever.” (Vol. II, p. 42, Rev. ed.) The Dictionary of American Biography states that Draper’s father was a Roman Catholic who assumed the name John Christopher Draper when disowned by his family for becoming a Methodist, and that his real name is unknown. The translator is indebted to Mr. Paul North Rice, Chief of the New York Public Library’s Reference Department, for the information that available data on Draper’s family history and nationality are in conflict; The Drapers in America by Thomas Waln-Morgan (1892) states that Draper’s father was born in London, while Albert E. Henschel in “Centenary of John William Draper” (New York University “Colonnade,” June, 1911) has the following: “If there be among us any who trace their lineage to the sunny fields of Italy, they may feel a just pride in John William Draper, for his father, John C. Draper, was an Italian by birth...”
The translator’s thanks are also due to Madame Laura Dreyfus-Barney for investigations in connection with this passage at the Library of Congress and the Bibliothèque Nationale.