Soltano di Babilonia.  The name of Babylon was commonly applied to Cairo in the middle ages.  For instance BREIDENBACH, Itinerarium Hierosolyma p. 218 says:  “At last we reached Babylon.  But this is not that Babylon which stood on the further shore of the river Chober, but that which is called the Egyptian Babylon.  It is close by Cairo and the twain are but one and not two towns; one half is called Cairo and the other Babylon, whence they are called together Cairo-Babylon; originally the town is said to have been named Memphis and then Babylon, but now it is called Cairo.”  Compare No. 1085, 6.

Egypt was governed from 1382 till 1517 by the Borgite or Tcherkessian dynasty of the Mamelook Sultans.  One of the most famous of these, Sultan Kait Bey, ruled from 1468-1496 during whose reign the Gama (or Mosque) of Kait Bey and tomb of Kait Bey near the Okella Kait Bey were erected in Cairo, which preserve his name to this day.  Under the rule of this great and wise prince many foreigners, particularly Italians, found occupation in Egypt, as may be seen in the ‘Viaggio di Josaphat Barbaro’, among other travellers.  “Next to Leonardo (so I learn from Prof.  Jac.  Burckhardt of Bale) Kait Bey’s most helpful engineer was a German who in about 1487, superintended the construction of the Mole at Alexandria.  Felix Fabri knew him and mentions him in his Historia Suevorum, written in 1488.”

3. Il nuovo accidente accaduto, or as Leonardo first wrote and then erased, e accaduto un nuovo accidente.  From the sequel this must refer to an earthquake, and indeed these were frequent at that period, particularly in Asia Minor, where they caused immense mischief.  See No. 1101 note.]

shall be related to you in due order, showing first the effect and then the cause. [Footnote 4:  The text here breaks off.  The following lines are a fresh beginning of a letter, evidently addressed to the same person, but, as it would seem, written at a later date than the previous text.  The numerous corrections and amendments amply prove that it is not a copy from any account of a journey by some unknown person; but, on the contrary, that Leonardo was particularly anxious to choose such words and phrases as might best express his own ideas.]

Finding myself in this part of Armenia [Footnote 5:  Parti d’Erminia.  See No. 945, note.  The extent of Armenia in Leonardo’s time is only approximately known.  In the XVth century the Persians governed the Eastern, and the Arabs the Southern portions.  Arabic authors—­as, for instance Abulfeda—­include Cilicia and a part of Cappadocia in Armenia, and Greater Armenia was the tract of that country known later as Turcomania, while Armenia Minor was the territory between Cappadocia and the Euphrates.  It was not till 1522, or even 1574 that the whole country came under the dominion of the Ottoman Turks, in the reign of Selim I.