ARABIC AUTHORS. 

 A MANUAL OF ARABIAN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 

 BY

 F. F. ARBUTHNOT, M. R. A. S. , AUTHOR OF

 "EARLY IDEAS" AND "PERSIAN PORTRAITS. "

 LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN. 1890. 

PREFACE. 

The following pages contain nothing new and nothing original, but theydo contain a good deal of information gathered from various sources, and brought together under one cover. The book itself may be useful, not, perhaps, to the Professor or to the Orientalist, but to thegeneral reader, and to the student commencing the study of Arabic. Tothe latter it will give some idea of the vast field of Arabianliterature that lies before him, and prepare him, perhaps, for workingout a really interesting work upon the subject. Such still remains tobe written in the English language, and it is to be hoped that it willbe done some day thoroughly and well. 

It is gratifying to think that the study of Oriental languages andliterature is progressing in Europe generally, if not in Englandparticularly. The last Oriental Congress, held at Stockholm andChristiania the beginning of September, 1889, brought together agoodly number of Oriental scholars. There were twenty-eightnationalities represented altogether, and the many papers prepared andread, or taken as read preparatory to their being printed, showed thatmatters connected with Oriental studies in all their branches exciteconsiderable interest. 

England, too, has been lately making some efforts which will be, it issincerely hoped, crowned with success. The lectures on modern Orientallanguages lately established by the Imperial Institute of the UnitedKingdom, the Colonies, and India, in union with University College andKing's College, London, is full of promise of bringing forth goodfruit hereafter. So much is to be learnt from Oriental literature invarious ways that it is to be hoped the day may yet come when thestudy of one or more Oriental languages will be taken up as a pastimeto fill the leisure hours of a future generation thirsting afterknowledge. 

In addition to the above, a movement is also being made to attempt torevive the old Oriental Translation Fund. It was originally started inA. D. 1828, and did good work for fifty years, publishing translations(see Appendix) from fifteen different Oriental languages, and thencollapsing from apathy, neglect, and want of funds. Unless wellsupported, both by donations and annual subscriptions, it is useless toattempt a fresh start. To succeed thoroughly it must be regarded as anational institution, and sufficiently well-off to be able to afford tobring out Texts and Indexes of

[Transcriber's note: Missing page in the source document. ]

-cially An-Nadim's 'Fihrist, ' a most valuable book of reference, oughtto be done into English without further delay. Private individuals canhardly undertake the business, but a well-organized and permanentOriental Translation Fund, assisted by the English and IndianGovernments, could and would render extraordinary services in thepublication of texts, translations, and indexes of Oriental literaturegenerally. 

For assistance in the preparation of this present volume my thanks aredue to the many authors whose works have been freely used and quoted, and also to Mr. E. Rehatsek, of Bombay, whose knowledge of the Arabiclanguage and of Arabic literature is well known to all Orientalscholars. 

F. F. ARBUTHNOT. 

18, Park Lane, W. 

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. 

HISTORICAL. 

Arabia: its boundaries, divisions of districts, revenues, area, population, and history. --Tribe of Koraish. --The Kaabah atMecca. --Muhammad. --His immediate successors: Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, Ali. --The Omaiyides. --Fate of Hasan and Hussain, sons of Ali--Sunnisand Shiahs. --Overthrow of the Omaiyides by the Abbasides. --TheOmaiyides in Spain; their conquests and government. --The Moors, andtheir final expulsion. --To what extent Europe is indebted to theSpanish Arabs. --Their literature and architecture. --The Abbaside Khalifsat Baghdad. --Persia, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia become detachedfrom their government in the course of time. --Fall of Baghdad itselfin A. D. 1258. --Dealings of the Turks with Arabia. --The Wahhabi reformmovement. --Expeditions of the Turks and Egyptians to suppressit. --Various defeats and successes. --Present form of government inArabia. --Its future prospects. --List of the Omaiyide Khalifs, precededby Muhammad and his four immediate successors. --List of the AbbasideKhalifs. --List of the Arab rulers in Spain. 

CHAPTER II. 

LITERARY. 

About the Arabic and Chinese languages. --The permanent character ofthe former attributed to the Koran. --Division of Arab literature intothree periods: I. The time before Muhammad. --The sage Lokman; thedescription of three Lokmans; Arab poetry before the Koran; the sevensuspended poems, known as the Mua'llakat, at Mecca; notions of theArabs about poetry; their Kasidas; description of the Kasidas ofAmriolkais, Antara, Labid, Tarafa, Amru, Harath, and Zoheir; the poetsNabiga, Al-Kama, and Al-Aasha. II. The period from the time ofMuhammad to the fall of the Abbasides. --Muhammad considered as a poet;the poets who were hostile to him; his panegyrist Kab bin Zoheir;account of him and his 'Poem of the Mantle, ' and the results;Al-Busiri's 'Poem of the Mantle;' names of poets favourable and hostileto Muhammad; the seven jurisconsults; the four imams; the six fathersof tradition; the early traditionists; the companions; the alchemists;the astronomers; the grammarians; the geographers and travellers; thehistorians; the tabulators and biographers; the writers about naturalhistory; the philologists; the philosophers; the physicians; thepoets; the collectors and editors of poems; the essayist Al-Hariri;many translators; special notice of Ibn Al-Mukaffa; support given tolearning and literature by certain of the Omaiyide, Abbaside, andSpanish Arab Khalifs; description of Baghdad; reign ofHarun-ar-Rashid; the Barmekides; the Khalif Razi-billah; Hakim II. AtCordova; his education; his accession to the throne; his collection ofbooks; his library, and its catalogue; places of learning in the East atthis time. III. Third period, from the fall of Baghdad to the presenttime. --Certain historians; Ibn Malik, the grammarian; Ibn Batuta, thetraveller; Abul Feda, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Kesir, Ibn Hajar, IbnArabshah--all historians; Firuzabadi, Taki-uddin of Fez, Al-Makrisi, Sayuti, Ibn Kamal Pasha, Abu Sa'ud the mufti, Ibrahim of Aleppo, Birgeli, Abul Khair; celebrated caligraphers, past and present, HajiKhalfa, Muhammad al Amin of Damascus, Makkari. Decline of Arabicliterature: its present form. About the printing-presses of Arabicworks at various places. 

CHAPTER III. 

ABOUT MUHAMMAD. 

A complete summary of the details of his life, from his birth to hisdeath. --Remarks upon him as a reformer, preacher, and apostle. --TheHanyfs. --Muhammad's early idea of establishing one religion for theJews, Christians, and Arabs. --His long struggle with the Koraish. --Hisfailure at Mecca. --His success at Madinah. --Adapts his views to themanners and customs of the Arabs only. --The reason of his manymarriages. --His love of women. --About the Koran. --Not collected andarranged until after his death. --Comparison of the Koran with the Oldand New Testaments. --Superiority of our Bible. --Description of it by'Il Secolo. '--Rev. Mr. Badger's description of the Koran. --Written inthe purest Arabic, and defies competition. --Muhammad and Moses, Jesusand Buddha. --Remarks about Buddhism and Christianity. --Moses andMuhammad the founders of two nationalities. --Abraham the father of theJewish, Christian, and Muhammadan religions. --Rénan's description ofthe gods of the Jews. --Joseph. --The Twelve Tribes. --Appearance ofMoses as a liberator and organizer. --The reasons of his wanderings inthe desert. --What the Jews owed to Moses, and the Arabs toMuhammad. --The latter as a military leader. --Resemblance of the warlikeexpeditions of the Jews and of the Arabs. --Similar proceedings in theSoudan at the present time. --Account of the dogmas and precepts ofIslam as embodied in the Koran. --Other points connected with theinstitutions of Islam. --Faith and prayer always insistedupon. --Democratic character of the Muhammadan religion, excellent intheory, but doubtful in practice. --Muhammad's last address at Mina, telling the Muslims that they were one brotherhood. --His final remarks. 

CHAPTER IV. 

TALES AND STORIES. 

The Kalilah wa Dimnah. --'Early Ideas. '--'Persian Portraits, '--Originof the 'Arabian Nights. '--The Hazar Afsaneh, or Thousand Stories. Dateof the 'Nights. '--Its fables and apologues the oldest part of thework. --Then certain stories--The latest tales. --Galland'sedition. --His biography. --His successors, sixteen in number, ending withPayne and Burton. --The complete translations of these two last-named, inthirteen and sixteen volumes respectively. --Brief analysis of Payne'sfirst nine, and of Burton's first ten volumes. --Short summary oftwelve stories; viz. : The tale of Aziz and Azizah; the tale of KamarAl-Zaman and the Lady Budur; Ala Aldin Abu Al-Shamat; Ali the Persianand the Kurd sharper; the man of Al-Yaman and his six slave-girls; AbuAl-Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud; the rogueries of Dalilah theCrafty and her daughter Zeynab the Trickstress; the adventures ofQuicksilver Ali of Cairo; Hasan of Busra and the king's daughter ofthe Jinn; Ali Nur Al-din and Miriam the girdle-girl; Kamar Al-Zamanand the jeweller's wife; Ma'aruf the cobbler and his wifeFatimah. --Remarks on Payne's three extra volumes, entitled 'Tales fromthe Arabic, ' and on Burton's two first supplemental volumes. --Allusionto Burton's third supplemental and to Payne's thirteenthvolume. --Burton's fourth, fifth, and sixth supplemental volumes. --Summing-up of the number of stories contained in the above twoeditions; from what manuscripts they were translated, and some finalremarks. --The Kathá Sarit Ságara, a sort of Hindoo 'Arabian Nights'. --Comparison of the two works. --Brief description of the Kathá and itscontents. --Gunádhya and Somadeva. --Final remarks on the stories foundin the Kathá. --Antar, a Bedouin romance. --Its partial translation. --Itssupposed author. --Brief description of the work, with some remarks uponit. --Both the 'Arabian Nights' and Antar rather long. --The press inEngland to-day. --Numerous writers of novels and story-books. --Thesetake the place of the 'Nights, ' and satisfy the public, always insearch of something new, even if not true; something original, even ifnot trustworthy. --Final remarks. 

CHAPTER V. 

ANECDOTES AND ANA. 

In Persian literature the Gulistan, Negaristan, and Beharistan containmany anecdotes. --In Arabic literature there are works of the samekind. --'The Naphut-ul-Yaman, ' or Breath of Yaman. --Six storiestranslated from it. --The Merzuban namah, with newly translatedextracts from it. --Remarks on this work. --The Al-Mustatraf, or theGleaner or the Collector. --Two stories from it. --Two anecdotes takenfrom the Sehr-ul-oyoon, or Magic of the Eyes. --A philosophicdiscourse, translated from the Siraj-ul-Muluk, or Lamp of Kings. --TheIlam en Nas, or Warnings for Men. --Eighteen stories from IbnKhallikan's Biographical Dictionary. --Seven anecdotes from varioussources. --Verses from the Arabic about the places where certain Arabswished to be buried. --Translation of the verses upon Alfred deMusset's tomb in Paris. 

Appendix. 

Index. 

CHAPTER I. 

HISTORICAL. 

The Arabia of to-day is bounded on the west by the Red Sea and Gulf ofSuez; on the south by the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea; on theeast by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf; and on the north by aportion of Syria. This last boundary would, however, be more clearlydefined by drawing a line from Suez straight across to the westernhead of the Persian Gulf. 

By the Greeks and Romans this country was divided into Arabia Petræa, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Felix, or the Stony, the Desert, and theHappy. The Arabs themselves call it 'The Land of the Arabs, ' whilemodern geographers give the Sinaitic peninsula as the first geographicdistrict; the Hijaz, including the Haram, or sacred territory ofMecca, as the second; and Yaman, with the Tehamah, as the third. Tothese may be added the provinces of Hadramant and Mahrah, and of Omanand Hasa, to the south and east respectively, with Nejd, or CentralArabia, as the central plateau, and some large deserts scattered indifferent parts of the peninsula. 

Of the revenues of Arabia it is almost impossible to form anythinglike a correct estimate. The area of the country covers about1, 200, 000 square miles, and the population is said to be from five tosix millions, of whom one-fifth consist of Ahl Bedoo, or dwellers inthe open land, otherwise known as Bedouins; and four-fifths ofsettled Arabs, called Ahl Hadr, or dwellers in fixed localities. 

The history of Arabia may be divided into three periods:

1st. The prehistoric period, full of tales of heroes, and giants, andwonderful cities. 

2nd. The period which preceded the era of Muhammad. 

3rd. That which followed it. 

The first period is mythical to a certain extent; at all events, nothing can be stated positively about it. The second period isdistinguished as one of local monarchies and federal governments in arough and rude form; while the third commences with theocraticcentralization, dissolving finally into general anarchy. 

Of the many tribes in Arabia, the most celebrated is the family of theKoraish, still regarded as the noblest of the Arabs, partly because, at the beginning of the fifth century A. D. , their chiefs had renderedthemselves the masters and acknowledged guardians of the sacred Kaabahat Mecca, and partly because of their connection with the Prophet. TheKaabah, La Maison Carrée, or square temple, a shrine of unknownantiquity, was situated within the precincts of the town of Mecca, andto it, long before Muhammad's time, the Arabs had brought yearlyofferings, and made devout pilgrimages. The tribe of Koraish, havingonce obtained the keys of the consecrated building, had held themagainst all comers till Muhammad's conquest of Mecca in A. D. 630, whenhe handed over the key to Othman bin Talha, the former custodian, tobe kept by him and his posterity as an hereditary and perpetualoffice, and he further confirmed his uncle Abbas in the office ofgiving drink to the pilgrims. 

Before entering into a somewhat lengthy description of Arabianliterature, it is necessary to give a short and rapid sketch ofArabian history, beginning from the time of Muhammad, as his Koran wasthe foundation of the literary edifice. All Arab authors have lookedupon that work as the height of eloquent diction, and have regarded itas the model standard to be followed in all their productions. Leaving, then, the two first periods of Arabian history, viz. , theprehistoric, and the pre-Muhammadan, without any particular notice, the third period will be sketched as briefly as possible, and will befound excessively interesting, containing as it does the rise, grandeur, and decline of the Arabs as a nation. 

Muhammad, on his death in June, A. D. 632, left the entire Arabpeninsula, with two or three exceptions, under one sceptre and onecreed. He was succeeded by Abu Bakr (the father of Ayesha, thefavourite wife of the prophet), known as the Companion of the Cave, with the title of Khalifah, or successor. His reign only lasted twoyears, but during that period the various insurrections that broke outin Arabia in consequence of the death of the Prophet were promptly putdown, after severe fighting, in various parts of the peninsula, andthe whole country was subjugated. Foreign expeditions beyond theborders were also planned and started. 

Abu Bakr, dying in August, A. D. 634, was succeeded by Umar, or Omar, the conqueror of Syria, Persia, and Egypt by means of his generalsKhalid bin Walid (the best, perhaps, that Islam produced), Abu Obaida, Mothanna, Sád bin Malik, Amr bin al-Aasi, and others. Omar himself wasan early convert of A. D. 615, and a sudden conversion like our Paul;but one made his converts by fanaticism and the sword, the other bypreaching and the pen. After a glorious and victorious reign of tenyears Omar was assassinated by a Persian slave in November, A. D. 644, and was followed as Khalif by Othman, son of Affan, of the noblefamily of Abd-esh-Shems, who also assumed the title 'Amir al-Momenin, or Commander of the Faithful, which had been first adopted by hispredecessor Omar. Othman ruled for twelve years, when he was murderedin A. D. 656, some say at the instigation of Ali, nephew of Muhammad, and husband of his only daughter Fatima. Anyhow, Ali succeeded Othmanas Khalif, but was defeated by Moawia, Governor of Syria, andassassinated in A. D. 660. 

Moawia bin Abu Sofyan then established the Benou Umayya dynasty, called by Europeans the Omaiyides, or Ommiades, from the name ofUmayya, the father of the race. This dynasty reigned for nearly ninetyyears, and numbered fourteen successive princes, with their capital atDamascus. 

During the reign of Yazid I. , the second prince (A. D. 679-683), Hussain, the younger son of Ali the Khalif, came to an untimely end. His elder brother, Hasan, a man of quiet disposition, had beenpreviously murdered by one of his wives, at the instigation, it issaid, of Yazid before he came to the throne. This happened in A. D. 669. Later on Hussain, with his followers, rose in rebellion, and waskilled on the plain of Kerbela, A. D. 680. The descendants, however, ofthis faction continued the disturbances which eventually brought aboutthe great Muhammadan schism, and the splitting up of the religion intotwo sects, known to this day as the Sunnis and Shias. The adherents ofthe legitimate Khalifate, and of the orthodox doctrine, assumed thename of Sunnites, or Traditionists. These acknowledge the first fourKhalifs (the rightly minded, or rightly directed, as they are called)to have been legitimate successors of Muhammad, while the sectaries ofAli are known as the Shiites, or Separatists. These last regard Ali asthe first rightful Imam, for they prefer this title (found in Suraii. , verse 118, of the Koran) to that of Khalif. The Turks and Arabsare Sunnis: the Persians, and most of the Muhammadans of India, Shias. 

This division into two sects, who hate each other cordially, has donemore to weaken the power of the Muhammadan religion as a power thananything else. The Shias to this day execrate the memory of Yazid asthe murderer of their hero Hussain, whom they have ever regarded as amartyr, and given full vent to their feelings on the subject in their'Passion Play, ' translated by Sir Lewis Pelly, and described by Mr. Benjamin in his 'Persia and the Persians. '

Other insurrections against the reigning Omaiyide Khalifs were alsoput down, portions of Asia, Africa and Spain conquered, and evenFrance invaded, so that at the close of the Benou Umayya dynastry, about A. D. 750, their empire consisted of many and large territoriesin Europe, Africa and Asia. Their colour was white, as opposed to theblack of the Abbasides, and the green of the Fatimites, as descendantsof Muhammad. 

But the Benou Umayya dynasty succumbed, A. D. 749, under the blows ofIbrahim (great-grandson of Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet), and ofhis younger brother, Abul Abbas, better known in history as As-Saffah, or the Blood-shedder. A decisive battle was fought on the banks of theriver Zab, near Arbela, and Marwan II. (A. D. 744-750), the last of theOmaiyide Khalifs, was defeated, and fled first to Damascus, and thento Egypt, where he was eventually killed by his pursuers, A. D. 750. 

The history of the reign of the Abbasides now begins, and under themthe power and glory of Islam reached their highest point. But it isfirst necessary to allude to the conquest of Spain by the Omaiyides, abranch of which family still retained for a long time in the West thepower which they had totally lost in the East. 

The most important achievement of the reign of Walid I. (A. D. 705-715), the sixth prince of the Omaiyide dynasty, was the conquestof Spain by his generals Tarik and Musa. The Arabs (known in Europeunder the name of Saracens) first established themselves in Cordovaabout A. D. 711, and the two generals above named continued theirvictorious progress throughout the country in 712 and 713, untilnearly nine-tenths of the peninsula was held by the Muhammadans. 

Some years later France even was invaded by the Arabs, and the bannersof the Muslims were erected on the coasts of the Gulf of Lyons, on thewalls of Narbonne, of Nimes, of Carcassonne, and of Béziers. The Arabsafterwards advanced as far as the plains of Tours, where theirvictorious progress was checked by Charles Martel, who gained a greatvictory over them near that town in October, A. D. 732, and completelydefeated them, so that they were obliged to retire again to Spain. There successive viceroys and emirs ruled as the representatives ofthe Khalifs at Damascus until the fall of the Omaiyide dynasty in theEast, A. D. 750. 

But even after that Spain remained for many years under Arabdomination. Anarchy almost prevailed from A. D. 750 to 755, but in thatyear the Arabs of Spain, weary of disorder, elected as their rulerAbd-ar-Rahman, grandson of the Khalif Hashim, tenth prince of theOmaiyide dynasty. At the time of his election, Abd-ar-Rahman was awanderer in the desert, pursued by his enemies, when a deputation fromAndalusia sought him out and offered him the Khalifate of Spain. Itwas gladly accepted. He landed there in September, A. D. 755, wasuniversally welcomed, and founded at Cordova the Western OmaiyideKhalifate, which lasted up to A. D. 1031, under sixteen rulers, withcertain interruptions during the reign of the last seven of them. Onthe extinction of the Khalifate, Spain was broken up into variouspetty kingdoms under kings and kinglets belonging to different Arabtribes and families. This continued from A. D. 1032 to 1092, when theAlmoravides established themselves from A. D. 1092 to 1147, and werefollowed by the Almohades, who reigned up to A. D. 1232. 

After this Cordova, Seville, and other places were taken by FerdinandIII. Of Leon and Castile, between A. D. 1236 and 1248. On the fall ofCordova the Muhammadan power declined with great rapidity; and, thoughthe celebrated kingdom of Granada was established by the Moors in A. D. 1232, it was their last refuge from the rising power of theChristians. Some twenty-one princes reigned there till A. D. 1492, whenGranada itself was taken, and this last Muhammadan dynasty was drivenout of Spain by Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabella of Castile. Thusended the empire of the Arabs and the Moors in Spain, which had lastednearly eight hundred years. 

The Spanish Arabs were extremely fond of learning. Indeed, it is dueto them to a very great extent that literature and science were keptafloat in Europe during the ages that followed the invasion of theBarbarians, as the Huns, Vandals, Goths, and Visigoths were generallycalled. That interval known as the 'Dark Ages' was kept alight by theArabs alone. Abd-ar-Rahman II. Established a library at Cordova duringhis reign, A. D. 822-852. Hakim II. , the successor of Abd-ar-RahmanIII. , loved the sciences, founded the University of Cordova, andcollected a library of great magnitude (A. D. 961-976). 

The revival of learning in Europe is chiefly attributed to thewritings of Arabian doctors and philosophers, and to the schools whichthey founded in several parts of Spain and Italy. These seats oflearning were frequented even in the twelfth century of our era bystudents from various parts of Europe, who disseminated the knowledgethus acquired when they returned to their own countries. At that timemany Arabic works were translated into Latin, which thus facilitatedthe progress of science. In the three last chapters of the second bookof the 'History of the Muhammadan Dynasties in Spain, ' translated byPascual de Gayangos, the state of science and literature is detailedin the words of Makkari, the original Arab author of that work, and init many once celebrated authors are mentioned, of whom not only theirproductions, but even their very names, have since perished. Thedistinguished writers whose works have come down to us will be moreparticularly alluded to in the next chapter. Europe is also indebtedto the Arabs for the elements of many useful sciences, particularlythat of chemistry. Paper was first made in Europe by them, and theircarpets and manufactures in steel and leather were long unrivalled, while in the Arabian schools of Cordova mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, botany and medicine were taught with great success. 

As Europe gradually emerged from darkness and ignorance, the Moors inSpain became so weak and powerless that in A. D. 1526 Charles I ofSpain, and V. Of Germany, ordered them to adopt the Spanish language. In A. D. 1566 an edict of Philip II. Forbade them to speak or write inArabic, and directed them to renounce all their traditional habits, customs and ceremonies. Philip III. Completed the work which hisfather had left unfinished. In A. D. 1609 all the Moriscoes wereordered to depart from the peninsula within three days, with a penaltyof death if they failed to obey the order, and from that time theirexistence as a nation finally ceased in Europe, and Spain thus lost amillion of industrious inhabitants skilled in the useful arts. Aftertheir expulsion Arabic literature more or less disappeared. Much of itwas destroyed, and a Spanish cardinal, it is said, once boasted thathe had destroyed with his own hands one hundred thousand Arabicmanuscripts! It is highly probable that the remnants of Andalusianlibraries were brought to light by Casiri (b. 1710, d. 1791) duringthe past, and by Gayangos during the present century, and it isdoubtful if much more will ever now be discovered. 

There are two buildings still extant in Spain which have survived theArabs, viz. , their mosque at Cordova (now the Cathedral), and theirpalace of the Alhambra at Granada, both well worth a visit, and welldescribed in Murray's and O'Shea's guides to Spain. During the reignof Abd-ar-Rahman III. (A. D. 912-961) the city, palace, and gardens ofMedinatu-z-Ahra, three or four miles from Cordova, were constructed inhonour of his favourite wife or mistress, Az-zahra, and cost animmense sum of money. At present no vestiges of them exist, and it issupposed that not only these, but many other Arab mosques andbuildings, were intentionally destroyed by their conquerors, as thehatred between the Christian and the Muslim in those days was of thebitterest description. 

And now to return to the Abbasides, established in the East on thedownfall of the Omaiyide dynasty there in A. D. 750, and thus continuethe main line of Arab history. 

There were, in all, thirty-seven Abbaside Khalifs, of whom Abu Jaafar, surnamed Al-Mansur, the Victorious (A. D. 754-775), Harun-ar-Rashid(A. D. 786-809), and Al-Mamun (A. D. 812-833) were the most celebrated. Of these, the first, who was the second Khalif, founded Baghdad, thecapital of the Abbasides, about A. D. 762; the second, who was thefifth Khalif, has been rendered immortal by the frequent illusions tohim, and to members of the Barmeki family, in the 'Arabian Nights';while the third, who was the seventh Khalif, was a great patron ofliterature and science. 

As years rolled on the dynasty and its princes became weaker andweaker, and finally came to an end under the thirty-seventh and lastKhalif Al-Mustaa 'sim Billah, with the capture of Baghdad in A. D. 1258by Halaku Khan, the sovereign of the Mughals, and the grandson ofJenghiz Khan. 

Long before this, however, the empire which the first of the Abbasideshad conquered was already broken up. About A. D. 879, in Persia, Amr-bin-Lais founded the Suffary or Braiser dynasty, still subject tothe Commander of the Faithful. But even this allegiance only lastedtill A. D. 901, when the Samani and Dailami dynasties were establishedin the North and South of Persia respectively, and quite independentof the Khalifs of Baghdad. 

In A. D. 909, the Fatimites, so designated from one Obaid Allah, a realor pretended descendant of Ali and Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, established themselves in the North of Africa, and consolidated theirpower there. In A. D. 972 Al-Moizz, or Abu Tamim, a great-grandson ofObaid Allah, the founder of the Fatimite dynasty at Tunis, sent hisgeneral Jawhar with an army to invade Egypt. The country wasconquered, the city of Cairo built, the seat of government wastransferred there, and the title of Khalif assumed by the Fatimites. There they remained as reigning Khalifs until A. D. 1171, whenSalah-ad-Din (Saladin) usurped the sovereignty, and founded theAyoobite dynasty of Kurds, till its last ruler, Melik-al-Ashraf, wasdeposed in A. D. 1250 by the Mamlook El Moizz, who in that year foundedthe Baharite Mamlook dynasty, which lasted with variations in thefamilies till A. D. 1377. But in A. D. 1260 Ez-Zahir Beybars, a Mamlookslave, secured the throne, and brought the then representative of theAbbaside Khalifs (the family having been dethroned by the Mughals atBaghdad in A. D. 1258) to Egypt, and recognised him as possessingspiritual authority alone, but nothing else. From that time until thetaking of Egypt by Sultan Selim I. In A. D. 1517, the Abbaside Khalifsretained the spiritual power first under the Baharite, and then underthe Circassian or Borgite Mamlooks. When Egypt became a Turkishpashalic, Selim, the conqueror, compelled the representative of theAbbaside Khalifs, by name Al-Motawukkel, to leave Cairo and reside inConstantinople; and on his death the Ottoman Sultans assumed the titleof Khalif, which they hold to this day, and are recognised by theSunnis as the head of the Muhammadan religion, and the successors ofMuhammad. 

As regards Syria and Palestine (two countries more or less closelyconnected, owing to their proximity and absence of distinct anddefined boundaries), on the termination of the rule of the Omaiyidesat Damascus in A. D. 750, they remained nominally under the Abbasidestill A. D. 969, when Syria was conquered by the Fatimites, who weresucceeded by the Seljuks, who captured Damascus about A. D. 1075, andAntioch A. D. 1085. The struggles with the Crusaders commenced in A. D. 1096, and continued until Saladin's famous victory at Hattin in 1187, when he became master of nearly the whole of Syria and Palestine. Fighting still went on in these countries between the Franks andothers until A. D. 1518, when Selim I. Conquered the country andincorporated it with the Turkish Empire. No Arab prince has sincereigned in Egypt or Syria, though these countries have alwaysexercised certain influences over Arabia. 

In Arabia itself, towards the end of the tenth century and thebeginning of the eleventh, A. D. , the Karmathians had risen in revolt, and detached that country from the Abbaside dynasty to such an extentthat she returned almost to her primitive independence. Indeed, it maybe said that, in the whole of Arabia, the Hijaz, with the Haram, orsacred territory of Mecca, under the Shariff, or nobles, the linealdescendants of the tribe of Koraish, alone retained some kind ofconstituted authority, and paid allegiance sometimes to the governmentof Baghdad, and sometimes to that of Egypt. 

As already stated above, in A. D. 1517 the Turkish Sultan Selim I. Conquered Egypt, and obtained from the last real, or supposedsurviving, Abbaside kinsman of the Prophet a formal investiture of theMuhammadan Khalifate. This was more religious than political in itsbearing, but still many of the tribes in Arabia offered theirallegiance to the Ottoman Government. From that time the Turks begantheir dealings with Arabia, which remained in a sort of independenceunder their own tribal Shaikhs, more or less according to thecircumstances of different districts, until the rise of the Wahhabimovement, about the middle of the eighteenth century of our era. 

The Wahhabi reform movement requires special mention. It began inArabia about A. D. 1740. The reformer and originator of the movementwas Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, born at the town of Aïnah, in thecentre of the Nejd district, A. D. 1691. He died in A. D. 1787, agedninety-six. After some years spent in travel and in study, he beganhis preaching about A. D. 1731. Driven from Aïnah, his native place, asMuhammad was driven from Mecca, Abdul Wahhab established himself atad-Diriyyah, where Muhammad bin Saood, the Shaikh of a sub-tribe ofthe Anizeh, gave him shelter, and eventually married his daughter. Bypreaching and fighting, his followers increased in number, and hisreforms spread throughout the Nejd district, and many converts weremade by him and his successors. 

In A. D. 1797 a Turkish army from Baghdad attacked the Wahhabis, butwere beaten, and two years later Saood II. Took and plundered Kerbela, Taif, Mecca, and other places, and seems to have retained his powerand his government for several years. 

In A. D. 1811 the Turks, who had quite lost their authority in Arabia, requested Muhammad Ali of Egypt to put down the movement, andreconquer the country. The first expedition, commanded by his sonTussun, in its attempt to take Madinah, was nearly annihilated, butsucceeded the following year. Later on the campaign was conducted byMuhammad Ali in person, and afterwards by his adopted son IbrahimPasha, with considerable success. The final stronghold, ad-Diriyyah, was captured in A. D. 1818, the Wahhabi chief captured, and sent firstto Egypt and then to Constantinople, where he was beheaded in Decemberof that year. 

The Egyptian occupation of Arabia was followed by a renewal of theWahhabi movement, which eventually succeeded, in A. D. 1842, in drivingout the Egyptians, occupied as they were at the time with fighting theTurks in Syria and Anatolia. Wahhabism was then re-established in someparts, and independence in other parts, of the country; but on thewhole Wahhabism has never been very popular either in Arabia or India, in which latter country it also has some followers. It may be regardedas the latest sect of Islam, but does not make much progress. 

Arabia may now be said to be under three different kinds ofgovernment--_i. E. _, partly under the Wahhabis, partly under the Turks, and partly under independent rulers, while Aden has been held by theEnglish ever since its first capture in A. D. 1839. In other words, thepresent position of Arabia may be more definitely described asfollows: Hasa, Hareek, the whole of Nejd, Kaseem, the provincesadjoining Yaman on the north, and Aseer, forming a broad belt, andstretching across the centre of the peninsula from the Red Sea to thePersian Gulf, remain under Wahhabi influences. The Hijaz and somesea-ports, such as Jedda and others, are at present absolutely underthe Turkish Government; while Bahrein, Oman and its capital Muscat, and Yaman are more or less independent. Between Nejd and Syria a newand promising kingdom has sprung up under Telal. 

The time perhaps may come, and perhaps not far distant, when the Turkswill disappear altogether from Arabia, and Wahhabism and independenttribes will alone remain. Another Muhammad or another Abdul Wahhab maysome day again appear, and bring together the tribes under one rulefor a time. It is doubtful, though, if ever the Arabs will again havethe power, talent, or enthusiasm to revive the glories of the ArabianEmpire, which now lives in history only, and is well worth a study. 

For ready reference the following is a chronology of the dynasty ofthe Ornaiyides, preceded by Muhammad and the first Khalifahs:

 A. D. Muhammad the Apostle 622--632 Abu Bakr 632--634 Omar I. 634--643 Othman 643--655 Ali 655--660 1. Moawia I. 660--679 2. Yazid I. 679--683 3. Moawia II. 683--683 4. Marwan I. 683--684 5. Abdul-Malik 684--705 6. Walid I. 705--715 7. Sulaiman 715--717 8. Omar II. 717--720 9. Yazid II. 720--724 10. Hashim 724--743 11. Walid II. 743--744 12. Yazid III. 744--744 13. Ibrahim 744--744 14. Marwan II. 744--750

The dynasty of the Omaiyides was followed by that of the Abbasides, who reigned as follows:

 A. D. 1. Abul-Abbas As-Saffah 750--754 2. Al-Mansur 754--775 3. Al-Mahdi 775--785 4. Al-Hadi 785--786 5. Harun-ar-Rashid 786--809 6. Al-Amin 809--812 7. Al-Mamun 812--833 8. Al-Mo'tasim Billah 833--842 9. Al-Wathik 842--847 10. Al-Mutwakkil 847--861 11. Al-Mustansir Billah 861--862 12. Al-Mustain Billah 862--866 13. Al-Mo'tiz Billah 866--869 14. Al-Muhtadi Billah 869--870 15. Al-Mo'tamid 870--892 16. Al-Motazid Billah 892--902 17. Al-Muktafi Billah 902--908 18. Al-Muktadir Billah 908--932 19. Al-Kahir Billah 932--934 20. Al-Radhi Billah 934--940 21. Al-Muttaki Billah 940--944 22. Al-Mustakfi Billah 944--945 23. Al-Mutia Billah 945--974 24. Al-Taya Billah 974--991 25. Al-Kadir Billah 991--1031 26. Al-Kaim Billah 1031--1075 27. Al-Muktadi Billah 1075--1094 28. Al-Mustazhir Billah 1094--1118 29. Al-Mustershid Billah 1118--1135 30. Al-Rashid Billah 1135--1136 31. Al-Muktafi 1136--1160 32. Al-Mustanjid Billah 1160--1170 33. Al-Mustazi 1170--1180 34. Al-Nasir Billah 1180--1225 35. Al-Tahir 1225--1226 36. Al-Mustansir Billah II. 1226--1240 37. Al-Mustaa'sim Billah 1240--1258

He was killed at the taking of Baghdad by Halaku Khan, and the last ofthe dynasty, which continued, however, as a spiritual power in Egypttill A. D. 1517. 

The empire over which the Abbasides began to rule in A. D. 750 hadgradually dwindled away until little but Baghdad and its environs wereleft on the fall of the dynasty in A. D. 1258. Will history repeatitself in the same way as regards Constantinople, which in some yearsmay be the only territory left in Europe to a people who once wereconquerors, and whose arms even were carried to the walls of Vienna?As Persia, Egypt, Syria, parts of Africa and Arabia, by degrees, weresevered from the Abbaside Empire, so the different provinces of Turkeyin Europe appear to be slowly separating themselves from the TurkishPower, until finally there will be nothing left to them in Europe butthat city whose splendid position will ever make it a bone ofcontention to both rising and declining States. 

The following is a list of the Omaiyides who ruled in Spain a. D. 756to 1031:

 A. D. 1. Abd-ar-Rahman I. 756-788 2. Hisham I. 788-796 3. Al-Hakim I. 796-822 4. Abd-ar-Rahman II. 822-852 5. Muhammad I. 852-886 6. Al-Mundhir 886-888 7. Abd-Allah 888-912 8. Abd-ar-Rahman III. 912-961

He was one of the greatest of the rulers of Cordova. Under this prince, who at last assumed the title of Khalif and Commander of the Faithful, the unity of Muhammadan Spain was for the time restored. 

 A. D. 9. Al-Hakim II. 961-976 10. Hisham II. 976-1009

He was a Khalif only in name, while Muhammad Bin Ali Amir, surnamedAl-Mansur, was the real ruler or regent till his death in A. D. 1002. Hewas succeeded by his son, Abd-al-Malik, who ruled successfully till hisdeath in A. D. 1008, and was followed by his brother, Abd-ar-Rahman, whowas beheaded in A. D. 1009, Hisham II. Having been previously deposed. 

 A. D. 11. Muhammad II. (Al-Mahdi-billah) 1009-1009 12. Sulaiman 1009-1010 Hisham II. For the second time 1010-1013 Sulaiman for the second time 1013-1016 (1) Ali bin Hammud, a Berber chief 1016-1018 13. Abd-ar-Rahman IV. 1018-1019 (2) Al Kasim bin Hammud 1019-1023 14. Abd-ar-Rahman V. 1023-1024 15. Muhammad III. 1024-1025 (3) Yabya bin Ali bin Hammud 1025-1027 16. Hisham III. 1027-1031

A complete list of all the Muhammadan rulers in Spain will be found inMakkari's history of these dynasties, translated by Gayangos. 

CHAPTER II. 

LITERARY. 

The oral communications of the ancient Egyptians, Medes and Persians, the two classic tongues of Europe, the Sanscrit of the Hindus and theHebrew of the Jews, have long since ceased to be living languages. Forthe last twelve centuries no Western language has preserved itsgrammar, its style, or its literature intact and intelligible to thepeople of the present day. But two Eastern tongues have come down fromages past to our own times, and continue to exist unchanged in books, and, to a certain extent, also unchanged in language, and these areChinese and Arabic. In China, though the dialects differ in thevarious provinces of the empire, still the written language hasremained the same for centuries. In Arabia the Arabic language hasretained its originality without very much dialectical alteration. 

The unchangeable character of the Arabic language is chiefly to beattributed to the Koran, which has, from its promulgation to thepresent time, been regarded by all Muhammadans as the standard ofreligion and of literary composition. Strictly speaking, not only thehistory, but also the literature of the Arabs begins with Muhammad. Excepting the Mua'llakat, and other pre-Islamitic poems collected inthe Hamasas of Abu Tammam and Al-Bohtori, in Ibn Kutaiba and in theMofaddhaliat, no literary monuments that preceded his time are inexistence. The Koran became, not only the code of religious and ofcivil law, but also the model of the Arabic language, and the standardof diction and eloquence. Muhammad himself scorned metrical rules; heclaimed as an apostle and lawgiver a title higher than that ofsoothsayer and poet. Still, his poetic talent is manifest in numerouspassages of the Koran, well known to those able to read it in theoriginal, and in this respect the last twenty-five chapters of thatbook are, perhaps, the most remarkable. 

Although the power of the Arabs has long ago succumbed, theirliterature has survived, and their language is still more or lessspoken in all Muhammadan countries. Europe at one time was lightenedby the torch of Arabian learning, and the Middle Ages were stampedwith the genius and character of Arab civilization. The great mastersof philosophy, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics, viz. , Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn-Sina, Ibn-Rashid, Ibn Bajah, Razi, Al Battani, AbulMa'shar, Al-Farghani, Al-Jaber, have been studied both in the Spanishuniversities and in those of the rest of Europe, where their names arestill familiar under the corrupted forms of Alchendius, Alfarabius, Avicenna, Averroes, Avempace, Rhazes, Albategnius, Albumasar, Alfraganius, and Geber. 

Arabic literature commenced about half a century before Muhammad witha legion of poets. The seven poems suspended in the temple of Mecca, and of which more anon, were considered as the chief productions ofthat time. The Mussulman era begins with the Hijrah, or emigration ofMuhammad from Mecca to Madinah, which is supposed to have taken placeon the 20th of June, A. D. 622; and the rise, growth, and decay of Arabpower, learning, and literature may be divided into three periods asfollows:

 1. The time before Muhammad. 

 2. From Muhammad and his immediate successors, viz. , Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali, through the Omaiyide and Abbaside dynasties, tothe end of the Khalifate of Baghdad, A. D. 1258. 

 3. From the fall of Baghdad to the present time. 

First Period. 

Although the proper history of Arabian literature begins from the timeof Muhammad, it is necessary to cast a glance upon the age thatpreceded him, in order to obtain a glimpse of pre-Islamitic wisdom. The sage Lokman, whose name the thirty-first chapter of the Koranbears, is considered, according to that book, to have been the firstman of his nation who practised and taught wisdom in all his deeds andwords. He was believed to have been a contemporary of David andSolomon; his sayings and his fables still exist, but there is not muchreally known about him, as the following extracts will show:

'Lokman, a philosopher mentioned in the Koran, is said to have beenborn about the time of David. One tradition represents him as adescendant of the Arab tribe of Ad, who, on account of his piety andwisdom, was saved when the rest of his family perished by Divinewrath. According to another story he was an Ethiopian slave, notedalike for bodily deformity and a gift for composing fables andapologues. This account of Lokman, resembling so closely thetraditional history of Æsop, has led to an opinion that they were thesame individual, but this is now generally supposed not to be thecase. The various reports agree in ascribing to Lokman extraordinarylongevity. His extant fables bear evident marks of modern alteration, both in their diction and their incidents. They were first publishedwith a Latin translation of the Arabic by Erpenius (Leyden, 1615). Galland produced a French translation of the fables of Lokman andBidpay at Paris in 1724, and there are other editions by De Sacey, 1816, Caussin de Perceval, 1818, Freytag, 1823, and Rodiger, 1830. '

Burton, in a footnote to page 118, of Volume X. Of his 'ArabianNights, ' however, says that 'There are three distinct Lokmans. Thefirst, or eldest Lokman, entitled Al-Hakim (the Sage), and the hero ofthe Koranic chapter which bears his name, was son of Ba'ura, of thechildren of Azar, sister's son to Job, or son of Job's maternal aunt;he witnessed David's miracles of mail-making, and when the tribe of Adwas destroyed he became king of the country. The second Lokman, alsocalled the Sage, was a slave and Abyssinian negro, sold by theIsraelites during the reign of David or Solomon, and who left a volumeof proverbs and exempla, not fables or apologues, some of which stilldwell in the public memory. The youngest Lokman, of the Vultures, wasa prince of the tribe of Ad, who lived 3, 500 years, the age of sevenvultures. '

This accounts for the different ideas as regards the tradition of oneLokman in the preceding paragraph. 

Before the era of the Prophet poetry had attained some degree ofexcellence. At the annual festival of Okatz the poets met and madepublic recitations, and competed for prizes. Of prose literature therewas none, and the irregular, half-rhythmical, half-rhyming sentencesof the Koran were the first attempts in the direction of prose. 

Passing over the host of pre-Islamitic poets, the disputed time andorder in which they appeared, as well as the ranks they respectivelyoccupied, it will only be necessary here to describe the Arabic idyllor elegy (Kasida), and to notice the authors of the seven famousMua'llakat, or suspended, or strung-together poems of the temple ofMecca, already alluded to above. As these poems were written inletters of gold, they were also called Muzahhibat, or "gilded. "According to Arab notions, the subjects of a poet are four or five. Hepraises, loves, is angry, mourns, or describes either female beauty, animals, or objects of nature. Poems comprising one of these subjectsonly are short, but those treating of several are longer, and containeulogies of chiefs, rulers, distinguished men and women, etc. The poettouches on the valour, liberality and eloquence of the hero, on thebeauty and virtues of the woman, and describes the nearestsurroundings, which are of the greatest interest, such as the horse, the camel, the antelope, the ostrich, the wild cow, the cloud, thelightning, wine, the vestiges of the tent of the beloved, and thehospitable camp-fire. 

The Kasidas of the Mua'llakat are a series of smaller poems, composedon various occasions, and then strung together in one piece. Amongthem the two Kasidas of Amra-al-Kais (Amriolkais), and of Antara, arethe most brilliant and romantic, on account of the sentiments of lovethey breathe towards the three beauties--Oneiza, Fatima, and Abla. TheKasida of Labid is famous for his description of both the camel andthe horse; that of Tarafa for the delineation of the camel; that ofAmru for the picture of a battle; while Harath chanted the praises ofarms, and of the King of Hirah, and Zoheir produced a poem full ofwise maxims. The whole seven contain a great deal about the personalfeelings, the personal courage, the heroic deeds, and the wonderfuladventures of the authors themselves--to which may be addeddescriptions of various animals, of hunting scenes, and of battle, theconventional lament for the absence or departure of a mistress, thedelight of meeting her, and other bright sketches of Arab life in campand on the march, with its joys, its sorrows, and its constantchanges. 

Sir William Jones first brought these poems to the notice of the West, and published a translation of them in A. D. 1782. 'They exhibit, ' hesays, 'an exact picture of the virtues and the vices, the wisdom andthe folly, of the early Arabs. The poems show what may constantly beexpected from men of open hearts and boiling passions, with no law tocontrol, and little religion to restrain them. '

The above translations, with notes and remarks, have been reprinted byMr. W. A. Clouston, in his 'Arabian Poetry for English Readers, ' atGlasgow in 1881, and is a work well worthy of a perusal by any personswho may be interested in the subject. 

The names of the three ancient Arab poets considered to have beenpossessed of equal talent with the authors of the Mua'llakat, areNabiga, Al-Kama, and Al-Aasha, and some specimens of theircomposition, as also of those of other pre-Islamite poets, are to befound in the fifteenth volume, No. 39, pages 65-108, of the 'BombayBranch of the Royal Asiatic Society, ' translated by Mr. E. Rehatsek in1881. 

Second Period. 

From Muhammad and his immediate successors (Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman andAli), through the Omaiyide and Abbaside dynasties, to the end of theKhalifate of Baghdad, A. D. 1258. 

The legislator of Islam, whose era began on the 16th July, A. D. 622(though his actual departure from Mecca has been calculated to havetaken place on the 20th June, A. D. 622), is here to be considered notfrom an historical, but from a poetical point of view. AlthoughMuhammad despised the metres in which the bards of his nation chantedtheir Kasidas, and himself gave utterance in the name of Heaven to theinspirations of his genius only in richly-modulated and rhymed prose, nevertheless, according to the Oriental idea, he was regarded as apoet. Those who declare that he was not a poet overlook thecircumstance that he was vehemently assailed by contemporary poets, who attempted to degrade his heaven-inspired Surahs into mere poeticalfables. He himself protested against this insinuation, and declared atthe end of the 26th Surah, entitled 'The Poets, ' that those are inerror who believe poets, as follows:

'And those who err follow the poets; dost thou not see how they roam(as bereft of their senses) through every valley (of the imagination)and that they say things which they do not perform? . .. Except thosewho believe, and do good works, and remember God frequently, and thosewho defend themselves after they have been unjustly treated by poetsin their lampoons, and they who act unjustly shall know hereafter withwhat treatment they shall be treated. '

These lines are important as far as the history of literature isconcerned. They are written against inimical poets, but distinguishthe friendly ones, who, taking the part of Muhammad, repaid thelampooning poets in their own coin. 

Some of the hostile poets, such as Hobeira and the woman Karitha, werekilled at the taking of Mecca, whilst Zibary and the woman Hertlemahsaved their lives only by making a profession of Islam. Muhammad had, however, also his panegyrists, the chief of whom was Ka'b bin Zoheir, the composer of the celebrated Kasida called 'The Poem of the Mantle, 'as a reward for which the Prophet threw his own cloak over him, underthe following circumstances, as related by Mr. J. W. Redhouse in thepreface to his translation of the poem published in the 'ArabianPoetry for English Readers'[1] alluded to above. 

 [Footnote 1: In this same work will also be found a translation by Mr. Redhouse of another poem, also called 'The Poem of the Mantle, ' but written by Sharaf-uddin Muhammad Al-Busiri, who was born A. D. 1211, and died between A. D. 1291 and 1300. ]

Ka'b was a son of Zoheir, already mentioned as the author of one ofthe pre-Islamite poems known as the 'Mua'llakat. ' He had a brothernamed Bujeir, and, like their father, both brothers were good poets. Bujeir was first converted, and embraced the faith of Islam. Ka'b wasangry at this, and composed a lampoon on his brother, on the Prophet, and on their new religion. This he sent to his brother by the mouth ofa messenger. Bujeir repeated it to Muhammad, who commented on it asfavourable to the new faith and to himself, but at the same timepassed a sentence of death on the satirist. 

Bujeir well knew that his brother's life was in danger, and warned himaccordingly, advising him at the same time to renounce his errors, andcome repentant to the Prophet, or to seek a safe asylum far away. Ka'bfound out that his life would really soon be taken, and set outsecretly for Madinah. There he found an old friend, claimed hisprotection, and went with him next morning to the simple meeting-housewhere Muhammad and his chief followers performed their dailydevotions. When the service was ended, Ka'b approached Muhammad, andthe two sat down together. Ka'b placed his own right hand in that ofthe Prophet, whom he addressed in these words: 'Apostle of God, were Ito bring to you Ka'b, the son of Zoheir, penitent and professing thefaith of Islam, wouldst thou receive and accept him? The Prophetanswered, 'I would. ' 'Then, ' said the poet, 'I am he!'

Hearing this, the bystanders demanded permission to put him to death. Muhammad ordered his zealous followers to desist, and the poet then, on the spur of the moment, recited a poem improvised at the time, probably with more or less premeditation. It is said that when Ka'breached the fifty-first verse: 'Verily the Apostle of God is a lightfrom which illumination is sought--a drawn Indian blade, one of theswords of God, ' Muhammad took from his own shoulders the mantle hewore, and threw it over the shoulders of the poet as an honour and asa mark of protection. Hence the name given to the effusion, 'The Poemof the Mantle, ' A. D. 630. 

Moawia, the first Khalif of the Omaiyides, endeavoured to purchasethis sacred mantle from Ka'b for ten thousand pieces of silver, butthe offer was refused. Later on it was, however, bought from Ka'b'sheirs for twenty thousand pieces of silver, and it passed into thehands of the Khalifs, and was preserved by them as one of the regaliaof the empire until Baghdad was sacked by the Mughals. The mantle, orwhat is supposed to be the self-same mantle, is now in the treasury[2]of the Sultan Khalif of the Ottomans at Constantinople, in anapartment named 'The Room of the Sacred Mantle, ' in which this robe isreligiously preserved, together with a few other relics of the greatprophet. 

 [Footnote 2: _Apropos_ of this treasury, it is much to be regretted that a complete catalogue of its contents has never been prepared along with a brief historical account of them. It is difficult to obtain the order, which comes direct from the Sultan, to visit the collection; and even then visitors are hurried through at such a pace that it is impossible to examine with minuteness the many curiosities collected there. ]

Ka'b has thus come to be considered as one of the friendly poets, andthe names of two others are also mentioned, viz. , Abd-Allah bin Rewahaand Hassan bin Thabit. On the other hand, the most celebratedantagonists who attacked Muhammad, not only with their verses, butalso with their swords, were Abu Sofyan, Amr bin Al-'A'asi, andAbd-Allah bin Zobeir. These three became great political characters, but later on made profession of Islam, and were the staunchest supportersof it, rendering the greatest services to the Prophet during his life, and to the cause after his death. But Muhammad's greatest triumph overthe poets was the conversion of Labid, who, after the perusal of thecommencement of the second Surah of the Koran, tore down his own poem, which was hung up in the Kaabah, and ran to the Prophet to announcehis conversion, and to make his profession of Islam. Even Ali, thecousin, son-in-law, and first convert of Muhammad, was a poet, but itis uncertain which of the Diwans attributed to him are genuine, andhow many of his maxims of wisdom, over a hundred in number, are hisown. 

During the period under review the number of Arabic authors waslegion. Some idea of the number of writers, and of the subjects onwhich they wrote, can be gathered from the Fihrist of An-Nadim, fromIbn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, and from Haji Khalfa'sEncyclopædia. With such a mass of information as is contained in theabove-mentioned works, it is difficult to deal in a small work. To putthem together in an intelligible form, the idea of classing theauthors, according to the subjects on which they principally wrote, naturally presented itself. This plan, therefore, has been followed, and a few details of the most celebrated writers will be given, classified under the following heads:

 Jurisconsults. Imams and lawyers. Traditionists. Alchemists. Astronomers. Grammarians. Geographers and travellers. Historians. Lexicographers, biographers and encyclopædists. Writers on natural history. Philologists. Philosophers. Physicians. Poets. Collectors and editors of poems. Translators. The Omaiyide Khalifs. The Abbaside Khalifs. The Spanish Khalifs. 

During the latter part of the first century of the Hijrah (July, 622--July, 719), the first persons of note in the Muhammadan worldafter Muhammad and his immediate successors were probably the sevenjurisconsults, viz. , Obaid Allah, Orwa, Kasim, Said, Sulaiman, AbuBakr and Kharija, who all lived at Madinah about the same time; and itwas from them, according to Ibn Khallikan, that the science of law andlegal decisions spread over the world. They were designated by theappellation of the Seven Jurisconsults, because the right of givingdecisions on points of law had passed to them from the companions ofMuhammad, and they became publicly known as Muftis. These seven alonewere acknowledged as competent to give Fatmas, or legal decisions. They died respectively A. D. 720, 712, 719, 710, 725, 712 and 718. 

The jurisconsults were followed by the doctors of theology and law, or, as they were styled, Imams, or founders of the four orthodoxsects. Now, among the Sunni Muslims an Imam may be described as ahigh-priest, or head, or chief in religious matters, whether he be thehead of all Muhammadans--as the Khalifah--or the priest of a mosque, or the leader in the prayers of a congregation. This title, however, is given by the Shias only to the immediate descendants of Ali, theson-in-law of the Prophet, and they are twelve in number, Ali beingthe first. The last of them, Imam Mahdi, is supposed to be concealed(not dead), and the title which belongs to him cannot, they conceive, be given to another. 

But among the Sunnis it is a dogma that there must always be a visibleImam or father of the Church. The title is given by them to the fourlearned doctors who were the exponents of their faith, viz. , ImamsHanifa, Malik, Shafai and Hanbal. Of these, Imam Hanifa, the founderof the first of the four chief sects of the Sunnis, died A. D. 767. Hewas followed by Imam Malik, Imam Shafai, and Imam Hanbal, the foundersof the other three sects, who died A. D. 795, 820 and 855 respectively. From these four persons are derived the various codes of Muhammadanjurisprudence. They have always been considered as the fundamentalpillars of the orthodox law, and have been esteemed by Mussulmans ashighly as the fathers of the Church--Gregory, Augustine, Jerome andChrysostom--have been appreciated by Christians. 

Of these four sects, the Hanbalite and Malikite may be considered asthe most rigid, the Shafaite as the most conformable to the spirit ofIslamism, and the Hanifite as the wildest and most philosophical ofthem all. 

In addition to the four Imams just mentioned, there was a fifth, ofthe name of Abu Sulaiman Dawud az Zahari, who died A. D. 883. He wasthe founder of the sect called Az-Zahariah (the External), and hislectures were attended by four hundred Fakihs (doctors of the civiland of the ecclesiastical law), who wore shawls thrown over theirshoulders. But his opinions do not seem to have secured manyfollowers, and in time both his ideas, and those of Sofyan at Thauri, another chief of the orthodox sect, were totally abandoned. 

The third century of the Hijrah (A. D. 816-913) is noted for the sixfathers of tradition, viz. , Al-Bukhari, Muslim, At Firmidi, Abu Dawud, An-Nasai and Ibn Majah, with whom others, such as Kasim bin Asbagh, Abu Zaid, Al-Marwazi, Abu Awana and Al-Hazini, vied in great works ontradition, but these last-named could never acquire the authority ofthe six previously mentioned, who died A. D. 870, 875, 892, 889, 916, 887 respectively. 

In the beginning of Islam the great traditionists were Ayesha, thefavourite wife of the Prophet, the four rightly directed Khalifs, viz. , Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali, and some of the companions[3]known as the Evangelists of Islam. But besides these well-qualifiedpersons who had lived with or near Muhammad during his lifetime, manyothers who had perhaps only seen him or spoken to him claimed to beconsidered as companions, who handed down traditions; and when thesewere all dead they were followed by others, who, having known thecompanions, were now designated as the successors of the companions. 

 [Footnote 3: The names of these companions, and the kings, princes, and countries to which they were sent by Muhammad, are given in full detail in 'The Life of our Lord Muhammad, the Apostle of God, ' the author of which was Ibn Ishak; and it was afterwards edited by Ibn Hisham. In the same work a list is given of the disciples sent out by Jesus. ]

Under these circumstances it can easily be imagined that many of thetraditions were of doubtful authenticity. Al-Bukhari, whose collectionof traditions of the Muhammadan religion holds the first place, bothas regards authority and correctness, selected seven thousand twohundred and seventy-five of the most authentic out of ten thousand, all of which he regarded as being true, having rejected two hundredthousand as false. His book is held in the highest estimation, andconsidered both in spiritual and temporal matters as next in authorityto the Koran. He was born A. D. 810, and died A. D. 870. 

The Shiahs do not accept the collection of traditions as made by theSunnis, but have a collection of their own, upon which their system oflaw, both civil and religious, is founded. 

During the first and second centuries of the Hijrah (A. D. 622-816), ofall the physical sciences alchemy was studied most. The greatestscientific man of the first century was undoubtedly Khalid, a princeof the Omaiyide dynasty, and the son of Yazid I. His zeal forknowledge and science induced him to get Greek and Syriac workstranslated by Stephanus into Arabic, especially those which treated onchemistry, or rather alchemy. Khalid, having been once reproached forwasting all his time in researches in the art of alchemy, replied: 'Ihave occupied myself with these investigations to show mycontemporaries and brothers that I have found in them a recompense anda reward for the Khalifate which I lost. I stand in need of no man torecognise me at court, and I need not recognise anyone who dancesattendance at the portals of dominion either from fear, ambition, orcovetousness. ' He wrote a poem on alchemy, which bears the title of'Paradise of Wisdom, ' and of him Ibn Khallikan says: 'He was the mostlearned man of the tribe of Koraish in all the different branches ofknowledge. He wrote a discourse on chemistry and on medicine, in whichsciences he possessed great skill and solid information. ' He died A. D. 704. 

Later on Jaber bin Hayam, with his pupils, became a model for lateralchemists, and he has been called the father of Arabian chemistry. Hecompiled a work of two thousand pages, in which he inserted theproblems of his master, Jaafar as Sadik, considered to be the fatherof all the occult sciences in Islam. Jaber was such a prolific writerthat many of his five hundred works are said to bear his name only onaccount of his celebrity, but to have been written in reality by avariety of authors. His works on alchemy were published in Latin byGolius, under the title of 'Lapis Philosophorum, ' and an Englishtranslation of them by Robert Russell appeared at Leyden in A. D. 1668. Jaber died A. D. 766, and is not to be confounded with Al-Jaber(Geber), the astronomer, who lived at Seville about A. D. 1190, andconstructed there an astronomical observatory. 

Astronomy appears to have been always a favourite science with theArabs from the earliest times. In A. D. 772 there appeared at the courtof the Khalif Mansur (A. D. 754-775), Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Habib alFezari, the astronomer, who brought with him the tables called SindHind, in which the motions of the stars were calculated according todegrees. They contained other observations on solar eclipses and therising of the signs of the zodiac, extracted by him from the tablesascribed to the Indian king, Figar. The Khalif Mansur ordered thisbook to be translated into Arabic to serve as a guide for Arabastronomers. And these tables remained in use till the time of theKhalif Mamun (A. D. 813-833), when other revised ones bearing his namecame into vogue. These, again, were abridged by Abul Ma'shar(Albumasar, died A. D. 885-886), called the prince of Arabianastrologers, who, however, deviated from them, and inclined towardsthe system of the Persians and of Ptolemy. This second revision wasmore favourably received by the Arab astronomers than the first, andthe Sind Hind was superseded by the Almagest of Ptolemy. Betterastronomical instruments also came into use, though previously theAl-Fezari above mentioned had been the first in Islam who constructedastrolabes of various kinds, and had written several astronomicaltreatises. 

Mention might be made of about forty mathematicians and astronomerswho wrote books on these subjects. The best of them, such asAl-Farghani (Alfraganius) and others, lived at the court of Mamun, whobuilt an astronomical observatory in Baghdad and another nearDamascus, on Mount Kasiun. He caused also two degrees of the meridianto be measured on the plain of Sinjar, so as to ascertain thecircumference of the earth with more precision. In A. D. 824 there wereheld philosophical disputations in his presence. Al-Farghani was theauthor of an introduction to astronomy, which was printed by Golius atAmsterdam in 1669, with notes. 

Between the years A. D. 877 and 929 there flourished the famouscalculator and astronomer, Muhammad bin Jaber al Battani, Latinized asAlbategnius. He was the author of the astronomical work entitled 'TheSabæan Tables, ' and adopted nearly the system and the hypothesis ofPtolemy, but rectified them in several points, and made otherdiscoveries, which procured him a distinguished place among thescholars whose labours have enriched astronomical science. Al-Battaniapproached much nearer to the truth than the ancients as far as themovements of the fixed stars are concerned. He measured the greatnessof the eccentricity of the solar orbit, and a more correct resultcannot be obtained. To the work containing all his discoveries he gavethe name of 'As-Zij-as Sabi, ' which was translated into Latin underthe title 'De Scientiâ Stellarum. ' The first edition of it appeared atNuremberg in A. D. 1537, but it is believed that the original work isin the library of the Vatican. He was classed by Lalande among theforty-two most celebrated astronomers of the world. He died A. D. 929-930. 

Another celebrated astronomer, Ali bin Yunis, was a native of Egypt, and appears to have lived at the court of the demented tyrant ofEgypt, Al-Hakim bramrillah, and under his patronage to have composedthe celebrated astronomical tables called, after his name, 'TheHakimite Tables. ' Ibn Khallikan states that he had seen these tablesin four volumes, and that more extensive ones had not come under hisnotice. These tables were considered in Egypt to be of equal value tothose of the astronomer Yabya bin Ali Mansur, who had in A. D. 830, byorder of the Khalif Mamun, undertaken astronomical observations bothat Baghdad and Damascus. Ibn Yunis spent his life in the preparationof astronomical tables and in casting horoscopes, for it must beremembered that with the Muslims astronomy and astrology weresynonymous, and their most learned astronomers were also their mostskilful astrologers. His character for honesty was highly esteemed, and he was also well versed in other sciences, and displayed aneminent talent for poetry. He died A. D. 1009, and is not to beconfounded with his father, Ibn Yunis, the historian, who died A. D. 958. 

Yet another name must be mentioned, viz. , the Spanish-Arab astronomerIbn Abd-ar-Rahman Es-Zerkel, Europeanized as Arzachal. He firstresided at Toledo, at the court of its sovereign, Mamun, for whom hemade an astrolabe, which he called in his honour the Mamunian. He thenwent to Seville, where he wrote for Motamid bin Abbad (A. D. 1069-1091)a treatise on the use of certain instruments. During his residence atToledo he constructed two clepsydras, the waters of which decreasedand increased according to the waning and growing of the moon, andthese two basins were destroyed only in A. D. 1133 by Alphonse VI. , when he took Toledo. Arzachal left a work on eclipses, and on therevolution of years, as well as the tables of the sky, to which thename of Toledan tables have been given. His writings, but especiallythe last, which must have been consulted by the editors of theAlphonsine tables, were never translated, and exist only in manuscriptin libraries where but few scholars can consult them. Arzachal mademany observations in connection with the sun, and was also theinventor of the astronomical instrument called after his name, Zerkalla. He died A. D. 1080. 

Before leaving this subject it may be mentioned that Makkari, in hisgreat encyclopædia of Spain, enumerates fifteen astronomers ofAndalusia, all more or less known in their time. Also thatBedei-ul-Astrolabi and Ibn Abdul-Rayman distinguished themselves asmakers of astronomical instruments, and inventors of new ones. WhileArzachal was the greatest representative of Arab astronomy in the West, Umar Khayam, the astronomer, mathematician, freethinker, and poet, wasits greatest representative in the East, in Persia, where he died A. D. 1123. 

A great deal in Arabic literature has been written about grammar, and, until its principles were finally laid down and established, it wasalways a source of continual controversy between different professorsand different schools. Abul Aswad ad-Duwali has been called the fatherof Arabic grammar. It is said that the Khalif Ali laid down for himthis principle: the parts of speech are three, the noun, the verb, andthe particle, and told him to form a complete treatise upon it. Thiswas accordingly done; and other works on the subject were alsoproduced, but none of them are apparently now extant. Muhammad binIshak has stated that he saw one of them, entitled 'Discourse on theGoverning and the Governed Parts of Speech;' and the author of the'Fihrist' also alludes to this work. Abul-Aswad died at Busra in A. D. 688, aged eighty-five, but some years later his two successors in thisbranch of literature (viz. , Al-Khalil and Sibawaih) far surpassed himin every way. 

Al-Khalil bin Ahmad, born A. D. 718, was one of the great masters inthe science of grammar, and the discoverer of the rules of prosody, which art owes to him its creation. He laid the foundation of thelanguage by his book 'Al-Ain' (so called from the letter with which itbegins), and by the aid he afforded thereby to Sibawaih, whose masterhe was, in the composition of his celebrated grammatical work known bythe name of 'The Book. ' In the work called 'Al-Ain, ' Khalil firstarranged the stock of Arabic words, dealing with the organ of speechand the production of sounds, and then dividing the words intoclasses, the roots of which consisted of one, two, three, four, orfive letters. It is still a matter of dispute whether the book'Al-Ain' was wholly composed by Khalil himself, or completed in courseof time by his pupils. A copy of this celebrated lexicon and work onphilology is in the Escurial Library. Khalil also wrote a treatise onprosody, and other works on grammar, and a book on musical intonation. He died A. D. 786, at Busra. 'Poverty, ' he said, 'consists not in thewant of money, but of soul; and riches are in the mind, not in thepurse. '

Sibawaih, the pupil of Khalil, has been called the father of Arabiclexicography, and the lawgiver of Arabic grammar. Ibn Khallikan saysthat he was a learned grammarian, and surpassed in this science everyperson of former and later times. As for his 'Kitab, ' or 'Book, 'composed by him on that subject, it has never had its equal. The greatphilologist and grammarian, Al-Jahiz, said of the book of Sibawaih, that none like it had ever been written on grammar, and that allwriters on this subject who had succeeded him had borrowed from it. When Al-Kisai was tutor to the prince Al-Amin, son of Harun-ar-Rashid, Sibawaih came to Baghdad, and the two great grammarians (Sibawaih, thechief of the school of Busra, and Al-Kisai, chief of the school ofKufa) had a long dispute about a certain expression of Arabic speech, and an Arab of the desert was called in to arbitrate between them. Theman first decided in favour of Sibawaih, but when the question was putin another form, the Bedouin asserted that Kisai was right. AsSibawaih considered that he had been unjustly treated in the matter, he left Baghdad for good. The year of his death has been givendifferently by various authors, the earliest date being A. D. 787, andthe latest A. D. 809. 

The most celebrated grammarians of the third century of the Hijrah(A. D. 816-913) were Al-Mubarrad, who died A. D. 898, and Thalab, whodied A. D. 903. They were also great antagonists to each other. Al-Mubarrad, the author of thirty works, was the chief of the school ofBusra, and Thalab of that of Kufa, both founded during the precedingcentury by Sibawaih and Kisai. Thalab was the first collector of booksin Islam, and those left by him were very valuable. 

Mention must also be made of Al-Farra, the grammarian, anddistinguished by his knowledge of grammar, philology, and variousbranches of literature. He died A. D. 822, at the age of sixty-three, and preceded both Mubarrad and Thalab, the latter of whom used to say:'Were it not for Al-Farra, pure Arabic would no longer exist; it washe who disengaged it from the ordinary language and fixed it bywriting. ' At the request of the Khalif Al-Mamun he drew up in twoyears a most elaborate work, which contained the principles ofgrammar, and all the pure Arabic expressions which he had heard. Itwas entitled 'Al-Hudûd' (the Limits or Chapters), and directly it wasfinished he commenced another in connection with the Koran, which isspoken of as a most wonderful production. He wrote besides severalother works on grammar, and acted as tutor to the two sons of theKhalif Mamun. 

Though many other grammarians could be named, such as Al-Akhfash alAusat, Abu Amr as Shaibani, Abu Bakr al Anbari, etc. , none can beconsidered so celebrated as the persons above mentioned, who areregarded as the founders of the principles on which Arabic grammar hasbeen established. 

In the middle of the third century of the Hijrah (A. D. 816-913), theArabs first began to distinguish themselves as travellers andgeographers. When Muslim Homeir was, in A. D. 845, ransomed from hiscaptivity among the Byzantines and returned to his country, he wrote abook with the title of 'Admonitions on the Countries, Kings andOffices of the Greeks. ' Forty years afterwards Jaafar bin Ahmed alMervezi produced the first geographical work under the title of'Highways and Countries, ' which was followed by those of Ibn Foslan, Ibn Khordabeh, Jeihani, Al-Istakhri, Ibn Haukul, Al-Beruni, Al-Bekriand Idrisi. The great historian, Masudi, was also a writer of travelsand an ambassador. Ibn Foslan was sent by the Khalif Muktadir (A. D. 908-932) to the King of the Bulgarians. Abu Dolaf, who accompanied anambassador from China to the frontiers of that country, made, on hisreturn, a report which Yakut afterwards embodied in his voluminousgeographical Dictionary. 

A few details will be given about the six chief geographers andtravellers of this period, viz. , Ibn Khordabeh, Al-Istakhri, IbnHaukul, Al-Beruni, Al-Bekri and Idrisi. 

As regards the first-named, it would appear that he has been theobject of considerable controversies among the Orientalists of Europe. After employment in the post and intelligence departments in theprovinces, he subsequently came to the court of the Khalif Motamid(A. D. 870-892), and became one of his privy councillors. He is theauthor of several works on various subjects, but his 'Geography, ' saysSir H. M. Elliot, is the only work we possess of this author, and ofthis there is only one copy in Europe, in the Bodleian Library atOxford. He died about A. D. 912. 

Al-Istakhri, who flourished about the year A. D. 951, obtained his namefrom Istakhar (_i. E. _, Persepolis), where he was born. He was atraveller whose geographical work has been translated into German byMordtmann. When Istakhari was in the Indus Valley he met anothercelebrated traveller, Ibn Haukul, whose book Sir William Ouseleytranslated in A. D. 1800 into English, under the title of 'The OrientalGeography of Ibn Haukul. ' Haukul, who died A. D. 976, had travelled fornearly twenty-eight years in the countries of Islam with the works ofIbn Khordabeh and Jeihani in his hands, and his work, which bears thegenerally approved title of 'Highways and Countries, ' is based on thebook of Istakhri. 

But the greatest geographer and naturalist of this period is AbuRaihan Al-Beruni (born about A. D. 971), who accompanied Mahmud theGhaznavide on his invasions to India. He was to Mahmud of Ghazni whatAristotle was to Alexander, with the difference, however, that heactually accompanied the conqueror on his Indian campaigns. Hetravelled into different countries and to and from India for the spaceof forty years, and during that time was much occupied with astronomyand astronomical observations, as well as geography. His works aresaid to have exceeded a camel-load, but the most valuable of all ofthem is his description of India. It gives an account of the religionof India, its philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, law and astrology about a. D. 1030, and has beenedited by Edward Sachau, Professor in the Royal University of Berlin. An English edition, containing a preface, the translation of theArabic text, notes and indices, has also been published. Al-Berunidied at Ghurna A. D. 1038. He used to correspond with Avicenna, who washis contemporary, and who gives in his works the answers to thequestions addressed to him by this famous geographer, astronomer, geometrician, historian, scholar, and logician. 

Some years later Abu O'beid Abd-Allah Al-Bekri distinguished himselfas one of the greatest geographers, with whose labours Quatremere andDozy and Gayangos have made us better acquainted. He was, by birth, from Andalusia, whence also many others travelled to the East, eitherfor instruction or for trade or as pilgrims, and of whom about acouple of dozen are mentioned by Makkari. Some of these gavedescriptions and topographies, to which class of literature also thepoetical laudations of celebrated towns belong. Not only Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Fez, Morocco and Khairwan were praised or satirized, but also Cordova, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Toledo, Valencia and Zohrawere described in Arabic poems. Al-Bekri died in A. D. 1094-1095, andwas followed by Idrisi, the author of a work on Arabian geography ofsome celebrity, and which has been translated into Latin. He died A. D. 1164. 

Of historians in Arab literature there are many, but only the mostcelebrated will be noted. Muhammad bin Ishak, who died about A. D. 767, produced the best and most trustworthy biography of the prophetMuhammad. His work was published under the patronage of the Abbasideprinces, and was, in fact, composed for the Khalif Al-Mansur (A. D. 754-775). It was used as the chief source of information by IbnHisham, the next historian of note, in his life of the Prophet, whichwork has been edited by Dr. Wustenfeld, and translated into German byDr. Weil, and into English by Mr. E. Rehatsek, whose manuscript, however, has not yet been printed. Ibn Hisham, who died in A. D. 828, was the father of Arabic genealogy, and Abu-el-Siyadi, who died inA. D. 857, is next to him. 

But the real father of Arabian history was Al-Wackidi, a good andtrustworthy historian, thirty-two of whose works are known, allrelating to the conquests of the Arabs, and other such subjects. Hedied A. D. 822. With him generally has been associated his secretary, Muhammad bin Saad, a man of unimpeachable integrity, and of thehighest talents, merit, and eminence. He has left us some mostinteresting works, full of valuable information relating to thosetimes. He died at Baghdad A. D. 844. 

Al-Madaini, who died A. D. 839, was the author of two hundred and fiftyhistorical works, of which, however, nothing has yet been discovered, except their titles as given in the 'Fihrist. '

Passing over many other historians, two more only will be mentioned, viz. , Abu Jafir at-Tabari and Al-Masúdi. 

Tabari (whose annals are now being edited by a company of EuropeanOrientalists) was born A. D. 838, at Amol, in the province ofTabaristan. He travelled a great deal, and composed many works onhistory, poetry, grammar and lexicography. His work on jurisprudenceextends to several volumes, and his historical works stamp him as oneof the most reliable of Arab historians, while his numerous otherworks also bear witness to the variety and accuracy of hisacquirements. He died at Baghdad A. D. 923, and has been called byGibbon the Livy of the Arabians. 

Al-Masúdi, a contemporary of the great historian Tabari, diedthirty-four years after him, in A. D. 957. His great work, 'Meadows ofGold and Mines of Gems, ' with the Arabic text above and a Frenchtranslation below, has been published in nine volumes (1861-1877) byBarbier de Meynard, in connection with Pavet de Courteille, at theexpense of the French Government. Dr. A. Sprenger (who translated onevolume of the work into English for the Oriental Translation Fund, London, 1841) calls the author of it the Herodotus of Arabian history, because he had, like his Greek prototype, undertaken extensivetravels, and had like him made the description of countries andnations his chief occupation. The titles of ten of his works are knownto us, but the principal one is that named above, in the compositionof which he used eighty-five historical, geographical, andphilological works, as he himself informs us in the first chapter ofhis history. The work itself contains one hundred and thirty-twochapters. 

Ibn al Athir al Jazari, born A. D. 1160 and died A. D. 1233, was also anhistorian of note, and a personal friend of Ibn Khallikan, who writesof him as follows: 'His knowledge of the Traditions, and hisacquaintance with that science in its various branches, placed him inthe first rank; and his learning as an historian of the ancients andmoderns was not less extensive; he was perfectly familiar with thegenealogy of the Arabs, their adventures, combats and history; whilsthis great work, "The Kâmil or Complete, " embracing the history of theworld from the earliest period to the year 628 of the Hijrah (A. D. 1230-1231), merits its reputation as one of the best productions ofthe kind. ' Another of Ibn Al Athir's works is the history of the mosteminent among the companions of Muhammad, in the shape of abiographical dictionary. 

As the development of Arab letters proceeded, in the course of timevarious authors began to tabulate the different branches of knowledgeand science, and these, with the biographies of many of the writers, and the lists of their works, formed a distinct branch in theliterature of that day. 

The most noteworthy of them all was Abul Faraj Muhammad bin Ishak, whois generally known by the name of Ibn Ali Yakub al Warrak the copyist, surnamed An-Nadim al Baghdadi, the social companion from Baghdad, andthe author of the 'Fihrist. ' It may be truly said that this writer, along with Ibn Khallikan, laid the foundations of the records of theedifice of encyclopædical and biographical works, which was afterwardscompleted by Haji Khalfa and Abul Khair. Without the work of IbnKhallikan it would be as impossible to give a history of Arabscholars, as without the work of An-Nadim to give an account of Arabliterature. 

The 'Kitab al-Fihrist' was written by An-Nadim in A. D. 987, and isdivided into ten sections, dealing with every branch of letters andlearning. It gives the names of many authors and their works longsince extant, and shows the enormous amount of writings produced bythe Arabs during the periods under review, up to A. D. 987, the date ofthe author's work. A short account of this ancient and curious bookhas been given in the _Journal Asiatique_ for December, 1839, andfrom the work itself Von Hammer Purgstall has been able to gather thatthe 'Thousand and One Nights' ('Arabian Nights') had a Persian origin. In the eighth section of the 'Fihrist' the author says that the firstwho composed tales and apologues were the kings of the early Persiandynasties, and that these tales were augmented and amplified by theSasanians (A. D. 228-641). The Arabs then translated them into theirown language, and composed other stories like them. 

Ibn Khallikan, the most worthy of biographers, must also be mentionedhere, though he died in A. D. 1282, twenty-four years after the fall ofBaghdad, having been born in A. D. 1211. This very eminent scholar andfollower of Shafa'i doctrines, was born at Arbela, but resided atDamascus, where he had filled the place of Chief Kadi till the yearA. D. 1281, when he was dismissed, and from that time to the day of hisdeath he never went out of doors. He was a man with the greatestreputation for learning, versed in various sciences, and highlyaccomplished. He was a scholar, a poet, a compiler, a biographer andan historian. By his talents and writings he merited the honourabletitle of the most learned man and the ablest historian. His celebratedbiographical work, called the 'Wafiat-ul-Aiyan, ' or Deaths of EminentMen, is the acme of perfection. This work was translated from theArabic by Baron MacGuckin de Slane, a member of the council of theAsiatic Society of Paris, and printed by the Oriental Translation Fundof Great Britain and Ireland in A. D. 1842, 1843, 1868 and 1871. Forall those who wish to gain a knowledge of the legal literature of theMuhammadans it is a most valuable work, as the Baron has added to thetext numerous learned notes, replete with curious and interestinginformation relating to the Muhammadan law and lawyers. Ibn Khallikandied, aged seventy-three lunar years, in the Najibia College atDamascus, and was buried in the cemetery of As-Salihiya, a well-knownvillage situated on the declivity of Mount Kasiun, a short distance tothe north of Damascus, and from which a splendid view of the town andits surrounding gardens is obtained. When lately there I madeinquiries about the tomb of this great Arab _littérateur_, butwithout success. His tomb has quite disappeared, and his name seemedto be forgotten; but his work still lives, an everlasting monument ofhis industry and his intelligence. 

It will be remembered that the early Arab poets described men, women, animals, and their surroundings in their effusive Kasidas beforeprose-writing was established. Later on grammarians and philologistsbegan to write books on the different objects of nature and on thephysiology of man; also treatises on the horse, the camel, bees, mountains, seas, rivers, and all natural phenomena. There were thuslaid down, though not a scientific, at least a philological basis, forthe future development of the natural sciences and geography. Suchmonographs were only in later times collected in encyclopaedic works, in which they were inserted in such a manner as to constitute variouschapters only, and no longer separate treatises. 

Khalef-al-Ahmer (whom Suyuti declared to be a great forger, because hepretended that some poems written by himself had been composed byancient Arab poets) wrote the first book on Arab mountains, and aboutthe poems recited concerning them. Ahmed bin-ud Dinveri wrote, inaddition to several grammatical and mathematical works, a book onplants, and after him the grammarian Al-Jahiz wrote the first treatiseon animals, but more from a philological point of view than from thatof natural history. He wrote, moreover, on theology, geography, natural history, and philology; but his most celebrated work is his'Book of Animals, ' in which he displayed all his knowledge of theArabic tongue. He was frightfully ugly, and obtained the surname ofJahiz on account of his protuberant eyes. He himself informs us thatthe Khalif Mutwakkil intended to appoint him as tutor to his sons, butwas deterred by his ugliness, and dismissed him with a present of tenthousand dirhems. Al-Jahiz died A. D. 869, over ninety years of age. 

Philology is a term now generally used as applicable to that sciencewhich embraces human language in its widest extent, and may be shortlycalled 'the science of language. ' But in earlier times philologyincluded, with few exceptions, everything that could be learned--manyand various subjects, without particular reference to the meaning nowgenerally adopted concerning it. 

There will be found among the Arab authors of this period manyphilologists who also wrote upon other matters, but have been recordedhere as having particularly excelled in this particular branch oflearning. 

Al Kasim bin Ma'an was the first who wrote on the rarities of thelanguage and on the peculiarities of authors, and, according to the'Fihrist, ' he surpassed all his contemporaries by the variety of hisinformation. Tradition and traditionists, poetry and poets, historyand historians, scholastic theology and theologians, genealogy andgenealogists, were the subjects on which he displayed the extent ofhis acquirements. He died A. D. 791. 

Abu Ali Muhammad bin-al Mustanir bin Ahmad, generally known by thename of Kutrub, was also a grammarian and philologist, and wrote booksand treatises on these subjects, as also on natural history. He diedA. D. 821. 

Philology and Arabic poetry were the special objects of the studies ofAbu Amr Ishak bin Mirar as Shaibani, and in these two branches ofknowledge his authority is of the highest order. He composed a numberof works and treatises, and wrote with his own hand upwards of eightyvolumes. He died A. D. 825. 

But the two earliest, and perhaps the two most celebrated, philologists were Al-Asmai and Abu Obaida, who outshone theirsuccessors for all time to come, and were distinguished--the former byhis wit, and the latter by his scholarship. 

Abu Said Abd-al Malik bin Kuraib al-Asmai was born A. D. 739 or 740, and died A. D. 831. He was a complete master of the Arabic language, anable grammarian, and the most eminent of all those who transmittedorally historical narrations, anecdotes, stories, and rare expressionsof the language. When the poet Abu Nuwas was informed that Asmai andAbu Obaida had been introduced at Harun's court, he said that thelatter would narrate ancient and modern history, but that the formerwould charm with his melodies. Ibn Shabba was informed by Asmaihimself 'that he knew by heart sixteen thousand pieces of versecomposed in the measure called Rajaz, or free metre, ' and Ishak alMausili asserted 'that he never heard al-Asmai profess to know abranch of science without discovering that none knew it better thanhe. ' No one ever explained better than Al-Asmai the idioms of thedesert Arabs. Most of his works, which amount to thirty-six, treat ofthe language and its grammar; but he also wrote a book on the horseand different treatises on various other animals, such as the camel, the sheep, wild beasts, etc. , and their physiology. 

Al-Asmai's contemporary, Abu Obaida, was an able grammarian and anaccomplished scholar. He was born A. D. 728, and died at Busra A. D. 824, leaving nearly two hundred treatises, of which the names of manyhave been given by Ibn Khallikan, and most of them are of a purelyphilological character. There are many anecdotes about him, and manysayings of clever men regarding him. Abu Nuwas took lessons from AbuObaida, praised him highly, and decried Al-Asmai, whom he detested. When asked what he thought of Al-Asmai, he replied, 'A nightingale ina cage, ' meaning probably that a nightingale in a cage is pleasing tohear, but there is nothing else good about it. Abu Obaida he describedas 'a bundle of science packed up in a skin. '

Abu Zaid al-Ansari was a philologist and grammarian, and acontemporary of the two persons just described. He held the first rankamong the literary men of that time, and devoted his attentionprincipally to the study of the philology of the Arabic language, itssingular terms and rare expressions. Of him Al-Mubarrad said: 'AbuZaid was an abler grammarian than Al-Asmai and Abu Obaida, but thesetwo came next to him, and were near to each other. Abu Obaida was themost accomplished scholar of the day. ' Abu Zaid composed a number ofuseful philological works, and titles of thirty-one of them are givenin the 'Fihrist. ' He died A. D. 830, over ninety years of age. 

Abu Othman Bakr bin Muhammad bin Habib al-Mayini, briefly called AbuOthman, was celebrated as a philologer and grammarian, as also for hisknowledge in general literature. He learned philology from Abu Zaid, Abu Obaida, Al-Asmai, and others, and had for pupil Al-Mubarrad, wholearned much from his master, and handed down many pieces oftraditional literature obtained from him. Abu Othman, once being askedhis opinion about various men of science, curtly summarized them asfollows: 'The Koran-readers are deceitful administrators, thetraditionists are satisfied with superfluities, poets are toosuperficial, grammarians much too heavy, narrators deal only in neatexpressions, and the only real science is jurisprudence, ' He died A. D. 863. 

Abul Aina was a philologist, but also a great joker, anecdote-teller, and poet. His memory was equal to his eloquence, and, beingquick-witted, he was never in want of a repartee when the occasionrequired it; indeed, he ranked among the most brilliant wits of theage. To a vizier, who said that everything current about the liberalityof the Barmekides was only so much exaggeration and invention ofleaf-scribblers, he replied: 'Of you, O vizier, the leaf-scribblerswill certainly report nothing and invent nothing. ' There are many otheranecdotes and stories told about him. Being asked how long he wouldcontinue to praise some and satirize others, he replied: 'As long asthe virtuous do good and the wicked do evil, but God forbid that Ishould be as the scorpion which stingeth equally the prophet and theinfidel. ' He had a most wonderful memory, which he applied, however, not to the preservation of interpretations and their vouchers, but tothat of anecdotes, drolleries, and witty sayings, wherefore his namehas been perpetuated as that of a joker. He died A. D. 896. 

Mention must also be made of Abdullah bin Muslim bin Kutaiba, who wasa philologist and grammarian of eminent talent, and noted for thecorrectness of his information. He was the author of many works, suchas 'The Book of Facts, ' 'The Writer's Guide, ' 'Notices on the Poets, 'and 'A Treatise on Horses, ' and others, all of which were more or lesscelebrated in their time. He was born A. D. 828, and died, some say, inA. D. 884, others in A. D. 908. 

Ibn Duraid, whose many other names are given by Ibn Khallikan, isdescribed by that author as 'the most accomplished scholar, the ablestphilologer, and the first poet of the age. ' Masudi and other men oflearning also speak of him in the highest terms. He composed severalworks on natural history, and produced also a complete Dictionary ofthis kind, after the model of the books 'Al-A'in' and 'Al-Jim, ' thetwo letters of the alphabet with which Khalil, the grammarian, and AbuAmr as Shaibani respectively began their works. Ibn Duraid died atBaghdad A. D. 933. The celebrated Motazelite divine Abu Haslim Abd-asSalam Al-Jubbai died the same day, and this caused the people to saythat 'To-day philology and dogmatic theology have ceased to exist. '

In the East, by philosophy not only logic and metaphysics are meant, but also all ethical, political, mathematical, and medical sciences. Indeed, it may be said that nearly all learned men were in those dayscalled philosophers, a term which included mathematicians, astronomers, physicians, encyclopædists and others. 

From the mass of Arab authors all laying claim to the title ofphilosopher, it is perhaps an invidious task to select a few only, andeven those selected by one person might be rejected by another. Butpublic opinion will probably agree in naming three persons as havingclaim to the highest rank in Arab learning. They are Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, and Ali-ibn Sina, commonly called Avicenna. Ali-bin Ridhwan, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Bajah (Avempace), and Ibn Rashid (Averroes) have alsotheir claims to be considered, while Thalab bin Korra, Kosta bin Luka, Al-Tavhidi, and Al-Majridi were also all eminent men. A few detailswill be given about the first seven of the names just mentioned. 

Yakub-bin Ishak Al-Kindi, the philosopher of the Arabs, known inEurope by the corrupted name of Alchendius, possessed an encyclopædicmind, and being himself a living encyclopædia, he composed one of allthe sciences. He divided philosophy into three branches, themathematical, the physical, and the ethical. He declared the nullityof alchemy, which Ibn Sina had again brought to honourable notice, till the physician Abdul Latif declaimed against it. But Al-Kindi wasnot sufficiently advanced to write against astrology, which is stillin full force all over the East even in our own times. Only one of hisworks has as yet been published in Europe, and that treats on thecomposition of medicines, though we possess the titles of not lessthan two hundred and thirty-four works composed by him on a variety ofsubjects. He died A. D. 861. 

Abu Nasr Al-Farabi (Alfarabius), called by the Arabs a secondAristotle, is generally considered to be the second Arab philosopher;Avicenna, who always quotes him in his works, the third; the firstplace being assigned to Al-Kindi. Al-Farabi studied Arabic (he was aTurk by birth) and philosophy in Baghdad, where he attended thelectures of Abu Bishr Matta bin Yunus, who possessed, and alsoimparted to his pupils, the gift of expressing the deepest meanings inthe easiest words. From Baghdad he went to Harran, where Yuhanna binKhailan, the Christian philosopher, was teaching logic, and after hisreturn he made all the works of Aristotle his special study. It isrelated that the following note was found inscribed in Al-Farabi'shandwriting on a copy of Aristotle's treatise on the soul: 'I haveread over this book two hundred times. ' He also said that he had readover Aristotle's 'Physics' forty times, and felt that he ought to readit over again. Abul Kasim Said, of Cordova, says in his 'Classes ofPhilosophers' that 'Al-Farabi led all the professors of Islam to theright understanding of logic by unveiling and explaining its secrets, as well as by considering all those points which Al-Kindi hadneglected, and by teaching the application of analogy to all occurringcases. ' In his enumeration and limitation of the sciences, Al-Farabiembraced the whole system of knowledge as it then existed. He went toEgypt, and afterwards to Damascus, where he died in A. D. 950. Duringhis residence at Damascus he was mostly to be found near the bordersof some rivulet, or in a shady garden; there he composed his works andreceived the visits of his pupils. He was extremely abstemious, andentirely indifferent to wealth and poverty. The list of his works onphilosophical and scientific subjects amount to sixty-one. Mr. Munk's'Mélanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe' (Paris, 1859) contains goodarticles on Al-Farabi and Al-Kindi. 

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was a great philosopher and physician. At the ageof ten years he had completed the study of the Koran in Bukhara, whereafterwards a certain Natili became his tutor, with whom he firststudied the 'Eisagoge' of Porphyry, and afterwards Euclid, and lastlythe 'Almagest' of Ptolemy. Natili then departed, and an ardent desireto study medicine having taken possession of Ibn Sina, he commenced toread medical books, which not being so difficult to understand asmathematics and metaphysics, he made such rapid progress in them thathe soon became an excellent physician, and cured his patients bytreating them with well-approved remedies. He began also to studyjurisprudence before he was thirteen. At the age of eighteen heentered the service of a prince of the Beni Saman dynasty, Nuh binMansur, at Bukhara, a paralytic, who entertained many physicians athis court, and Ibn Sina joined their number. There he composed his'Collection, ' in which he treated of all the sciences exceptmathematics, and there also he wrote his book of 'The Acquirer and theAcquired. ' He then left Bukhara, and lived in various towns ofKhurasan, but never went further west, spending his whole life in thecountries beyond the Oxus, in Khwarizm and in Persia, although hewrote in Arabic. It would be superfluous to follow all his changes offortune, but it may be mentioned that when he was the first physicianand vizier of Mezd-ud-daulah, a sultan of the Bowide dynasty, he wastwice deposed and put in irons. He also appears to have actedtreacherously towards Ala-ud-daulah, a prince of Ispahan, who was hisbenefactor. He was four years in prison, but at last succeeded indeceiving his guardians, and escaped. His dangerous travels, and thedepression of mind inseparable from reverses of fortune, however, never interrupted his scientific pursuits. His taste for study and hisactivity were such that, as he himself informs us, not a single daypassed in which he had not written fifty leaflets. The list ofmanuscripts left by him, and scattered in various libraries of Europe, is considerable, and though many of his works have been lost, some arestill in existence. The fatigues of his long journeys, and theexcesses of all kinds in which he indulged, abridged the life of thiscelebrated scholar, who died in A. D. 1037, at the age of fifty-six, atHamadan, where the following epitaph adorns his tomb: 'The greatphilosopher, the great physician, Ibn Sina, is dead. His books onphilosophy have not taught him the art of living well, nor his bookson medicine the art of living long. '

A brief notice must be given of the celebrated physician andphilosopher, Ali bin Ridhwan, who died A. D. 1067. He was such aprodigy of precocious learning that he began to lecture on medicineand philosophy at Cairo from his fourteenth year. He afterwards alsotaught astronomy. At the age of thirty-two he had attained a greatreputation as a physician, and was a rich man at sixty. He left morethan one hundred books which he had composed, and he himself says: 'Imade abridgments of the chief philosophical works of the ancients, andleft in this manner five books on philology; ten on law; the medicalworks of Hippocrates and Galen; the book of plants of Dioskorides; thebooks of Rufus, Paulus, Hawi, and Razi; four books on agriculture anddrugs; four books for instruction in the 'Almagest' of Ptolemy, and anintroduction to the study of it, and to the square of Ptolemy; as alsoto the works of Plato, Alexander, Themistios, and Al-Farabi. Ipurchased all these books, no matter what they cost, and preservedthem in chests, although it would have been more profitable to havesold them again rather than have kept them. ' Ibn Batlan, a cleverphysician, was a contemporary of Ibn Ridhwan, and travelled fromBaghdad to Egypt only for the purpose of making his acquaintance, butthe result does not appear to have been satisfactory to either party. He died A. D. 1063, leaving a number of works on medical and othersubjects. 

Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali was born A. D. 1058. He was considered chiefly asa lawyer and a mystic, but here he will be noticed chiefly as aphilosopher and the author of 'The Ruin of Philosophers, ' noticed atlength by Haji Khalfa in his 'Encyclopædical Dictionary, ' under No. 3764. But Ghazali's most celebrated work is 'The Resuscitation ofReligious Sciences, ' which is so permeated by the genius of Islamthat, according to the general opinion of scholars, the Muhammadanreligion, if it were to perish, might again be restored from this workalone. Orthodox fanatics, nevertheless, attacked his works as beingschismatic, and they were even burnt in the Mugrib. He was born at Tus(the modern Mashad), in Khurasan, and passed his life partly there, also at Naisapur, Baghdad, Damascus, Egypt, and finally returned toTus, where he died A. D. 1111. His works are very numerous, and all ofthem are instructive. 

Ibn Bajah (known to Europeans under the name of Avempace) was aphilosoper and a poet of considerable celebrity, and a native ofSaragossa, in Spain. He was attacked by some people for his religiousopinions, and represented as an infidel and an atheist, professing thedoctrines held by the ancient sages and philosophers. Ibn Khallikandefends Ibn Bajah, and says that these statements were muchexaggerated, but adds: 'God, however, knows best what his principleswere, ' Abul Hassan Ali al-Imam, of Granada, was of opinion that IbnBajah was the greatest Arab philosopher after Al-Farabi, and placeshim higher than Ibn Sina and Al-Ghazali. He left numerous logical, grammatical and political works, and died at Fez in A. D. 1138. 

Averroes, whose full and correct name is Abul Walid Muhammad binRashid, was a celebrated Arab scholar, born at Cordova A. D. 1126, andthe author of many writings. He taught in his native town philosophyand medicine, two sciences which appeared for a long time to beinseparable, and the vulgar considered those professing them to be ofalmost supernatural attainments. The period of Averroes is that of thedecadence of Arab dominion in Spain, a period when this great nationalso lost the taste for sciences which it had brought to Europe. Considering the prodigious number of works composed by Averroes, whofilled at the same time the offices of Imam and Kadi, his entire lifemust have been one of labour and meditation. He is the author of anArabic version of Aristotle, but it is not the first which existed inthat language, as some of his biographers assert, because this workhad been produced already at Baghdad during the brilliant Khalifate ofMamun. There are various manuscripts of Averroes extant treating onphysics, pure mathematics, astronomy and astrology, from which itwould appear that, in spite of their encyclopædic attainments, thecelebrated men of these times still believed in some popular errors. Science was at that time surrounded by a kind of superstitious halo ofrespect, to which Averroes, like so many others, is indebted for agood part of his renown. He died A. D. 1198, in the city of Morocco;his corpse was transferred to Cordova and there interred. 

Medical science had already, under the second Khalif of the house ofAbbas (A. D. 754-775), enjoyed the highest honours, which it everafterwards retained. Great physicians were brought from the Persianhospital of Jondshapur, and between the years A. D. 750 and 850 thenumber of physicians was considerable, but only the most celebratedwill be noticed. 

Georgios (Jorjis) bin Bakhtyeshun, of Jondshapur, lived at thecommencement of the Abbaside dynasty, and was the author of the bookof Pandects. When Al-Mansur was building the city of Baghdad hesuffered from pains in his stomach and from impotency, and Georgios, the director of the medical college at Jondshapur, was recommended tohim as the most skilled physician of the time. Accordingly, the Khalifdirected Georgios and two of his pupils, Ibrahim and Serjis, to cometo Baghdad, appointing Gabriel (Jebrayl), the son of Georgios, asdirector of the hospital in the place of his father. Georgios curedAl-Mansur, and received from him three thousand ducats for his reward, along with a beautiful slave girl; the latter was, however, returnedto the Khalif with thanks, and the remark that, 'being a Christian, hecould not keep more than one wife. ' From that moment the physicianattained free access to the harem, and enjoyed high favour with theKhalif, who greatly pressed him in A. D. 770 to make a profession ofIslam; but this he refused to do, and died shortly afterwards, in A. D. 771. Before his death Georgios asked to be allowed to return toJondshapur, to be buried there with his ancestors. Al-Mansur said, 'Fear God, and I guarantee you paradise. ' Georgios replied, 'I amsatisfied to be with my ancestors, be it in paradise or be it inhell. ' The Khalif laughed, allowed him to return home, and presentedhim with ten thousand pieces of gold for his travelling, expenses. 

Gabriel (Jebrayl), the son of the above-named Georgios (Jorjis), wasalso a celebrated physician. He enjoyed great favour withHarun-ar-Rashid, who used to declare that he would not refuse himanything. When, however, this Khalif fell ill at Tus, and asked Gabrielfor his opinion, the latter replied that if Harun had followed hisadvice to be moderate in sexual pleasure, he would not have beenattacked by the disease. For this reply he was thrown into prison, andhis life was saved only by the chamberlain Rabi'i, who was very fond ofhim. Amin, the son and successor of Rashid, followed the advice ofGabriel more than his father did, and would not eat or drink anythingwithout his doctor's sanction. In A. D. 817 Gabriel cured Sehl binHasan, who recommended him to Mamun; but Michael, the son-in-law ofGabriel, was his body physician. In A. D. 825 Mamun fell sick, and, asall the medicines of Michael were of no use, Isa, the brother of Mamun, advised him to get himself treated by Gabriel, who had known him fromboyhood; but Abu Ishak, the other brother of Mamun, called in Yahyabin Maseweih, and when he could do nothing, then Mamun sent forGabriel, who restored him to health in three days, and was handsomelyrewarded in consequence. When Mamun marched, in A. D. 828, against theByzantines, Gabriel fell sick and died, whereon the Khalif tookGabriel's son with him on the campaign, he being also an intelligentand skilled physician. 

 The works of Gabriel are:

 (1) A treatise on food and drink, dedicated to Mamun. 

 (2) An introduction to logic. 

 (3) Extracts from medical Pandects. 

 (4) A book on fumigatories. 

Isa bin Musa, who flourished about A. D. 833, was also one of the mostdistinguished physicians of the period. He left the following works:

 (1) Book on the forces of alimentary substances. 

 (2) A treatise for a person who has no access to a physician. 

 (3) Questions concerning derivations and races. 

 (4) Book of dreams, indicating why medicines should not be given to pregnant women. 

 (5) Book of the remedies mentioned by Hippocrates in his treatise on bleeding and cupping. 

 (6) Dissertation on the use of baths. 

Without giving any details about Maseweih, Yahya bin Maseweih, Honeinbin Ishak, and Kosta bin Luka, all of whom were distinguished formedical knowledge, some fuller mention must be made of Abu BakrAr-Razi (Rhases), who has been described as 'the ablest physician ofthat age and the most distinguished; a perfect master of the art ofmedicine, skilled in its practice, and thoroughly grounded in itsprinciples and rules. ' He composed a number of useful works onmedicine, and some of his sayings have been handed down to us, and arestill worthy of record, such as:

 (1) When you can cure by a regimen, avoid having recourse to medicine. 

 (2) When you can effect a cure with a simple medicine, avoid employing a compound one. 

 (3) With a learned physician and an obedient patient sickness soon disappears. 

 (4) Treat an incipient malady with remedies which will not prostrate the strength. 

Till the end of his life he continued at the head of his profession, finally lost his sight, and died in A. D. 923. A new and much improvededition of Razi's 'Treatise on the Small-Pox and Measles' waspublished in London in A. D. 1848 by Dr. Greenhill, and an article onhim will also be found in Wüstenfeld's 'History of the ArabianPhysicians. '

Poetry flourished to a very great extent during the reigns of theearly Abbaside Khalifs, and, as all Arab _littérateurs_ were more orless poets and writers of verses, it is somewhat difficult to selectthe most celebrated. 

The first collection of Arabic poems was compiled by Al-Mofadhdhal inthe work called after him--'Mofadhdhaliat. ' He was followed by Abu Amras Shaibani, by Abu Zaid bin A'us, Ibn-as Sikkit, Muhammad bin Habib, Abu Hatim es Sejastani, and Abu Othman al Mazini. Abu Tammam andAl-Bohtori, the collectors of the two Hamasas, are considered to be thetwo greatest poets of the third century of the Hijrah (A. D. 816-913). And it may here be observed that in the great bibliographicaldictionary of Haji Khalfa, who enumerates seven Hamasas, the names ofIbn-ul Marzaban and of Ibn Demash, each of whom composed one, are notmentioned. 

Zukkari made himself a reputation by editing several of theMua'llakat, as also the poems of the great pre-Islamite bards, Al-Aasha and Al-Kama, whilst Abu Bakr as Sauli likewise acquired greatmerit by publishing ten of the master-works of Arabic poetry. 

From the many poets of this period some of the most celebrated havebeen selected--viz. , Farazdak, Jarir, Al-Akhtal, Abul-Atahya, Bashsharbin Burd, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam, Al-Otbi, Al-Bohtori, Al-Mutanabbi, and An-Nami, and a few biographical details about them will be given, as also some remarks about Al-Mofadhdhal, the first collector andcompiler of Arab poetry, and of Abul Faraj-Al-Ispahani, the collectorof the great anthology called 'Kitab-ul-Aghani, ' or the Book of Songs. 

Jarir and Al-Farazdak were two very celebrated poets, who lived at thesame time and died in the same year, A. D. 728-729. Ibn Khallikan hasgiven their lives at considerable length, and says that 'Jarir was inthe habit of making satires on Al-Farazdak, who retorted in the samemanner, and they composed parodies on each other's poems. ' Jariralways used to say that the same demon inspired them both, andconsequently each knew what the other would say. On all occasions theyseem to have been excessively rude in verse to each other, and did notat all mind about having recourse to actual insult. The lives ofAl-Akhtal, Al-Farazdak, and Jarir, translated from the 'Kitab-ul-Aghani'and other sources, have been given by Mr. Caussin de Perceval in the_Journal Asiatique_ for the year 1834. Prom this it would appear thatthe verses of these three poets were much discussed during theirlifetime, and often compared with the productions of the other poetswho followed them. Some writers are in favour of one and some of theother, but the general opinion of them is that their effusionsresembled the Arab poetry written before the period of Muhammad muchmore than any poetry that was written during the reign of theAbbasides. Al-Akhtal belonged to a Christian tribe of Arabs, and wasmuch patronized by the Omaiyide Khalif Abdul Malik (A. D. 684-705), inwhose glory and honour he composed many verses, and, indeed, such goodones, that Harun-ar-Rashid used to say no poet had ever said so muchin praise of the Abbasides as he (Akhtal) had written in praise of theOmaiyides. He died at an advanced age some years before Jarir andFarazdak, who were much younger men, but the exact year of his deathdoes not appear to have been recorded. 

The blind Bashshar bin Burd and Abul-Atahya were two of the principalpoets who flourished in the first ages of Islamism, and ranked in thehighest class among the versifiers of that period. The former was putto death, or rather beaten, by the orders of the Khalif Al-Mahdi, forcertain satirical verses which the poet is said to have written, andfrom the effects of these strokes of a whip he died in A. D. 783. Abul-Atahya wrote many verses on ascetic subjects, and all his amatorypieces were composed in honour and praise of Otba, a female slavebelonging to the Khalif Al-Mahdi, and to whom he appears to have beendevotedly attached. He was born A. D. 747, and died A. D. 826. 

Abu Nuwas was a poet of great celebrity. His father, Hani, was asoldier in the army of Marwan II. , the last Omaiyide Khalif, and thepoet was born in A. D. 762, some say in Damascus, others at Busra, andothers at Al-Ahwaz. His mother apprenticed him to a grocer, and theboy became acquainted with the poet Abu Osâma, who discovered histalent, and induced him to accompany him to Baghdad. There Abu Nuwasafterwards became celebrated as one of the chief bards at the court ofthe Khalif, and his most famous Kasida is that which he composed inpraise of Amin, the son of Harun-ar-Rashid. According to the criticsof his time, he was the greatest poet in Islam, as Amriolkais had beenbefore that period. When Merzeban was asked which he considered thegreater poet, Abu Nuwas or Rakashi, he replied, 'A curse of Abu Nuwasin hell contains more poetry than a laudation of Rakâshi's inparadise. ' He was a favourite of Amin, whom his brother Mamunreproached for associating with him, because Abu Nuwas enjoyed thereputation of being the greatest libertine of all the poets. 

Sulaiman, the son of Al-Mansur, complained to the Khalif Amin that AbuNuwas had insulted him with lampoons, and desired him to be punishedwith death; but Amin replied: 'Dear uncle, how can I order a man to bekilled who has praised me in such beautiful verses?' and thereuponrecited them. 

Mamun, the son of Harun, states that he asked the great critic Yakutbin Sikkit to what poet he gave the preference. He replied: 'Among thepre-Islamite ones to Amriolkais and Al-Aasha, among the older Muslimpoets to Jarir and Farazdak, and among the more recent to Abu Nuwas. '

Otbi, having been asked who was the greatest poet, replied; 'Accordingto the opinion of the people, Amriolkais, but according to mine, AbuNuwas. '

Al-Khasib, the chief of the revenue office in Egypt, once asked AbuNuwas from what family he came. 'My talents, ' replied he, 'stand meinstead of noble birth, ' and no further questions were asked him. Hewas a freethinker, who joked about the precepts of Islam. Once a Sunniand a Rafidhi desired him to be the umpire in their quarrel, as to whooccupied the most exalted position after the Prophet. He said: 'Acertain Yazid, ' and on their asking who this Yazid might be, hereplied: 'An excellent fellow, who presents me with a thousand dirhemsevery year. ' He used to say that the wine of this world is better thanthat of the next; and, being asked for the reason, replied: 'This is asample of the wine of paradise, and for a sample the best is alwaystaken. '

Ismail bin Nubakht said: 'I never saw a man of more extensive learningthan Abu Nuwas, nor one who, with a memory so richly furnished, possessed so few books. After his decease we searched his house, andcould only find one book-cover containing a quire of paper, in whichwas a collection of rare expressions and grammatical observations. '

He died on the same day as the mystic Al-Kerkhi, whose corpse wasaccompanied to the grave by more than three hundred persons, but thatof Abu Nuwas by not one. When, however, one of the three hundredexclaimed: 'Was not Abu Nuwas a Muslim? And why do none of the Muslimsrecite the funeral prayer over his body? all the three hundred who hadassisted at the interment of Kerkhi recited the prayer also over thecorpse of Abu Nuwas. 

He is considered to have been an equally good narrator, scholar, andpoet; and, being asked by Sulaiman bin Sehl what species of poetry hethought to be the best, replied: 'There are no poems on wine equal tomy own, and to my amatory compositions all others must yield, ' He usedto boast that he knew by heart the poems of sixty poetesses, and amongthem those of Khansa and Leila, as also seven hundred Arjuzat, orpoems in unshackled metre, by men. He said that he could composenothing except when he was in a good humour, and in a shady garden. Heoften began a Kasida, put it away for several days, and then took itup again to rescind much of it. 

According to Abu Amr, the three greatest poets in the description ofwine are Aasha, Akhtal, and Abu Nuwas. Abu Hatim al Mekki often saidthat the deep meanings of thoughts were concealed underground untilAbu Nuwas dug them out. 

His end was tragic. Zonbor, the secretary, and Abu Nuwas were in thehabit of composing lampoons against each other; whereon the formerconceived the idea of propagating a satire against Ali, the son-in-lawof the Prophet, in the name of Abu Nuwas; and this became the cause ofhis death. In an already half-drunken circle Zonbor recited the satireon Ali as the work of Abu Nuwas; on which all fell upon the poet, ripped open his belly, and pulled his entrails about till he expired. Others assert that Ismail bin Abu Sehl administered a poisonous potionto Abu Nuwas, because he had composed a lampoon against him; but itsoperation was so slow that he died only four months after he had drunkit. His death took place at Baghdad in A. D. 810. 

Al-Otbi was a poet of great celebrity, and taught traditions to thepeople of Baghdad; but was more generally noted for drinking wine andcomposing love verses about his beloved Otba. Being of the tribe ofKoraish, and of the family of Omaya, he and his father held a highrank, and were regarded as accomplished scholars and elegant speakers, Otbi both composed and collected poems. One of his verses has nowacquired the force of a proverb: 'When Sulaima saw me turn my eyesaway--and I turn my glances away from all who resemble her--she said:"I once saw thee mad with love;" and I replied: "Youth is a madness ofwhich old age is the cure. "' He died in A. D. 842. 

Abu Tammam Habib, the celebrated poet, according to Ibn Khallikan, 'surpassed all his contemporaries in the purity of his style, themerit of his poetry, and his excellent manner of treating a subject. He is the author of a Hamasa, a compilation which is a standing proofof his great talents, solid information, and good taste in making aselection. ' He wrote several other works connected with poets andpoetry, composed many Kasidas, and knew by heart, it is said, fourteenthousand verses of that class of compositions called Rajaz, or freemetre. The poetry of Abu Tammam was put in order for the first time byAbu Bakr as Sauli, who arranged it alphabetically, according to therhymes, and then Abul Faraj Ali bin Husain Al-Ispahani classed itaccording to the subjects. He died at Mosul A. D. 845, about fortyyears of age, and was buried there; but his verses have survived, andrendered him one of the immortals. 

The mantle of the poet Abu Tammam appears to have fallen on Abu AbadaAl-Bohtori, who was born in A. D. 821, and, like his predecessor, isalso the author of a Hamasa. He appears to have received his firstencouragement to persevere as a poet from Abu Tammam, and later on hesays: 'I recited to Abu Tammam a poem which I had composed in honourof one of the Humaid family, and by which I gained a large sum ofmoney. When I finished he exclaimed: "Very good! You shall be theprince of poets when I am no more. " These words gave me more pleasurethan all the wealth which I had collected. ' On being asked whether heor Abu Tammam was the better poet, Al-Bohtori replied: 'His bestpieces surpass the best of mine, and my worst are better than theworst of his, ' Abul-Ala al Maarri, a great philologist and poet (bornin A. D. 973, died A. D. 1057), was asked which was the best poet of thethree, Abu Tammam, Al-Bohtori, or Al-Mutanabbi; he replied that two ofthem were moralists, and that Bohtori was the poet. He died A. D. 897. His poems were not arranged in order till Abu Bakr as Sauli collectedthem and classed them alphabetically by their rhymes, while Abul FarajAli bin Husain Al-Ispahani collected them also, and arranged themaccording to their subjects. A copy of his 'Diwan' is in theBibliothèque Nationale in Paris. 

Al Mutanabbi, or the pretended prophet, a _rôle_ to which he aspired, but in which he did not succeed, comes next to the two greatpoets--Abu Tammam and Al-Bohtori--though some critics consider him tobe superior to them. He is, however, generally acknowledged to be agreat lyric poet, while many of his best Kasidas refer to the exploitsof Saif ad Dawlah, a prince of the Benou Hamdan dynasty in Syria. Afterleaving him he went to Egypt, then to Persia, Baghdad, and finallyKufa, his native place, near which he was killed in a fight in A. D. 965. It is stated that in this contest Mutanabbi, seeing himselfvanquished, was taking to flight, when his slave said to him, 'Let itnever be said that you fled from a fight, you who are the author ofthis verse: "The horse, and the night, and the desert know me (well);the sword also, and the lance, and paper and the pen. "'

Upon this he turned back and fought till he was slain, along with hisson and his slave. His 'Diwan, ' or collection of poems, is well known, and much read in our times, even in India. It has been translated intoGerman. 

An-Nami was one of the ablest and most talented poets of his time, butinferior to Mutanabbi, with whom he had some encounters and contestsin reciting extemporary verses when they were at the court of Saif adDawlah together. He died A. D. 1008 at Aleppo, aged ninety. 

Abul-Abbas Al-Mofadhdhal, the collector of the celebrated selection ofArabic poems called the 'Mofadhdhaliat, ' which served as a model forthe Hamasas, was the first editor of the seven suspended poems, theMua'llakat, and also one of the earliest of the Arab philologists. Hewas a native of Kufa, and adhered to the faction of Ibrahim binAbdallah; who rebelled in A. D. 761 against Al-Mansur, the secondAbbaside Khalif. Al-Mansur, however, pardoned Al-Mofadhdhal, andattached him to the household of his son, Al-Mahdi, by whose ordersMofadhdhal made a collection of the most celebrated longer poems ofthe Arabs, one hundred and twenty-eight in number, under the title ofthe Mofadhdhaliat. This, the oldest anthology of Arabian poets, wasfirst commented upon by his disciple, Al-Aarabi; then two hundredyears later by the two great philologists and anthologists, Al-Anbariand An-Nahas; by Merzuk; and lastly by Tibrizi, who is sufficientlyknown in Europe as the editor and commentator of the Hamasa, publishedby Freytag with a Latin translation. Mofadhdhal supported himself as acopyist of the Koran, and spent the last portion of his life inmosques doing penance for the satires which he had composed againstvarious individuals. His other works were a book of proverbs, atreatise on prosody, another on the ideas usually expressed in poetry, and a vocabulary. He was held to be of the first authority as aphilologist, a genealogist, and a relator of the poems and battle-laysof the desert Arabs. He died A. D. 784. 

Abul Faraj Ali bin Husain Al-Ispahani is the collector of the greatanthology called 'Kitab-ul-Aghani' (the Book of Songs). This work, which surpasses all former ones of this name, he produced after alabour of forty years, and presented it to Saif ad Dawlah, who gavehim a thousand pieces of gold for it, but excused himself at the sametime for the smallness of this honorarium. In spite of his otherworks, and the long string of names given him by Ibn Khallikan, he isbest known as Al-Ispahani, and as the author of the Aghani. His familyinhabited Ispahan, but he passed his early youth in Baghdad, andbecame the most distinguished scholar and most eminent author of thatcity. He was born A. D. 897, and died A. D. 967, in which year also diedthe great scholar Kali, and the three greatest of his patrons, namely, Saif ad Dawlah, the sovereign of the Benou Hamdan in Syria; Moiz udDawlah, the sovereign of the Benou Bujeh in Irak; and Kafur, whogoverned Egypt in the name of the Akhsid dynasty. The 'Book of Songs, 'notwithstanding its title, is an important biographical dictionary, treating of grammar, history and science, as well as of poetry. 

Mention can here be made of Abu Muhammad Kassim Al-Hariri, who was oneof the ablest writers of his time, and the author of the 'MakâmatHariri, ' a work consisting of fifty oratorical, poetical, moral, encomiastic and satirical discourses, supposed to have been spoken orread in public assemblies. Poets, historians, grammarians andlexicographers look upon the 'Makâmat' (Assemblies or Séances) as thehighest authority, and next to the Koran, as far at least as languageis concerned. It contains a large portion of the language spoken bythe Arabs of the desert, such as its idioms, its proverbs, and itssubtle delicacies of expression; and, according to Ibn Khallikan, anyperson who acquires a sufficient acquaintance with this book tounderstand it rightly, will be led to acknowledge the eminent merit ofthe author, his extensive information, and his vast abilities. A greatnumber of persons have commented on the 'Makâmat, ' some in long andothers in short treatises, and many consider it to be the mostelegantly written, and the most amusing, work in the Arabic language. Hariri was born A. D. 1054, and died at Busra A. D. 1122. He left someother good works in the shape of treatises, epistles, and a greatnumber of poetical pieces, besides those contained in his 'Makâmat. '

There are two translations of the 'Makâmat' into English. One by theReverend Theodore Preston, printed under the patronage of the OrientalTranslation Fund, London, 1850. It contains only twenty of the fiftypieces in verse, with copious notes, while an epitome of the remainingthirty pieces is given at the end of the book. The other by the lateMr. Chennery, which ends with the twenty-sixth assembly or séance. Thewhole work was edited in Arabic, with a select commentary upon it inFrench, by Baron Silvestre de Sacy, and this was reprinted in 1847. Ruckert also made a very free translation of it in German verse, whichreached a third edition in 1844, but this differs widely from thecontents of the original, though it is said to be more pleasing andattractive to a general reader. 

After the Muslim legal sciences had been established upon the fourfoldfoundations of the Koran, tradition, general consent of communities, and the analogies derived therefrom, then philosophy and mathematicsbegan to flourish by translations made either directly from the Greekor through Syriac and Persian. 

In former times, during the reign of Nausherwan, a Persian monarch ofgreat renown (A. D. 530-578), there was some intercourse betweenPersian and Byzantine philosophers; several books on logic andmedicine had been translated from Greek into Persian, and from theseAbdullah Ibn Al-Mukaffa made translations into Arabic. The literarycareer of Ibn Al-Mukaffa, who presumed to vie with the eloquence ofthe Koran, and was considered to be a freethinker, and eventuallyslain, falls into the reign of Al-Mansur (A. D. 754-775), the secondKhalif. But Ibn Al-Mukaffa rendered such services to Arabianliterature, that a short sketch of his life will presently be given. 

During the reign of Mansur (A. D. 754-775) Greek works were translated, not yet from the original, but from the Persian. During the Khalifateof his son, Mahdi (A. D. 775-785), Abd-Allah bin Hilal translated thecelebrated animal fables of Bidpay from Persian into Arabic, under thetitle of 'Kalilah wa Dimnah, ' and they were afterwards versified bySelil bin Nubakht. In Persian they are known under several titles, such as 'Kalilah wa Dimnah, ' the 'Anwar-i Suheli, ' and the 'AyarDanish, ' and in Turkish as the 'Humayan-namah. '

Eight years before the seventh Khalif, Mamun (A. D. 812-833), ascendedthe throne, many Greek and Syrian manuscripts had been collected inBaghdad. These were all preserved there in the library, which wascalled 'The House of Wisdom, ' until Mamun began to utilize them bymeans of translations. The Khalif appointed the scholars Al-Hajjaj, IbnMáttar, Ibn ul-Batrik, and Selma, to superintend the work, while thethree brothers, Muhammad, Ahmed, and Hasan, sons of the astronomerShakir, were directed to search for and to buy manuscripts. Mamun alsosent the two physicians, Yohanna and Kosta, into the Byzantinedominions to bring manuscripts from thence to Baghdad. A new class ofscholars was then formed, in the shape of translators, who wereemployed in translating works from the Greek, the Syriac, and thePersian languages into Arabic. The translators from the Persian wereMusa and Yusuf, the two sons of Khalid, Hasan bin Sehl, andafterwards, Al-Baladori; from the Sanscrit, Munkah the Indian; fromthe Nabataean, Ibn Wahshiyah. Science became hereditary, as it were, in the families of the most celebrated scholars; medical science inthe family of Bakhtyeshun; translations from Greek works in that ofHonein bin Ishak, the most famous of all translators, and a prolificauthor besides. Maseweih and his son Yahya, Syriac Christians, wereboth celebrated as physicians and translators of ancient Greek worksinto Arabic; while Kosta bin Luka, who died in A. D. 932, was also oneof the most fertile translators from Greek into Arabic, and, beingborn a Greek, he was able to correct the translations of Honein binIshak and others. 

The number of translators, which amounted to about one hundred, mighthave been increased if Arab literature had further developed itself byincorporating works from other languages; but, as such was not thecase, translators appeared very few and far between after theliterature had attained to its highest perfection, at the end of thethird century of the Hijrah (A. D. 913). 

The celebrated Ibn Al-Mukaffa was one of the earliest and besttranslators. His full name is Abd-Allah Ibn Al-Mukaffa, but before hemade his profession of Islam he bore that of Ruzbeh. He was a nativeof Har, a town in the province of Fars, and first served as secretaryto Daud bin Hobeirah, and then to Isa bin Ali, the uncle of the twofirst Khalifs of the house of Abbas. He was an excellent poet, letter-writer, and orator, equally skilled in his mother-tongue, thePersian, as in the Arabic language, from the former of which he leftthe splendid translations of--

 (1) 'The Khodanamah, ' a legend. 

 (2) 'The Amirnamah, ' or prince-book. 

 (3) 'Kalilah wa Dimnah. '

 (4) 'Merdak. '

 (5) 'Biography of Nausherwan. '

 (6) 'The Great Book of Manners. '

 (7) 'The Small Book of Manners or Good Habits. '

 (8) 'The Book of Epistles. '

So far the 'Fihrist'; what follows is from Ibn Khallikan. IbnAl-Mukaffa was the secretary and most confidential servant of Isa binAli, with whom he dined the day before he made his public professionof Islam. Having sat down, he began to eat and to mutter according tothe custom of the Magians. 'How, ' said Isa, 'you mutter like theMagians, though resolved to embrace Islamism!' to which Ibn Al-Mukaffareplied that he did not wish to pass a single night without being ofsome religion. In spite of his conversion, he was always suspected offreethinking, like Muti bin Iyas and Yahya bin Zaad, and one day, whenAl-Jahiz, the philologist, made the remark that they were persons thesincerity of whose religious sentiments was doubted, one of thelearned, on hearing this, said: 'How is it that Al-Jahiz forgets tocount himself?'

When Khalil the prosodist was one day asked his opinion about IbnAl-Mukaffa, he said, 'His learning is greater than his wit;' and thelatter, being asked the same question concerning Khalil, replied, 'Hiswit is greater than his learning. ' Being a favourite with the Khalif, he took great liberties with Sofyan, the Governor of Busra, andinsulted the memory of his mother. One day Sulaiman and Isa, theuncles of the Khalif Mansur, desired to obtain a letter of amnestyfrom him for their brother Abd-Allah, and they instructed IbnAl-Mukaffa to compose one in the strongest terms, which he did, andadded to it the following clause, 'Should the Prince of the Believersever act treacherously towards his uncle Abd-Allah, then may he bedivorced from his wives, may his slaves be free, and may his subjectsbe solved from obedience!' The Khalif's dignity was shocked, and heordered the writer of this letter of amnesty to be forthwith executed, and the Governor of Busra, whom Ibn Al-Mukaffa had many times insulted, very gladly undertook the duty. Al-Madaini narrates that when IbnAl-Mukaffa was brought before Sofyan, the latter asked him whether heremembered the insults he had heaped upon his mother, and added, 'Maymy mother really deserve those insults if I do not get you executed ina manner hitherto unheard of!' He also recalled Ibn Al-Mukaffa's jokeabout Sofyan's big nose, because he had one day asked the governor, 'How are you and your nose?' On another occasion, when the governorremarked that he never had reason to repent keeping silence, IbnAl-Mukaffa replied, 'Dumbness becomes you; then why should you repentof it. ' Accordingly Sofyan ordered the members of Ibn Al-Mukaffa's bodyto be chopped off, one after the other, and thrown into a burningoven, into which, last of all, the trunk of his body was also thrown. There are other accounts of his death, viz. , that he was strangled ina bath, or shut up in a privy. One opinion, however, generallyprevails, that the execution was not a public one. The date of it isuncertain--A. D. 756, 759, and 760, are all given; but the victim wasonly thirty-six years of age at the time. 

A few remarks may be made about the support given to learning and menof letters by the Omaiyide and Abbaside Khalifs, as also by those ofthe Spanish or Western Khalifate. 

The Omaiyide Khalifs, with their capital at Damascus, were generallypatrons of science, poetry, architecture, song, and music. But allthese branches of knowledge were at that time merely rudimental; and, of the fourteen sovereigns of the dynasty, only five really deservethe name of protectors of learning; and of these Abdul Malik (A. D. 684-705), and his son Walid I. (A. D. 705-715), were the mostdistinguished. 

During the period of their Khalifate there were not only male, butalso some female poets. All their poems are mostly short, and confinedto amatory, laudatory, or vituperative compositions, called forth bythe momentary circumstances in which the authors happened to beplaced. These pieces do not represent either deep thought or profoundwisdom, but they show the feelings of the people, and their state ofcivilization at the time in question. 

During this Khalifate were also produced the earliest germs ofstylistics, epistolography and mysticism, all of which were more fullydeveloped under the Abbasides. The originator of the first two was theKatib Abd Al-Hamid, secretary to the last Omaiyide Khalif, and he isdesignated in an old Arabic rhyme as 'the father of all secretaries. 'Epistolary writing, it was said, began with Abd Al-Hamid, and finishedwith Ibn Al-Amid. As regards mysticism, the origin of its doctrines issometimes assigned to Oweis Al-Kareni, the Prophet's companion, whodisappeared mysteriously in A. D. 658. But mysticism and Sufism weresubsequently much developed by Muhi-uddin Muhammad, surnamed IbnAl-Arabi, a most voluminous writer on these subjects. He was born atMurcia, in Spain, A. D. 1165, and after studying in that country, wentto the East, made the pilgrimage, visited Cairo and other cities, anddied at Damascus A. D. 1240. He is the author of many works, but themost remarkable of them are 'Revelations obtained at Mecca' and'Maxims of Wisdom set as Jewels. ' Both Makkari the historian, and VonHammer Purgstall, in his history of Arabian literature from theearliest times, give a long account of him. 

Of the Khalifs of the house of Abbas, the second, third, fifth andseventh, viz. , Al-Mansur (A. D. 754-775), Al-Mahdi (A. D. 775-785), Harun-ar-Rashid (A. D. 786-809), and Al-Mamun (A. D. 812-833) were themost distinguished as patrons of art, science and literature. Butafter the translation of the 'Arabian Nights' into European languages, the name of Harun-ar-Rashid became the best known in Europe as therepresentative of the most brilliant period of the Eastern Khalifate, and as the great protector of Arabic literature. 

Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasides, was founded by their secondKhalif, Al-Mansur, in A. D. 760, finished in four years, and raised toa high degree of splendour by Harun-ar-Rashid. Originally it wasconsidered only as a great strategic point, and its garrisons were tokeep the surrounding country in subjection. Eventually it became thecentre of learning and civilization, and an Arab author wrote of it asfollows: 'Baghdad is certainly the capital of the world, and the mineof every excellence. It is the city whose inhabitants have always beenthe first to unfurl the banners of knowledge, and to raise thestandard of science; indeed, their subtlety in all branches oflearning, their gentle manners and amiable disposition, noble bearing, acuteness, wit, penetration and talent are deservedly praised. 'Baghdad, at the beginning of the ninth century of the Christian era, was the centre of all that was grand and brilliant in the Muhammadanworld. Art and commerce, literature and science, were cultivated to ahigh degree, and the luxury and extravagance of court life exceededalmost the imagination of temperate European minds. 

Everything curious, romantic and wonderful, narrated in the 'Nights'is connected with Harun-ar-Rashid's name, or supposed to have happenedin his reign. Thus, his vizier, Jaafar, the Barmekide, thesuperintendent of his harem, Mesrur, and his spouse, Zobeida, werefirst made known to novel-readers, and their importance as historicalpersonages were duly appreciated afterwards, when Erpenius, Pococke, Herbelot, and Reiske elucidated the history of the Khalifate bytranslating the works of the Arab chroniclers Abul-Faraj, Al-Makin, and Abul-feda. Later on still further information was made publicabout the translations made from Greek and Syriac into Arabic duringhis reign, as also concerning his position, not only as a lover oftales, but as a promoter of jurisprudence, a patron of the medical andmathematical sciences, and a builder of magnificent and usefuledifices. His court was also well attended by poets and singers. 

Harun was not, indeed, the first prince who made arrangements fortranslations from the Greek and the Syriac. In this he had beenpreceded, as already mentioned, by the Omaiyide prince, Khalid, thealchemist. But during the reign of Harun the business of translationwas carried on to a much greater extent than it was under hispredecessors, the Khalifs Mansur and Mahdi, during whose timetranslations were undertaken from Greek into Syriac, from Indian(Sanscrit) into Persian, but not yet into Arabic. The translators weremostly Christians and Jews. Theophilos of Edessa, the Maronitetranslator of Homer and of other Greek classics into Syriac, was anastronomer and an historian. Both he and the physician Georgios, sonof Bakhtyeshun, from the university of Jondshapur, were Christians. Nubakht, the astronomer of the Khalif Mansur, was a Magian(Zoroastrian), Yahya bin Maseweih, Harun's physician, translatedmedical works. Hajaj bin Yusuf bin Matta dedicated his first editionof the elements of Euclid to Harun, and the second to Mamun. 

As the family of the Barmekides played an important part, not only inpolitics, but also in literature, until its chief members wereannihilated by Harun's orders, a brief notice of them may here begiven. 

Khalid bin Barmek was the son of a priest at the fire temple ofNevbehar in Balkh, and became in course of time vizier of the firstAbbaside Khalif, and was retained in that office by the second Khalif, Al-Mansur, and by the third, Al-Mahdi. He died A. D. 780. 

Yahya, the son of Khalid, not only himself became the vizier of Harun, but also his two sons, Fadhl and Jaafar. Yahya was very liberal, andgave away sometimes considerable sums of money for very smallservices, or, indeed, for no service at all. After his son Jaafar hadbeen executed, Yahya was thrown into prison, along with his other son, Fadhl, at Old Rakka, where he died in A. D. 805, at the age of seventyor seventy-four. 

Fadhl, the son of Yahya, was more liberal but less eloquent than hisbrother Jaafar. Harun esteemed the two brothers so highly that heentrusted his son Muhammad to the care of Fadhl, and his son Mamun tothe care of Jaafar. Afterwards he made Jaafar his vizier, and sentFadhl to be Governor of Khurasan. There Fadhl built mosques, reservoirs of water and caravanserais, augmented the army, andattracted numbers of emigrants to the country, whereby he gained theapproval of Harun, who ordered his poets to sing his praises. Afterthe execution of Jaafar, Harun took Yahya, with his son Fadhl and allthe Barmekides, to Rakka, giving Yahya the option to go where heliked; but he preferred to be imprisoned with his son in Rakka. ThereFadhl died in A. D. 809, and when Harun was informed of his death, hesaid: 'My own is not far, ' and died a few months afterwards in Tus, the modern Mashad. The death of Fadhl, as a generous patron, wasbewailed by several poets, such as Abul Hojna, Otbi, Abu Nuwas, andothers. Fadhl was also notable for his filial piety, and when the useof cold water injured the health of his father whilst they were inprison, he used to warm the water by placing a pot of it on his ownstomach. 

Jaafar (the brother of Fadhl and a son of Yahya), who was slain A. D. 802, is to be mentioned here, not for his tragic fate, which is wellknown, but rather for his literary attainments, especially his oratoryand his style, in both of which he excelled. From his long biography, written by Ibn Khallikan, there will be given here only some extractsrelating to science and literature. He was a great master of speech, and expressed his thoughts with much elegance. In one night heendorsed more than a thousand petitions addressed to the Khalif withhis decisions, all of which were in perfect concordance with the law. His instructor in jurisprudence had been Abu Yusuf the Hanifite, whomhis father Yahya had appointed to teach him. The favour enjoyed byJaafar with Harun-ar-Rashid was so great that this Khalif caused onerobe to be made with two separate collars, which they both wore at thesame time. Ibn Khallikan narrates the traditions relating to the fallof Jaafar and his family; the one refers to his amours with Abbasa, the sister of Harun, and to the birth of a child; the other to theescape of a member of Ali's family entrusted to Jaafar's guardianshipby Harun. The true cause was probably the Khalifs envy of the power, wealth, and generosity of the Barmekides, along with the backbitingsof their enemies. Jaafar was slain at Al-Omr in the district ofAl-Anbar, his head and the trunk of his body were set up opposite toeach other on the two sides of the bridge of Baghdad, and his deathwas lamented by various poets. 

After Mamun (A. D. 812-833) the most intellectual Khalif appears tohave been Radhi-billah (A. D. 934-940). His poems were collected in aDiwan. He was the last Khalif who presided not only over theGovernment as a sovereign, but also over the pulpit as Imam; indeed, he may be said to be the terminal point of the power, brilliancy andindependence of the house of Abbas, which henceforth graduallydeclined till its final extinction with the conquest of Baghdad by theMughals in A. D. 1258. 

The great chess-player, Abu-bakr as Sauli, bears witness, in Masudi's'Meadows of Gold, ' to the great accomplishments of Radhi-billah, andto his love of the sciences. Of games, chess and nerd[4] flourishedduring his reign, and although the perfection of song and oflute-playing had already passed away, singers and musicians are stillmentioned. Of the amusements of the court, hunting appears to haveflourished most, and the learned poet Koshajim, who wrote on the gameof nerd, also left instructive poems on the chase. Radhi-billahappears to have been fond of books of travel and of natural history, and of the society of men of letters and of science, and likedlistening to recitals on the history, politics, and glory of the oldPersian kings. 

 [Footnote 4: Nerd. --This game is mentioned as early as the Shah-Namah, the author of which, Firdausi, was of opinion that it is of genuine Persian, and not of Indian origin, like chess, but this assertion is not necessarily correct. Hyde has described the game in his 'Historia Nerdiludii, ' and it resembles somewhat the German puff and triktrak, and the English backgammon. It is played on a board divided into black-and-white compartments, with a black and a white house in the centre. The moves are made according to the numbers that come up on the throw of two dice. ]

Of the Spanish Khalifs, mention only will be made of the ninthsovereign of the Benou Omaiyide dynasty in Andalusia, viz. , Hakim II. , who died A. D. 976. Among the five Arab rulers of Spain--viz. , threeAbd-ar-Rahmans and two Hakims--who have acquired everlasting fame inhistory as special friends of science and patrons of learned men, Abd-ar-Rahman III. And Hakim II. Are the greatest and most prominent. They stand in the Arab literary history of the West as high as Harunand his son Mamun do in the history of the literature of the East. AsMamun was the greatest of the Benou Abbas Khalifs of Baghdad whopromoted science and art, so Hakim II. Was the greatest of the BenouOmaiyides in Cordova. From his earliest youth he had received a mostcareful scientific education, and applied his energies to study, as hecould not devote them to public affairs on account of the longduration of his father's reign, from A. D. 912 to 961. Hakim's father, Abd-ar-Rahman III. , invited the learned Abu Ali Ismail Al Kali, thephilologist and author, from the court of Baghdad, where he enjoyedthe greatest consideration with the Khalif Mutwakkil, to Cordova, andentrusted him with the education of his son, who, later on, composed aDiwan (collection of poems), divided into twenty parts, bearing, likethe Surahs, or Chapters of the Koran, the most sublime objects ofnature as titles, such as 'Heaven, ' 'the Stars, ' 'the Dawn, ' 'theNight, ' etc. Hakim pursued his studies under Kali for twenty years, with as much pleasure as advantage, and after ascending the throne, science and art still remained his companions. When his father died, and he assumed the Government, he led the funeral procession, surrounded by his Andalusian, Slavonic, and Mograbin body-guard, andinterred the corpse with the greatest pomp in the mausoleum of Rozafa, and after that accepted the homage of his Viziers, Amirs, Kayids, andKadis. Astrologers and poets heralded at Cordova and in the whole ofAndalusia the continuation of the father's prosperous reign by hisson, and spoke the truth this time. 

Hakim, who had already as a youth been fond of books, now, when hebecame sovereign, fully satisfied this predilection, which had grownto be a passion. He spared neither trouble nor expense in collectingin his Merwan palace the rarest and most costly books in every branchof science from all countries. He sent special commissioners to Egypt, Syria, Irak, and Persia to purchase books. At Baghdad, Muhammad binTurkhan was charged with the business of purchasing books, or gettingthem copied, for which purpose he had an establishment ofcalligraphers and stenographers; because of some books beautiful, andof others rapidly made, copies were required. He procured all thegenealogies, all the histories, and all the poems of the Arabs; allworks on law and jurisprudence, on grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, philology, mathematics, astronomy, arithmetic and geography, composedin Arabic. Thus the library of the Merwan palace became not only therichest in Islam, but also the best arranged, by the care which hebestowed on it. The catalogue consisted of forty-four fascicles, eachof fifty leaves, so that the whole constituted a volume of twothousand two hundred leaves, two-fifths of which were filled withtitles of poetical works only. In this catalogue the titles of thebooks were inserted, with the names of their authors, their descent, birth-place, the year of their birth and of their decease, in the mostaccurate manner, to serve as a model for other libraries, of whichSpain contained so many. This library alone is said to have consistedof six hundred thousand volumes, a number never surpassed by anyearlier or later libraries in Islam. 

To his two brothers, who loved the sciences as ardently as himself, Hakim entrusted the care of the libraries, and of public instruction, appointing Abdul Latif to be the chief librarian, and another man tobe the director of studies. He kept up intercourse with the greatscholars of the East and of the West, with sundry persons in Syria, with learned men in Egypt, and with Abul Faraj Al-Ispahani (author ofthe great anthology 'Kitab-ul-Aghani') in Irak, giving houses andsalaries to those who chose to reside at his court. 

A few words must be said about the establishment of places of learningwhich were celebrated at the time. The first university, in the sensein which such an institution is at present understood, was flourishingin Syria long before any seat of learning of this kind had beenestablished in Europe; and there was another in Egypt. The firstinstitution was called 'The Society of the Brethren of Purity, ' andthe second (opened at Cairo on the 24th May, A. D. 1005) was founded byAl-Hakim-bramrillah, and bore the name of Dar-ul Hikinat, or Abode ofWisdom. It was under this same name that the library of the Khalifswas formerly known at Baghdad. Later on the great vizier Nizam-ul-Mulkfounded a high school at Baghdad, in A. D. 1066. It was not the firstthat had been established in Islam, but it eclipsed all others of thekind by the abilities of the professors who worked there, viz. , theImam Abu Ishak Shirazi, Al-Ghazali, and others. With the Society ofthe Brethren of Purity, mentioned above, there were two men closelyconnected, viz. , Al-Tavhidi, who died A. D. 985, and Al-Majridi, whodied A. D. 1004, the former in the East, the latter in the West, andboth of them are deserving of the general name of philosopher. So muchfor the Eastern Khalifates. As regards the Western Khalifate, stillgreater attention was paid to education and learning there. Theschools and lectures were attended by many Europeans, who were not, perhaps, sufficiently grateful to the Arabs for keeping up a progressin literature and science while Europe itself was struggling foremancipation from the dark ages which followed the higher cultures ofGreece and of Rome. 

THIRD PERIOD. 

From the fall of Baghdad, in A. D. 1258, to the present time. 

The conquest of Baghdad by the Mughals is a most remarkable period, not only in the literature, but also in the history, of the Arabs. Itmarks the final extinction of the Abbaside dynasty, from whom theancient power and glory had vanished to such a degree that theauthority of the Khalifs may almost literally be said to have beenconfined to the city only. Halaku Khan, the brother of the grand KhanKubilai, and grandson of Jenghiz Khan, took and sacked Baghdad, keeping the Khalif imprisoned for some time, but slaying him at last, with his sons and several thousand Abbasides. Al-Mustaa'sim was thethirty-seventh and last Khalif of the house of Abbas, which hadreigned over five hundred years, and was now extinguished. 

Halaku Khan attacked Baghdad by the advice of Khojah Nasir-uddin Tusy, the great Persian astronomer and mathematician. Nasir-uddin hadentered the service of the last prince of the Assassins only for thepurpose of avenging himself on the Khalif, who had disparaged one ofhis works. When, however, he became aware of Halaku's power, he notonly betrayed his new master to him, but led the Mughal conqueror alsoto Baghdad. After the burning of the library at Alamut (the strongholdof the Assassins, where they kept their literary treasures) and thesacking of Baghdad by Halaku Khan, the erection of the astronomicalobservatory at Maragha, under the direction of Nasir-uddin Tusy, wasthe first sign that Arab civilization and the cultivation of sciencehad not been entirely extinguished by Tartar barbarism. The learnedviziers who stood by the side of the conqueror, such as the twobrothers Juvaini, were Persians, and therefore hardly belong to thehistory of Arab literature. But the fact that one of these twohistorians now wrote 'The Heart Opener, ' also implies that theinvasion of the barbarians had not quite put an end to literaryactivity. 

More than ten historians flourished at the beginning of this periodwhose names terminated with 'din, ' such as Baha-uddin, Imad-uddin, Kamal-uddin, etc. , and they were contemporaries of the Arab PlutarchIbn Khallikan, already mentioned and described in the precedingperiod. 

The 'Alfiyya, ' or Quintessence of Arab Grammar, was written in verseby Jamal-uddin Abu Abdallah Muhammad, known under the name of IbnMalik. The author died in A. D. 1273-1274; but his work has lived, andit is looked upon as a good exponent of the system. The Arab text hasbeen published, with a commentary upon it in French, by Silvestre deSacy, A. D. 1834. 

During the eighth century of the Hijrah (A. D. 1301-1398), there livedthree distinguished men, one famed as a geographer and traveller, andthe other two as historians, viz. , Ibn Batuta, Abul Feda, and IbnKhaldun. The first-named left his native town, Tangiers, in A. D. 1324, and travelled all over the East, performing his pilgrimage to Mecca inA. D. 1332. The travels of Ibn Batuta were translated by the Rev. S. Lee, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund, as their firstwork, in A. D. 1829. This traveller has been noticed by Kosegarten in aLatin treatise, and his travels have been also translated into French, with the Arabic text above, by C. Defremery and R. Sanguinetti, at theexpense of the French Government (1874-1879). 

Abul Feda Ismail Hamawi is well known as an historian, and isfrequently mentioned by Gibbon as one of his authorities. He wrote anaccount of the regions beyond the Oxus, and also an abridgment ofuniversal history down to his own time, and as he is supposed to bevery exact, and his style elegant, his works are very much esteemed. He died A. D. 1345, having succeeded his brother Ahmad as King of Hamatin Syria, A. D. 1342. 

Ibn Khaldun, the African philosopher, was born in Tunis, A. D. 1332, and passed his youth in Egypt. He served a short time as Chief Justiceat Damascus, and returned to Egypt, where he became Supreme Judge, anddied there A. D. 1406. His principal and most remarkable work is the'History of the Arabs, the Persians, and the Berbers. '

During the ninth century of the Hijrah (A. D. 1398-1495) Arabianliterature can still boast of a few great names. Ibn-Hajar was notonly the continuator of Ibn Kesir's universal history, called 'TheBeginning and the End, ' but also the author of biographies ofcelebrated men who had lived during the preceding century, and ofother works besides. He died A. D. 1449. Ibn Arabshah was the writer ofa history of Timour, or Tamerlane, which has some celebrity, and hasbeen translated into Latin and French. He was a native of Damascus, and died there A. D. 1450. 

Majr-uddin Muhammad Bin Yakub, surnamed Firuzabadi, a learned Persian, was the author of the largest and most celebrated Arabic dictionary inexistence at the time, called the 'Qânûs, ' or Ocean, a standard workto this day, and always greatly praised, and also used by Europeanlexicographers. 

Taki-uddin, of Fez, composed the best history of Mekka, and A'ini, whodied A. D. 1451, wrote two celebrated historical works. But thegreatest historian of this time was Al-Makrisi, whose proper name wasTaki-uddin Ahmad, and who was born at Makris, near Baalbec, in A. D. 1366. He early devoted himself to the study of history, geography, astrology, etc. , at Cairo, and his Egyptian history and topography isstill an important work, describing the state of the country and itsrulers. He died at Cairo, A. D. 1442. Some of his works have beentranslated into French and Latin, and are still referred to. 

In honour of Sayuti, that colossus of learning, who cultivated, according to the spirit of his times, so many sciences, and dealt withthem practically, this might be called the poly-historical andpoly-geographical period. Julal-uddin Sayuti is said to be the authorof some four hundred works, and he died in A. D. 1505, some twelve yearsbefore the conquest of Egypt by Selim I, the Sultan of Turkey, whenindependent Arab literature under Arab sovereigns came to an end. Itis true enough that not only in Egypt and Syria, but also in Turkeyand Persia, Arabic books were written afterwards, but more underforeign protection, although in the two first-named countries Arabicis the language of the people, while in the last two it occupiesnearly the same position that Latin does in European universities andin the Roman Catholic Church. 

In the tenth century of the Hijrah (A. D. 1495-1592) the generallyprevalent belief that the world would, at the completion of it, cometo an end, contributed much to the gradual decay of science andliterature. The case is somewhat analogous to the superstition inEurope some six hundred years previously, when the Christian eraattained its millennium, which was considered to carry with it thesame catastrophe. This prophecy, believed to be true, contributed insome measure to slacken authority as well as exertion, and the powerof Islamitic countries really sank; but this might have been predictedwithout any prophetic foresight. In one part of Islam, the ruin ofMuhammadan countries thus prophesied was accomplished twenty-one yearsbefore the end of the thousandth year, that is in the 979th year ofthe Hijrah, A. D. 1571, by the total expulsion of the Moors from Spain. Granada itself had succumbed already, seventy-nine years before, andthe unwieldy palace of the kings, of Spain (still unfinished) hadrisen by the side of the lofty arcades of the Alhambra, still a lovelyspecimen of Moorish artistic design and architecture. 

The tenth century of the Hijrah (A. D. 1495-1592), which was the firstof the decay of Arab literature, is to be considered as the periodwhen the political importance of Turkey culminated in the reign ofSulaiman the Law-giver. There were, however, four authors of celebritywho wrote both in Arabic and in Turkish. Ibn Kamal Pasha, the surnameof Mufti Shams-uddin Ahmad bin-Sulaiman, who died A. D. 1534, wrote onhistory in Turkish, and on law in Arabic; the Mufti Abu Sa'ud acquiredgreat renown by his numerous Fetwas (legal decisions), approving ofthe political institutions of Sulaiman; Ibrahim of Aleppo is theauthor of the 'Molteka' (Confluence of Two Seas), which embodies theessence of Muslim law, according to the Hanifi ritual; and lastly, Birgeli, otherwise known as Mulla Muhammad Ibn Pir Ali ul-Birkali, wasequally great as a dogmatist and as a grammarian. He wrote in Arabic'The Unique Pearl; or, The Art of Reading the Koran, ' and died A. D. 1573. Special mention, too, must be made of Mulla Ahmad Bin Mustafa, the celebrated Arabian, whom Haji-Khalfa always calls by the moreeuphonious name of Abul-Khair (Father of Wisdom). This author isworthy of notice, on account of the Arabic works he wrote onbiographical, historical, and especially encyclopædic subjects. His'Key of Felicity' will remain for ever the best encyclopædia ofArabian sciences, representing as it does their division among theArabs, with notices of the works of scholars in every branch of themin a most compact and comprehensive manner. He died A. D. 1560. 

The three most celebrated calligraphers of this century wereHamdallah, who died A. D. 1518; Mir Ali, who died A. D. 1544; andMuhammad Hussain Tabrizi, who died A. D. 1574. Their names are just ascelebrated for Thuluth and Talik writing as were formerly those of IbnBawwab, of Ibn Hilal, and of Yakut are for Naskhi. In Egypt and Syriathe characters used were always more beautiful than those ofAndalusia, which survived in the Mugrib (North of Africa). 

Here, perhaps, it may be stated that the art of Arabic writing cameinto existence but a very short time before Muhammad. 'It was Abu Alibin Mukla who first took the present system of written characters fromthe style of writing employed by the people of Kufa, and brought itout under its actual form. He had, therefore, the merit of priority, and it may be added that his handwriting was very elegant. But to IbnAl Bawwab pertains the honour of rendering the character more regularand simple, and of clothing it in grace and beauty. ' In other words, Ibn Mukla was the first who changed the Kufic into the new Naskhicharacter, which Ibn Bawwab improved after him by imparting rotundityand clearness to the new letters, and which Ibn Yakut Al-Mausilibrought afterwards to the greatest perfection in A. D. 1200. 

Ibn Mukla, who was born in A. D. 885, and died A. D. 941, was vizier tothe Khalifs Al-Kahir-billah and Al-Radhi-billah; but, falling intodisfavour through the intrigues of his enemies, he first had his handcut off in A. D. 937, and eventually his tongue was torn out, and hewas allowed to perish in the dungeon without any assistance beingoffered to him. 

Ibn-al-Bawwab, the Penman, is said to have possessed a skill inpenmanship to which no other person ever attained in ancient or moderntimes. He died at Baghdad A. D. 1032, and the following verses werecomposed as his elegy:

 'Thy loss was felt by the writers of former times, And each successive day justifies their grief. The ink-bottles are therefore black with sorrow, And the pens are rent through affliction. '

During the eleventh century of the Hijrah (A. D. 1592-1689) there livedMustafa bin Abdullah Katib Jelaby, otherwise known as Haji Khalfa, andcommonly called Mustafa Haji Khalfa, a man of science as a Turkishhistorian and geographer, but an Arabic encyclopædist andbibliographer. He was the compiler of a work containing many thousandsof titles of Arab, Persian, and Turkish books, with the names of theirauthors. Fluegel edited this great work under the title of 'LexiconEnciclopædicum et Bibliographicum, ' with a Latin translation in sevenbulky volumes, and it is an extremely valuable work of reference, puttogether with the most astonishing and persevering care, and consultedby all who desire information on Arabic, Persian, and Turkishliterature. This was printed by the Oriental Translation Fund betweenA. D. 1835 and 1850, and will always remain as one of the most valuableworks printed by that most useful society, whose extinction must everbe regretted by all Orientalists and persons interested in Orientalliterature. Haji Khalfa wrote another interesting work, giving adetailed account of the maritime wars of the Turks in theMediterranean and Black Sea and on the Danube, which has beentranslated by Mr. James Mitchell. The date of Haji Khalfa's death isuncertain. He is known to have been alive in A. D. 1622, and still in1652, and he is supposed to have died in A. D. 1657. 

The works of Abul Khair, previously mentioned, and of Haji Khalfa, embody a mass of information, and constitute the top of the pyramid ofencyclopædical and biographical works, after which nothing worthy ofmention has been written on these subjects. The basis of this pyramidhad been already laid by An-Nadim, the author of the 'Fihrist, ' whoflourished A. D. 987, and by Ibn Khallikan, who died A. D. 1282. 

During this century (A. D. 1592-1689) of the most sanguinary wars, revolutions and dethronements, the condition of Arab literature in theOttoman Empire was neither progressive nor satisfactory. Nevertheless, the study of the sciences, and especially the linguistic and juridicalbranches of them, were fostered not only in Constantinople, but alsoin Syria and Egypt, in consequence of the institution of the body ofUlema, established by Muhammad II. , the Conqueror (A. D. 1451-1481), and improved by Sulaiman I. , the Law-giver (A. D. 1520-1566), whichsheltered the cultivation of science from the storms of war within theinviolable precincts of religion. 

Mention may be made of Muhammad-Al-Amin, the learned philologist andlawyer of Damascus, who was born in that town about the middle of theeleventh and died the beginning of the twelfth century of the Hijrah, and produced a dozen respectable works, the principal of which bearsthe title of 'The Biographies of the Celebrated Men of the EleventhCentury, ' A. H. He gives an account of a couple of hundred scholars, who represented in Egypt and in Syria the last rays of the setting sunof Arabian literature. 

Next to Muhammad-Al-Amin another author of about a dozen works is tobe noticed, namely, Ahmad-Al Makkari, whose principal work was ahistory of the Muhammadan dynasties in Spain, which was translatedfrom the copies in the library of the British Museum, and illustratedwith critical notes on Spanish history, geography and antiquities, byPascual de Gayangos, and printed for the Oriental Translation Fund ofGreat Britain and Ireland in A. D. 1840-43. Makkari also wrote ahistory of Fez and Morocco, as well as an account of Damascus. Hedied at Cairo A. D. 1631. 

Besides some historians, grammarians, philologists and poets, theeleventh century of the Hijrah (A. D. 1592-1689) produced in Syria andEgypt even astronomers and physicians, who distinguished themselves asscholars. Of writers of light literature Khafaji may be named as thechief. He composed a Diwan of ardent love poems, with two anthologies, containing specimens of verses from a couple of poets, hiscontemporaries. He died A. D. 1658. A few more writers might bementioned; but their efforts strongly mark the decline of Arabicliterature in the East, the cultivation of which, however, washenceforth more energetically pursued in Europe, where many works havebeen printed and translated. 

With the twelfth century of the Hijrah (A. D. 1689-1786) the history oforiginal Arab literature may be said to have terminated, and itsgenius to have disappeared. A revival, however, of Arabian learning istaking place in Egypt, Syria, and North Africa, but in accordance withEuropean models, and chiefly under European auspices. All originalresearch has long been extinct, even among those populations whosevernacular is the Arabic language; and consequently it is the former, and not the present state of Arab literature, which is the mostinteresting to the people of to-day. 

The presses of Constantinople, Cairo, Algiers, Beyruth, and some otherplaces, reproduce old Arabic works of value, but more translationsfrom European languages than original compositions are printed andlithographed. From Bombay, where more than fifty presses are at work, large quantities of books are exported to countries beyond the Britishpossessions. These books treat generally of religion, poetry, history, or medicine; but as they deal more with ancient than with modernknowledge, they do not tend to propagate progress. 

But though Arab literature has decayed, the faith of Islam is stillactive and energetic. It is estimated that one hundred and eightymillions of human beings still follow the precepts of the Prophet, anddaily turn their faces to Mecca, which for them has been, and stillis, the cradle of their faith, the touchstone of their religion, andthe idol of their hearts. 

CHAPTER III. 

ABOUT MUHAMMAD. 

A manual of Arabian history and literature would hardly be completeunless some special mention of Muhammad was introduced. As previouslystated, his Koran forms the basis of the literary edifice of Arabliterature, while he himself undoubtedly holds the first place in Arabhistory. As the author and founder of a new religion, which bothduring his lifetime and after his death was accepted with a marvellousrapidity, and is still being accepted in various parts of Africa, itmust be admitted that he was an extraordinary person. At the beginningof what may be called his inspired life at Mecca, he stood forth as areformer, preacher, and apostle. But, though full of enthusiasm andbelief in the great cause that he advocated, he was, without doubt, from the commencement to the end of his career, a practical man ofbusiness, which Buddha and Jesus certainly were not. 

The life of Muhammad has been written in many languages, and with suchvoluminous details, that it is hardly necessary to enter into thesedetails very minutely here. Sir William Muir's works on the subjectare graphic, descriptive, and full of interesting matter, while alengthy article on the subject of Muhammad and Muhammadism, in thethird volume of the 'Dictionary of Christian Biography, ' from the penof the late Rev. G. P. Badger, is one of extraordinary interest. Aperusal of the above-named works, with Hughes's 'Dictionary of Islam'as a reference book, will give the ordinary English reader as muchinformation as is likely to be required in the ordinary course ofthings. 

But by way of preface to certain remarks upon Muhammad as a reformer, preacher, and apostle at Mecca, as pope and king at Madinah, as authorof the Koran, founder of a religion, legislator, military leader, andorganizer of the Arabs into a nation, it is perhaps necessary to givea rapid summary of the principal events of a life which has had suchan influence upon so many people, and which has filled so many pages. This summary will be as brief as possible:

His birth, August, A. D. 570, at Mecca, his father having died somemonths previously. 

His christening by the name of Muhammad, _i. E. _, the Praised One. Hisgrandfather Abdul-Muttalib, who gave him the name, said it was givento him 'in the hope that his grandson would be praised by God inheaven, and by God's creatures on earth. '

His bringing up in the desert of the Benou-Saad by a Badawin nurse, one Halimah, the wife of Harith, for five years. 

His mother Aminah took him, aged six, to Madinah to present him to hismaternal relations there. She died on the return journey, A. D. 576. 

Under the guardianship of his grandfather Abdul Muttalib (who lovedhim dearly) for two years, from six to eight, when Abdul died, A. D. 578. 

Under the guardianship of his uncle Abu Thaleb, the uterine brother ofhis father, Abd-Allah. 

When about twelve years old, Muhammad accompanied his uncle, AbuThaleb, into Syria on a mercantile expedition. His first visit to thatcountry, and his experiences there, A. D. 582. 

His presence, during the sacrilegious war, at a battle between certaintribes at or near Okatz, where he assisted his uncle, who took part inthe fight. 

His attendance at sundry preachings and poetical and eloquentrecitations at Okatz, where it is said he imbibed the first lessons ofthe art of poetry and the power of rhetoric, and also acquired certainreligious sentiments. 

His life as a shepherd in the neighbourhood of Mecca, and the ideasthat such a lonely life, face to face with nature, would perhapsinspire. 

His acquisition of the title of Al-Amin, the Trustworthy. 

His second visit to Syria, when twenty-five years old (A. D. 595), on amercantile expedition, as agent to the widow Khadijah, and hisacquisition of religious impressions there. 

His successful business, and his marriage on his return to Khadijah, fifteen years his senior in age, A. D. 595. 

Six children born to Muhammad by Khadijah, most of whom died young. 

The rebuilding of the Kaabah in A. D. 605, in which Muhammadaccidentally takes a prominent part. 

His solitary contemplations and studies, from the age of twenty-fiveto forty, at Mecca, and in the cave on Mount Hira near Mecca. 

Here it is important to bear in mind the foregoing experiences in thelife of Muhammad as we approach the period of his alleged revelations. There can be no doubt that by this time he had acquired, as wellthrough his own observation and inquiry, as through intimate conversewith Bara-kah, reputed the most learned Arab of the age, considerableacquaintance with the dogmas of Judaism and Christianity; that he hadsome knowledge of the Bible, the Talmud, and the Gospels; that he wasthoroughly versed in Arab legendary lore, and that, being gifted witha ready flow of speech, an ardent imagination, together with a bold, enterprising spirit, he was well equipped for carrying out that grandsocial and religious revolution among his countrymen which hecontemplated. 

His yearnings after religious truth and his first poetic productions. 

His mental depressions. 

His first inspirations from the angel Gabriel, A. D. 610. 

His account of his visions to his wife, who became the first convertto al-Islam, or the creed of Muhammad. 

His next converts were Ali, his adopted son and cousin;Zaid-bin-Harithah, also an adopted son; Warakah; andAbdul-Kaabah-bin-Kuhafah, one of the most influential and learned menof Mecca, on conversion named Abd Allah, and afterwards called AbuBakr, 'The Father of the Virgin, ' 'The Companion of the Cave, ' 'TheSecond of the Two, ' 'The True, ' 'The Sighing, ' etc. , and who eventuallybecame the first Khalifah, or Successor. 

Other conversions followed; viz. , Saad, Zobeir, Talha; Othman binAffan, the third Khalifah, or Successor, after Abu Bakr and Omar;Abdar-Rahman, and several more. 

The injunctions of Muhammad to his converts were then as follows: 'Theduty of believing in one God; in a future reward reserved for therighteous in another life, and a future punishment for the wicked; ofacknowledging himself as the Apostle of God, and of obeying him assuch; of practising ablution; of offering up prayer according tocertain specified rules. ' These, he said, did not constitute a newreligion, but merely restored the ancient religion of Abraham to itspristine purity. His teachings, he maintained, were revelationsconveyed to him by Gabriel, and he simply repeated what the angelcommunicated to him. 

His assumption of the title of Apostle of God, in whose name he nowspoke, A. D. 610. 

His frequent revelations for three years, and the commencement of hispublic preaching to the Koraish, who would not listen, but regardedhim as a half-witted poet. 

His denouncement of idolatry, and the consequent persecutions ofhimself and his followers by the Koraish. 

Conversions in the house of Arcam, afterwards styled the House ofIslam. 

The first emigration to Abyssinia of some of his followers by hisadvice, and their speedy return, A. D. 615. 

The lapse of Muhammad and his idolatrous concession, but afterwardsdisowned and disavowed. 

The second emigration to Abyssinia, A. D. 615-616. 

The conversion of Hamzah and Omar and thirty-nine adherents of thelatter--a great event, A. D. 615-616. 

The Koraish try to come to terms with Muhammad, but fail. 

The prohibition of all intercourse with Muhammad and his followers byorder of the Koraish, and a general persecution. 

The excommunication of Muhammad and of the descendants of Hisham andMuttalib, which lasted more than three years, A. D. 617-620. 

The death of Muhammad's first wife, Khadijah, in December, A. D. 619, and of his uncle, Abu Thaleb, in January, 620. 

His critical position. He seeks an asylum at Taif, but not being wellreceived, returns to Mecca, remaining there in comparative retirement. 

His marriage, A. D. 620, with Saudah-bint-Zamaah, the widow of oneSukran, and his betrothal to Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, thenonly eight years old. 

The first meeting at the Pilgrimage of a party from Yathrib (Madinah), to whom Muhammad expounds his doctrines. The listeners profess theirbelief in him, and propose to advocate his cause in their nativeplace. March, A. D. 620. 

The conference at Akabah, a hill on the north side of Mecca, with themen of certain tribes resident at Yathrib, who took an oath to befaithful to Muhammad and his religion. This is called 'the firstpledge of Akabah. ' April, A. D. 621. 

The despatch of Musaab, a Meccan disciple, to Yathrib, for the purposeof giving instruction in the Koran and in the rites of the newreligion. 

The Night of the Ladder, or the miraculous journey first from Mecca toJerusalem upon the beast called al-Burak, and then the ascent fromJerusalem to heaven, under the guidance of Gabriel, and what he sawthere. Apparently a dream or vision, A. D. 621. 

Second meeting at Akabah, called 'the second pledge of Akabah, ' andengagements ratified. March, A. D. 622. 

Distrust of the Koraish. Proposal to kill Muhammad, who had advisedhis followers to flee to Yathrib. April and May, A. D. 622. 

In June, A. D. 622, Muhammad himself secretly leaves Mecca with AbuBakr. They first go to a cave in Mount Thur, about three miles to thesouth of Mecca, and reach Yathrib (henceforward to be called AlMadinah, 'The City' _par excellence_) a few days afterwards. 

On his way there, at Kuba, a village two miles to the south ofMadinah, Muhammad laid the foundation of a mosque called 'The Fear ofGod. ' This was the first temple raised by Islam. 

Enthusiastic reception at Madinah, a charter drawn up, and Muhammadassumes the reins of both spiritual and temporal sovereignty. 

His family arrives from Mecca. 

He completes his house and mosque at Madinah, and draws up a bond ofunion between the Ansars, or auxiliaries, of Madinah and the AlMuhajirun, or emigrants from Mecca, who were the first to embraceIslam. 

Marriage with Ayesha consummated, January, A. D. 623. 

Marriage of Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter, to Ali bin Abu Thaleb, theadopted son and cousin of Muhammad, June, A. D. 623. 

The call to prayer; the Kiblah, or place to which the face was turnedin prayer, changed from Jerusalem to Mecca; the fast of Ramadhan, andthe tithe, or poor rate, instituted. Friday appointed as the day forpublic service in the mosque. Commencement of hostilities with thepeople of Mecca, the first blood shed, and the first booty taken bythe Muslim. 

Battle of Badr, or Bedr--a victory. January, A. D. 624. 

A Surah, or chapter, issued about 'The Spoils, ' how to be divided, which now forms Chapter VIII. Of the Koran. 

Commencement of disputes with the Jews, and the exile of the BenouKainuka, a Jewish tribe settled at Madinah, to Syria. 

Assassination of certain Jews. 

Marriage of Muhammad to Hafsah, the daughter of Omar, on the death ofher husband Khunais, December, A. D. 624. His fourth wife. 

Defeat at Ohud, January, A. D. 625. 

Further military expeditions. 

The exile of the Benou Nadhir, another Jewish tribe residing nearMadinah. 

Muhammad marries a fifth wife, Zaineb-bint-Khuzaimah, the widow ofObaidah, slain at Badr. January, A. D. 626. 

Further hostilities with Arab tribes. 

Muhammad marries his sixth wife, Omm-Salamah, widow of Abu Salamah, February, A. D. 626. 

Further warlike expeditions. 

Muhammad marries his seventh wife, Zainab bint Jahsh, purposelydivorced by his freedman and adopted son Zaid bin Harithah, so thatshe might marry the Prophet. June, A. D. 626. 

Further military expeditions. 

Muhammad marries his eighth wife, Juwairiyyah-bint Harith, whosurvived him forty-five years. December, A. D. 626. 

Ayesha, the favourite wife, and the daughter of Abu Bakr, accused ofadultery, but eventually acquitted by a Divine revelation. 

Siege of Madinah, February and March, A. D. 627. 

Massacre of the Benou Koreitza, a Jewish tribe near Madinah. Muhammadtakes Rohana, the beautiful Jewess, as a concubine. 

Several minor expeditious. 

An intended pilgrimage to Mecca, but Muhammad, with his followers, donot go further than Al-Hodeibiah. 

A truce made with the Koraish for ten years, and permission given toMuhammad to visit the Kaabah the next year, for three days only. March, A. D. 628. 

Letters sent by Muhammad to foreign sovereigns and princes, invitingthem to embrace Islam; but these met with a moderate success only. 

Expedition against the Jews of Khaibar, and its complete success. August, A. D. 628. 

Marriage of Muhammad with Safiyyah, the bride of Kinanah, his ninthwife, August, A. D. 628. He partakes of a poisoned kid, dressed andoffered to him by a woman named Zeinab. 

His marriage with Omm Habiba, widow of Obaid Allah, and daughter ofAbu Sofyan, October, A. D. 628. His tenth wife. 

He takes Mary, the Coptic maid, as a concubine, sent to him by Jarihbin Mutta, the Governor of Egypt. 

There were now nine wives and two concubines living in the harem ofthe Prophet. 

Several small expeditions. 

Despatch of further letters to foreign potentates and princes. 

His pilgrimage to Mecca for three days, as previously stipulated, andknown as the 'Solemn visit of the Fulfilment. ' February, A. D. 629. 

His marriage with Maimunah bint Harith, his eleventh and last wife. 

Further important conversions at Mecca, such as Othman bin Talha, theguardian of the Kaabah; Amru, or Amr bin al-Aasi, a man renowned forsagacity, and who, during the Khalifate of Omar, conquered Egypt; andKhalid bin Walid, whose exploits obtained for him the title of 'TheSword of God. ' This last was the most talented general of the Muslims. 

Several military excursions. 

Battle at Muta with certain Syrian tribes subject to the Romanauthorities, September, A. D. 629. A defeat. 

Further military expeditions. 

Expedition against Mecca, and its complete success. Destruction ofpictures, images, and idols at Mecca and the surrounding districts. January, 630. 

Expedition against the Benou Thakif at Taif, and their allies theBenou Huwazin, and the battle of Honein, February, A. D. 630. 

Siege of Taif, and its abandonment, followed later by the submissionof Malik, the chief of the Benou Thakif, and the greater part of thetribe. 

Muhammad performs the Lesser Pilgrimage and returns to Madinah. 

The birth of a son by his Coptic slave and concubine Mary, April, A. D. 630. The boy, named Ibrahim, lived only about a year. 

Quarrel with his legitimate wives about Mary, the Coptic slave, whomhe had freed after the birth of the child. 

Arrival of a Christian deputation at Madinah, and their discussionswithout conversion on either side. The Christians designated JesusChrist as the Son of God, and the Second Person in the Trinity. Muhammad denied this, quoting the following from the Koran:

'Jesus, the son of Mary, is only an apostle of God, and His word, which He conveyed into Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Himself. Believe, therefore, in God and His apostle, and say not three. Forbear; it will be better for you. God is only one God. Far be itfrom His glory that He should have a son. '

Deputations from certain Arab tribes. 

Several lesser expeditions. 

Campaign of Tabuk, which ended without fighting, and the submission ofmany tribes, October, A. D. 630. 

Definite establishment of the Muslim Empire, A. D. 631. 

Expedition of Ali to Yaman, December, A. D. 631. 

Muhammad's solemn and greater pilgrimage to Mecca, i. E. 'the Al-Hijj, 'or the Greater Pilgrimage, as compared with 'the Umrah, ' or LesserPilgrimage. March, A. D. 632. 

His speeches at this pilgrimage, known in Muhammadan history as 'Thepilgrimage of the announcement, ' or 'The pilgrimage of Islam, ' or 'Thefarewell pilgrimage. ' His establishment of the lunar year, and hisfarewell addresses. 

Indisposition of Muhammad, and the three revolts--one headed byTulaihah bin Khuwailid, a famous warrior of Najd; one by Musailamah;and one by Al-Aswad, all of which were eventually completely crushedafter Muhammad's death by Abu Bakr and his generals. 

Another expedition to Syria projected. 

Muhammad's health becomes worse. His retirement to Ayesha's apartment. His final discourses. 

Abu Bakr appointed to lead the public prayers. 

Muhammad's last appearance in the mosque at Madinah. 

His death and burial, June, A. D. 632. 

From the above summary of the principal events of Muhammad's life, itwill be perceived that up to the age of forty he was a student andacquirer of knowledge, much alone and occupied with his thoughts. Atforty-one he began his public ministry, and stood forth as a reformer, preacher, and apostle at Mecca, and this continued till he finallyleft that place, in June, A. D. 622. As a reformer he proposed to doaway with idols, to suppress gambling and drinking, and to abolishfemale infanticide, at that time much practised by the Arabs. As apreacher and apostle he urged the people to accept the belief in oneGod, whose injunctions were communicated to him by Gabriel for thebenefit of the humanities. Prayer and ablution were also thenordained; fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimages were instituted lateron. 

Before Muhammad's time there had been several earnest seekers afterthe one God, the God of Abraham. Of these persons Zaid, the Inquirer, may be mentioned, as also Warakah, a cousin of Muhammad's first wife, Khadijah; Othman bin Huwairith, and Obaid Allah bin Jahsh. The peoplewho professed this theism were termed Hanyfs; but their state of mindwas as yet a purely speculative one, and they had announced nothingdefinite. But the ground was so far laid open, and had been preparedto a certain extent for Muhammad and his express revelation, that'There was no God but the God, and that Muhammad was His apostle. '

It is highly probable that when Muhammad first began his publicexhortations he had a strong idea of bringing not only the Arabs, butalso the Jews and Christians, into his fold, and establishing oneuniversal faith on the basis of one God, Almighty, Eternal, Merciful, Compassionate. It was on this account that he made Jerusalem the Kiblah, or consecrated direction of worship, and introduced into the Suras, orchapters, that he issued from time to time a good deal of matterconnected with our Old and New Testaments. He particularly mentionedAbraham as the Father of the Faith, and acknowledging that there hadalready existed many thousand prophets, and three hundred and fifteenapostles, or messengers, he quoted nine of these last as specialmessengers, viz. , Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Job, David, Jesus, the son of Mary, and himself. To five of these he gave specialtitles. He called Noah the preacher of God; Abraham the friend of God;Moses the converser with God; Jesus the spirit of God; and himself theapostle, or messenger, of God. But of the nine above mentioned fouronly, viz. , Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad, held the highest rank asprophet-apostles. 

It would, therefore, appear that Muhammad really hoped to establishone religion, acknowledging one God and a future life, and admittingthat the earlier prophets had emanated from God as apostles ormessengers. The world was too young and too ignorant in Muhammad'stime to accept such an idea. It may, however, be accepted some day, when knowledge overcomes prejudice. Nations may have different habits, manners, and customs, but the God they all worship is one and thesame. 

Muhammad's life, from the age of forty to fifty, was one long strugglewith the Koraish. Had it not been for the support given him by some ofhis influential relations at Mecca, he would either have been killed, or compelled to leave the place before he did. It is true that duringthese twelve years he made some excellent converts and faithfulfollowers; but still it must be regarded as an historical fact thatMuhammad failed at Mecca, as Jesus had failed at Jerusalem. In the onecase Jesus was sacrificed, and passed away, leaving the story of Hislife, His words and His works in the heads of His disciples, who, withthe suddenly converted Paul, certain Alexandrian Jews, the EmperorConstantine, some literary remains of Plato, along with a destructionof adverse manuscripts and documents, finally established theChristian religion. In the other case Muhammad, failing at Mecca, succeeded at Madinah, and before his death had so far settled mattersthat the religion was fairly established, and was thus saved thesevere and bitter struggles of the first centuries of the ChristianChurches. 

It has seldom been a matter of speculation as to what would have beenthe course of the world's history if Muhammad had been slain by theKoraish before he left Mecca, or if Jesus had not been crucified bythe Jews. It is probable that in the end both religions would havebeen eventually established in other ways, and by other means, depending a good deal on the followers of the two men. But as thesubject is purely speculative, it can hardly be entertained in thispurely historical chapter. 

Once at Madinah, Muhammad became a personage. Supported by his Meccanfollowers (al-Muhâjirûn), and the Madinese auxiliaries (Ansârs), heassumed immediately a spiritual and temporal authority, and became asort of Pope-King. He kept that position for the rest of his life, improving it by his military successes, his diplomatic arrangements, his spiritual instructions, and his social legislation. 

It was probably shortly before he went to Madinah, or very soon afterhis arrival there, that he gave up all ideas of bringing over Jews, Christians, and Sabæans to his views. He determined to adapt them tothe manners and customs of the Arabs only. In this he showed hiswisdom and his knowledge of business. He changed the Kiblah fromJerusalem to Mecca. In the place of the Jewish trumpet, or theChristian bell, he introduced the call to prayer still heard from thetapering minarets of every mosque throughout the Muhammadan world. 

By the Christian world it has been sometimes considered that Muhammadwas good and virtuous at Mecca, but vicious and wicked at Madinah. Such calls to mind the reply of an Indian youth when asked in anexamination to give an outline of the character of our good QueenElizabeth. He briefly described her as 'a great and virtuous princess, but in her old age she became dissolute, and had a lover calledEssex. '

But the position of Muhammad at Madinah was entirely different to whatit had been at Mecca. At the latter place he was unable to asserthimself. Indeed, it was as much as he could do to keep himself and hisfollowers going at all, constantly subject as they were to persecutionfrom the Koraish. All this was changed at Madinah, and his ten yearsrule there was remarkable for his various military expeditions, hisorganization of the different tribes, his bitter persecution of theJews, his still-continued inspired utterances, which now includedspiritual, social, and legal matters, and his repeated marriages. 

It has been frequently said that Muhammad, in his virtuous days, wascontent with one wife at Mecca, but in his vicious days at Madinah hehad ten wives and two concubines. As a matter of fact, afterKhadijah's death Muhammad's marriages were in most cases more or lessa matter of business. By them he allied himself to Abu Bakr, Omar, AbuSofyan, Khalid bin Walid, and other important persons. He furthermarried the widows of some of his followers killed in battle, perhaps'pour encourager les autres. ' It is also probable that he was veryanxious to have children, all of his having died except Fatima, whowas married to Ali. 

At the same time it must be admitted that Muhammad had a weakness forwomen in his later years--witness the case of Zainab bint Jahsh, theJewish concubine Rohana, and the Coptic maid Mary. Indeed, hisfavourite wife Ayesha used to say of him: 'The Prophet loved threethings--women, scents, and food; he had his heart's desire of the twofirst, but not of the last, ' The reasons for this want of food, andmany other traditions connected with the character of Muhammad, are tobe found in the last chapter and the supplement at the end of SirWilliam Muir's most excellent and interesting work on the life of thisextraordinary man, who, if author of the Koran only, would beentitled to rank among the immortals. 

According to Muslim orthodox theology, the Koran is the inspired Wordof God, uncreated, and eternal in its original essence. 'He who saysthe word of God is created is an infidel, ' such is the decree ofMuhamniadan doctrine. Leaving everybody to form their own opinion onsuch a matter, it is only necessary here briefly to allude to thework, and to suppose that Muhammad was the inspired author of it. 

The Koran is divided into 114 suras, or chapters, and 6, 666 verses. The word itself signifies reading or recitation, and Muhammad alwaysasserted that he only recited what had been repeated to him. But theKoran represents Muhammad from many points of view, in differentcapacities, and under different necessities. Ayesha, his favouritewife, when asked in later years as a widow to relate something aboutthe Prophet, replied: 'Have you not the Koran, and have you not readit? for that will tell you everything about him. '

The Koran was not collected or arranged until after Muhammad's death. It is to be regretted that there is no reliable record of the exactorder in which its various verses and chapters were given to the worldby the Prophet, as that would have given us a great insight into theworking of his mind from the time that he began his first recitals upto the time of his death. It is true that attempts have been made toformulate the order of delivery, but these can only be more or lessconjecture. At the same time, though earlier and later verses appearmixed up in the different chapters, in some cases, of course, theperiod to which they belong can be pretty accurately fixed anddetermined. 

As an interesting work, it can hardly be compared with our Old and NewTestaments, nor would it be fair to make such a comparison. It must beremembered that the Koran is the work of Muhammad alone, while theBiblos, or Book, commonly called the Bible, is the work of many men. In its compilation many authors were rejected, and it represents as awhole the united talents of the ages. Indeed, the Bible may beconsidered as the most wonderful book in existence, and certainly themost interesting after visiting the countries it describes and thelocalities it refers to. If read from a matter-of-fact point of view, it gives an abundance of various kinds of literature, and describesthe workings of the human mind from the earliest ages, and theprogress of ideas as they gradually and slowly dawned upon man anddrove him onwards. If read from a spiritual or mystical point of view, it can be interpreted in many ways to meet the views of either thereaders or the hearers. In a word, the Bible is full of prose andpoetry, fact and imagination, history and fiction. It was latelydescribed in an Italian newspaper, _Il Secolo_, about to issue apopular edition of it in halfpenny numbers, as follows:

'There is one book which gathers up the poetry and the science ofhumanity, and that book is the Bible; and with this book no other workin any literature can be compared. It is a book that Newton readcontinually, that Cromwell carried at his saddle, and that Voltairekept always on his study table. It is a book that believers andunbelievers should alike study, and that ought to be found in everyhouse. '

As a scientific work it has little value except that it represents theextent of scientific knowledge possessed by the authors at the timethe different books were written. 

To return to the Koran, which may, then, be regarded as the Bible ofthe Muslims. According to Mr. Badger: 'It embodies the utterances ofthe Arabian Prophet on all subjects, religious and moral, administrative and judicial, political and diplomatic, from the outsetto the close of his career, together with a complete code of laws forregulating marriage, divorce, guardianship of orphans, bargains, wills, evidence, usury, and the intercourse of private and domesticlife, as they were dictated by him to his secretaries, and by themcommitted to writing on palm-leaves, the shoulder-blades of sheep, andother tablets. These, it appears, were thrown pell-mell into chests, where they remained till the reign of Abu Bakr, the immediatesuccessor of Muhammad, who, during the first year of his Khalifate, entrusted Zaid-bin Harithah, an Ansar, or auxiliary, and one of theamanuenses of the Prophet, with the task of collecting them together, which he did, as well from "the breasts of men" as from theafore-named materials, meaning thereby that he availed himself of thememories of those who had committed parts of the Prophet's utterancesto memory. [Tradition states that one of the contemporary Muslims hadlearnt as many as seventy chapters by heart. ] Zaid's copy continued tobe the standard text during the Khalifate of Abu Bakr, who committedit to the keeping of Hafsah, one of Muhammad's widows. Certaindisputes having arisen regarding this text, owing mainly to thevariations of dialect and punctuation occurring therein, Omar, thesuccessor of Abu Bakr, in the tenth year of his Khalifate, determinedto establish a text which should be the sole standard, and delegatedto Zaid, with whom he associated several eminent Arab scholars of theAl-Koraish, the task of its reduction. On its completion copies wereforwarded to the principal stations of the empire, and all previouslyexisting copies were submitted to the flames. This is the text now ingeneral use among Muslims, and there is every reason to believe it tobe a faithful rescript of the original fragmentary collection, amendedonly in its dialectical variations, and made conformable to the purerArabic of the Al-Koraish, in which the contents of the Koran wereannounced by Muhammad. '

From a literary point of view the Koran is regarded as a specimen ofthe purest Arabic, and written in half poetry and half prose. It hasbeen said that in some cases grammarians have adapted their rules toagree with certain phrases and expressions used in it, and that thoughseveral attempts have been made to produce a work equal to it, as faras elegant writing is concerned, none have as yet succeeded. 

With the Koran, then, as a basis to work upon, Muhammad became theauthor and, it may be said, also founder of the Muhammadan faith, although as regards the foundation of any religion the followers ofthe author are generally the real founders of his faith. Of the threeauthors of great religions, viz. , Moses, Buddha, and Jesus, who hadgone before, Moses seems to have had much in common with Muhammad, andthe two resembled each other in some ways. Buddha and Jesus were, onthe other hand, entirely spiritualistic, their ideas on many subjectsmuch the same, and their preachings and teachings run together verymuch on parallel lines. 

The connecting links, however, between Buddhism and Christianity, ifany, have yet to be discovered and determined. It may happen that someday further light may be thrown upon the subject; but at present, inspite of similarity of ideas, of sentiments, and of parables in thetwo religions, there is no positive proof of any connection betweenthem, except that one preceded the other. While history has recordedevery detail of Muhammad's life, both before and after his publicministry, which did not begin until he was forty years of age, history, alas! gives us no detailed record of the life of Jesus priorto the commencement of His public ministry in His thirtieth year. HadHe travelled Himself to the further East? Had He studied underBuddhist missionaries? Had He taken the vows of poverty, chastity, andobedience, before He was baptized by John the Essene? Had He anythingto do with the sects called Essenes, Therapeuts, Gnostics, Nazarites, the Brethren, which existed both before and during His lifetime?These, and many other questions which might be asked, can now probablynever be answered, and the only thing that can be confidently assertedis that the character and the spiritual teachings of Christ, as handeddown to us, much resemble the character and spiritual teachings ofBuddha. 

A few paragraphs must be devoted to Moses and Muhammad, as the firstorganizers of the Jews and the Arabs into separate and distinctnationalities. The two men had very different material to work upon, but they succeeded with the aid of Eloah, or Allah, supporting theirown efforts. 

It is probably historically true that the good old patriarch Abrahamonce lived, and may be considered to be the father of the Jewish, Christian, and Muhammadan religions. According to Arab tradition, Abraham, assisted by Ishmael, built the Kaabah at Mecca, so calledbecause it was nearly a kaabah, or square. Anyhow, Abraham has everbeen regarded with the greatest veneration by the Muslims, and histomb at Hebron at the present day is so jealously guarded by them thatthe Jews and the Christians are not permitted to enter its sacredprecincts. 

Abraham and his followers worshipped Eloah, or the Almighty God, asthe one and only God, offering up to Him at times various sacrifices. According to Rénan, in his 'History of the People of Israel, ' 'theprimitive religion of Israel was the worship of the Elohim, acollective name for the invisible forces that govern the world, andwhich are vaguely conceived as forming a supreme power at once singleand manifold. '

'This vague primitive monotheism got modified during the migrations ofthe children of Israel, and especially during their struggles for theconquest of Palestine, and at last gave place to the conception ofJahveh, a national God conceived after the fashion of the gods ofpolytheism, essentially anthropomorphic, the God of Israel in conflictwith the gods of the surrounding nations. '

'It was the task of the prophets to change this low and narrowconception of the Deity for a nobler one, to bring back the Jews tothe Elohistic idea in a spiritualized form, and to transform theJahveh or Jehovah of the times of the Judges into a God of all theearth--universal, one and absolute, that God in spirit and in truth ofwhom Jesus, the last of the prophets, completed the revelation. '

Certain events in the life of Joseph brought the family of Jacob toEgypt, separated it from the other tribes, and made the Israelitesinto a peculiar people. [5] As the twelve families of the sons of Jacobexpanded into twelve tribes, they grew in number to such an extentthat the Egyptian Government of the day began to be alarmed, andcommenced coercive proceedings, which led to the appearance of Moses, first as a liberator, and then as the organizer of the twelve tribesinto a Jewish nationality. 

 [Footnote 5: The actual dates of these events and of the exodus from Egypt have not yet been historically fixed. How the Israelites first migrated to the land of Goshen, and how they eventually left Egypt, is still a question of considerable controversy. Further discoveries may yet throw further light on the subject. ]

When Moses first took the children of Israel out of Egypt, it wasprobably his intention to lead them at once to the promised land. Finding, however, that their physical strength and courage was notequal to the conquest of Canaan, he kept them in the desert for fortyyears, until the open-air life and the hardy fare had produced a newgeneration of men fit to cope with the warriors of the land they wereabout to attempt to conquer. 

Doubtless, during this residence in the desert Moses legislated bothmorally and socially for the Jews, as Muhammad did for the Arabs atMadinah. But as the Koran was not put together during Muhammad'slifetime, so it is also highly probable that the Pentateuch, or fivebooks of Moses, were not collected and collated till some time afterhis death, which last is described in the work itself. [6] Indeed, manythings mentioned in them show a more advanced state of civilizationthan the children of Israel enjoyed during their wanderings in thedesert. 

 [Footnote 6: This subject is treated at considerable length by Dr. A. Kuenen in 'The Religion of Israel, ' translated by Alfred Heath May from the Dutch. Williams and Norgate: London, 1882. ]

But, still, to Moses the Jews owe their nationality, as the Arabs owedtheirs to Muhammad. The former found a weak people, united to acertain extent, but quite unaccustomed to fighting and hardship, andhe welded them sufficiently together to enable them, under hissuccessors, to establish themselves in the promised land. The latterfound Arabia inhabited by a quantity of tribes, more or less hostileto each other, but brave to a degree; fond of fighting and plundering, and always at it; full of local jealousies and internal enmities, which kept them separate. Muhammad not only induced them to believe inone God, but also brought them together to such, an extent that hissuccessors were able to launch them as united warriors and conquerorsthroughout the East, and to found an empire for the time being fargreater, grander, and more important than Canaan, as divided among thetwelve tribes, or the dominions of David and Solomon. 

As a military leader Muhammad was not particularly celebrated. Themilitary expeditions undertaken by him in person are variously statedto have been from nineteen to twenty-seven in number, whilst those inwhich he was not present are stated to have amounted to more thanfifty. With the exception of one or two to the Syrian frontier, theywere chiefly directed against the Arabs and the Jews in Arabia, butnone of them were of the magnitude of those undertaken by hissuccessors, Abu Bakr and Omar, who, with the aid of the generalsKhalid, son of Walid, Mothanna, Amr bin Al'Aasi, and others, madegreat conquests, and finally established the Muslim faith on a firmand lasting basis. The details of these successes are admirably toldin Muir's 'Annals of the Early Khalifate. '

There appears to be a great resemblance between many of the militaryand warlike expeditions undertaken by Muhammad in Arabia, and those ofthe Jews, as narrated in the historical works of the Old Testament, inPalestine. In both countries God was used as the authority, andindividuals and tribes were attacked and slaughtered much in the sameway. Indeed, if the numbers slain, as recorded by the Jewishhistorians, are to be depended upon, it can only be inferred that theGod of the Jews was more vindictive and bloodthirsty than the God ofthe Arabs. At the present time the Soudanese and their Khalifahs seemto be following very much in the steps of Muhammad, constantly sendingforth military expeditions, and issuing letters to foreign potentates. 

In conclusion, the dogmas and precepts of Islam, as embodied in theKoran, may be summed up as follows:

 (1) Belief in Allah or God, or, more correctly, 'The God;' that is, the only God. 'Al, ' the; 'Ilah, ' a God. 

 (2) Belief in the Messengers or Angels. 

 (3) Belief in the Books or Scriptures, and in the Prophets. 

 (4) Belief in Hell and Paradise. 

 (5) Belief in a general resurrection and final judgment. 

 (6) Belief in the decrees of God, or of His having absolutelypredestined both good and evil. 

The five cardinal ordinances of Islam are:

 (1) The pious recitation of the Kalimah, or Creed: 'There is no Godbut the one God, and Muhammad is his Apostle. '

 (2) Prayer. 

 (3) Fasting. 

 (4) Legal and obligatory almsgiving. 

 (5) Pilgrimage. 

There are several other points connected with the institutions ofIslam, such as--

 (1) Circumcision. 

 (2) Marriage and polygamy. 

 (3) Slavery. 

 (4) The Jihad, or Holy War. 

 (5) Food, drink and ablutions. 

But full details connected with the above will be found, if required, in Hughes 'Dictionary of Islam, ' so that further reference to themhere is unnecessary. It must, however, always be remembered that faithand prayer were the two points which Muhammad always insisted upon asabsolutely essential. 

The Muhammadan religion may be regarded as creating in theory thepurest democracy in existence. All men are supposed to be equal. Thereare no hereditary titles. Every man can rise, either by interest ortalent, from the very lowest to the very highest position. There is auniversal feeling of brotherhood among the Muslims. All this isexcellent in theory, but in practice the ways of the world aredifferent. A Pasha holds his place and upholds his position, while ahumble follower of the said Pasha, or other person in an inferiorposition, knows his place also, and treats his superiors and hisinferiors accordingly. In fact, both in the East and the West thereappears to be a place for all men, and that place is established bythe unwritten laws of the world or by the law of nature, in spite ofthe many theories propounded by religion, politics, or politicaleconomy. Still, Muhammad himself instilled equality among hisfollowers, and in his parting address at Mina, at the time of thefarewell pilgrimage, spoke as follows:

'Ye people! hearken to my speech and comprehend the same. Know thatevery Muslim is the brother of every other Muslim. All of you are onthe same equality' (and as he pronounced these words he raised hisarms aloft and placed the forefinger of one hand on the forefinger ofthe other, intending thereby to signify that all were absolutely onthe same level); 'ye are one brotherhood. 

'Know ye what month this is? What territory is this? What day?' Toeach question the people gave the appropriate answer, viz. :

'The sacred month, the sacred territory, the great day of pilgrimage. 'After every one of these replies Muhammad added:

'Even thus sacred and inviolable hath God made the life and theproperty of each of you unto the other, until ye meet your Lord. 

'Let him that is present tell it unto him that is absent. Haply, hethat shall be told may remember better than he who hath heard it. '

CHAPTER IV. 

TALES AND STORIES. 

Of the two hundred and fifty books of tales, the titles of which aregiven in the 'Fihrist, ' only three or four have attained Europeanfame. Firstly, the book known in Arabic as 'Kalilah wa Dimnah, 'containing the celebrated Indian apologues, or the so-called fables ofBidpay, on the origin of which several dissertations have beenwritten. 

In 'Early Ideas' (W. H. Allen and Co. , 1881) mention was made of thefables of Bidpay, or Pilpai, as being the traditionally oldest-knowncollection of stories in Hindustan, and that from them the 'PanchaTantra, ' or 'Five Chapters, ' and the 'Hitopodesa, ' or 'FriendlyAdvice, ' are supposed to have been drawn. 

In 'Persian Portraits' (Quaritch, 1887) it was noted that the Persianwork called 'Kalilah wa Dimnah' is said to have been originallyderived from the fables of Bidpay, and that it led to the longer andlarger works known in Persian literature as the 'Anwar-i-Suheli, ' or'The Lights of Canopos, ' and the 'Ayar-Danish, ' or 'The Touchstone ofKnowledge. '

It is highly probable that this work of 'Kalilah wa Dimnah'(translated from Persian into Arabic by Ibn Al-Mukaffa about A. D. 750), and another Persian work, not now extant, but known as the'Hazar Afsaneh, ' or 'Thousand Stories, ' were the first sources fromwhich were commenced to be compiled the best collection of tales andstories in Arabic literature, and called 'The Thousand and OneNights, ' and popularly known in this country as 'The Arabian Nights. '

As regards the 'Hazar Afsaneh, ' or 'Thousand Stories, ' it is much tobe regretted that all trace of this work has disappeared. It is, however, mentioned by Masudi, and An-Nadim, the author of the'Fihrist, ' but whether they had actually seen and perused the wholework is uncertain. It may have been completed during the rule of theSasanian dynasty in Persia (A. D. 228-641), some of whose kings werepatrons of letters, and the work, or portions of it, may have beendestroyed along with a large quantity of other Persian literature atthe time of the conquest of the Persian Empire by the Arabs in A. D. 641. At all events, it has not yet been found, though it is stillhoped that it may turn up some day. 

As regards the 'Nights' themselves, it is impossible to fix any exactdate to them, neither can they be ascribed to any particular authors. From the book as it has come down to us; there is ample evidence toassert that the collection of all the tales and stories occupied manyyears, and that the authors of them were numerous. As great progresswas made in Arab literature from the commencement of the rule of theAbbaside dynasty in A. D. 750, it maybe inferred that the work itselfdates from that period, and that it had been put together in a certainform before the fall of Baghdad in A. D. 1258. After that date otherstories were probably added, and the whole répertoire was perhaps puttogether again in its present shape either at Cairo or Damascus, withnumerous alterations and additions. 

It is believed that the fables and apologues are the oldest part ofthe book. These bear on their face a decided impress of the FartherEast; indeed, they are quite of the nature of the stories told in the'Pancha Tantra, ' 'Kathá Sarit Ságara, ' 'Hitopodesa, ' and 'Kalilah waDirnnah, ' many of them being either the same, or bearing a very greatresemblance to them. Animal fables generally may have originated inIndia, where the doctrine of metempsychosis obtains currency to thisday; but, still, Egypt, Greece, and other countries, have alsoproduced stories of the same nature. From the time of the earlyEgyptians, the fable has ever been the means of conveyance of bothinstruction and amusement to mankind. And as years rolled by the fablegrew into the tale or story, which later on expanded into the romanceand the novel. 

After the fables the oldest tales in the 'Nights' are supposed to bethe Sindibad, or the tale of the king, his son, his concubine, and theseven wazirs; and that of King Jali'ad of Hind, and his wazir Shimas, followed by the history of King Wird Khan, son of King Jali'ad, withhis women and wazirs. These tales have also an Indian flavour aboutthem, both with regard to the animal stories in them and to thesapient remarks about the duties of kings and their ministers, oftenreferred to in the Kathá Sarit Ságara, of which more anon. 

The remaining tales and stories in the 'Nights' may be of Persian, Arabian, Egyptian, and Syrian origin, some earlier and some later. Theadventures of Kamar Al-Zaman and the jeweller's wife, and of Ma'aruf, the cobbler, and his wife Fatimah, are considered to be two of thevery latest stories, having been assigned to the sixteenth century. The story of Aboukir, the dyer, and Abousir, the barber, is quoted byPayne 'as the most modern of the whole collection. '

Certain stories of the 'Nights' were first introduced to Europe, between 1704-1708, by Antoine Galland, a Frenchman, whose biography isgiven by Burton in his 'Terminal Essay, ' vol. X. , and most interestingit is. The work of the translation of Arabic and Persian stories wascontinued by Petis de la Croix (1710-12), Morell (1765), Dow (1768), Chavis and Cazotte (1787-89), Caussin de Perceval (1806), Gauttier(1822), Jonathan Scott (1811), Von Hammer Purgstall (1823), Zinzerling(1823-24), Trebutien (1828), Habicht (1825-39), Weil (1838-42), Torrens (1838), Lane (1838-40), and the 'Nights' themselves have nowbeen completely finished by John Payne (1882-84) and Richard Burton(1885-88). 

A perusal of the productions of all the translators above mentionedwill show that, as regards finality, both Payne and Burton have donetheir work completely, thoroughly, and exhaustively, and for all time, as far as an English translation is concerned. Too much credit cannotbe given to these two gentlemen for their untiring labour and energy. The more the 'Nights' are read, the more will people appreciate theamount of hard work and acumen, intelligence and ability, which hasbeen thrown into the undertaking by these two accomplishedlittérateurs. And it is highly probable that their translations, alongwith Galland's volumes in French, will ever remain as the standardEuropean versions of this great series of Oriental tales. 

Space will not permit of a lengthy description of all that iscontained in Payne's thirteen, and in Burton's sixteen, volumes. To beappreciated thoroughly, they must be read, like Balzac's works, fromthe very beginning to the very end. At the same time a brief analysisof these two translations of the 'Nights' may perhaps be interesting, and will serve the purposes of the present chapter. 

The first nine of Payne's, and the first ten of Burton's, volumes aredevoted to the 'Nights' proper, and follow the same lines. Thetranslation has been made from what are commonly known as the Boulac(Cairo) and the two Calcutta Arabic texts of the 'Nights, ' thoughreferences are made to the Breslau (Tunis) edition, from which alsosome extracts have been taken and some translations made. The contentsof these volumes may be divided into four heads:

 (1) Fables and apologues. 

 (2) Short stories and anecdotes, some biographical and historical. 

 (3) Tales and stories. 

 (4) Long stories, or romances. 

Excluding the two short stories in the introductory chapter, there are10 principal and 6 subordinate fables under the first heading, 116principal and 3 subordinate stories under the second, 38 principal and75 subordinate under the third, and 6 principal and 12 subordinateunder the fourth heading. This gives a total of 170 principal and 96subordinate stories in Burton's edition, while Payne gives oneprincipal story and one subordinate one less, his numbers being 169and 95 respectively. By principal is meant the main or chief story, while by subordinate is meant another story forming part of the mainstory. In Oriental literature this custom is frequently introduced. Astory is commenced, but owing to some allusion in it another story isinterpolated, and when this is finished, the original tale is revertedto, only, perhaps, to be interpolated again by another story, and soon. 

Out of this mass of fable, tale and story, it is difficult to selectany particular ones that may prove interesting to everybody. Some arevery good, others good, some fairish, and others indifferent; but allare more or less interesting, as they deal with all sorts andconditions of men and women, and all sorts of events and situations. Personally, some twelve stories have struck me as particularlyinteresting or amusing, though it does not at all follow that what oneperson fancies another person cares about. A perusal of the workitself will enable its readers to find out what they like forthemselves, while the following brief remarks on the twelve storiesalluded to above will give a scanty outline of them. 

The tale of Aziz and Azizah is one of the best in the wholecollection. It represents the care and fondness of a truly lovingwoman, who did her best to shield and protect her very stupid cousin. It is said that people marry for three reasons, viz. , for love, formoney, or for protection. In truth, nobody can protect a man from awoman as another woman. No man can drive off a woman, divine herintention, or insult her so violently as a woman can, and this isgenerally understood both in the East and West. In the present story, Azizah first helps her cousin Aziz to woo and win, endeavouring toshield and protect him at the same time from this daughter of Dalilah, the wily one. Had it not been for Azizah's good advice and farewellsaying of "Faith is fair, and unfaith is foul, " Aziz would have surelyperished. Eventually, the loving Azizah dies of a broken heart. 

Aziz, though repeatedly warned by his mistress, the daughter ofDalilah, not to have anything to do with the sex on account of hisyouth and simplicity, falls into the hands of another woman, who firstmarries him, and then keeps him locked up in her house, and never letshim out for a whole year. When, however, he does get away for a dayonly, he goes at once to see his former mistress, who is furious onhearing that he is married to somebody else, and with the aid of herslave girls serves him out in a way which, from one point of view, makes marriage quite a failure for him in the future. On going back tohis wife, she, having found out what had occurred, immediately putshim into the street, and he returns in a sad plight to his mother, whonurses him and gives him the present and the letter that his cousinAzizah had left for him. Finally Aziz, for the sake of distraction, takes to foreign travel, and there meets with Taj al Muluk, whom heassists to find the princess Dunya. 

The tale of Kamar Al-Zaman and the Lady Budur is both amusing andinteresting. It is truly an Eastern story, full of curious andwonderful situations, and quite a kaleidoscope of passing events, which succeed each other rapidly. The hero and the heroine are a youngprince and princess, living in very different parts of the world(space and geography have no place in the "Nights"), and both veryaverse to matrimony. The one fears the smiles and wiles of woman, theother the tyranny and selfishness of man. A certain Queen of theJinns, with her assistants, bring the two together one night in thesame bed, and separate them in the morning. But the sight that eachhad had of the other caused them to fall desperately in love, and deepare the lamentations of each over the separation, which continues forsome years. At last Kamar Al-Zaman finds his way to his lady-love, thePrincess Budur, and they are happily wedded; alas! after a short time, to be again separated. Then follow the adventures of each--the ladybecomes a king, and is married to a princess, and rules a country, while Kamar Al-Zaman's fate assigns him the place of anunder-gardener. Destiny, however, re-unites them, and the Lady Budur'sjoke before recognition and re-union is certainly humorous. She makeshim further marry the lady that she herself was married to, and a sonis born to each, respectively called Amjad and Asaad. When the boysgrow up, the mother of each falls violently in love with the son of theother, _i. E. _, Budur adores Asaad, and Heyat en Nufus worships Amjad, and the two mothers end by making dishonourable proposals to the twosons. These overtures being indignantly rejected, the mothers, as inall Eastern tales, turn the tables by informing their husband that hissons had made indecent proposals to them. In consequence they are sentoff to be slain in the desert, but, from the circumstances which occurthere, the executioner spares their lives, and returns with theirclothes steeped in a lion's blood, reporting that he has carried outthe king's instructions, and quoting their last message to theirfather:

 'Women are very devils, made to work us dole and death; Refuge I seek with God Most High from all their craft and skaith. Prime source are they of all the ills that fall upon mankind, Both in the fortunes of this world and matters of the faith. '

The king at once recognises their innocence, and mourns over theirloss, building two tombs in their memory, called the Houses ofLamentations, where he spends his days weeping. 

Meanwhile the two youths, left to their own devices by theexecutioner, journey onward, arrive at a city, become separated, gothrough all sorts of adventures, all of a most thrilling description, and are finally re-united. The closing scene brings all the charactersof the romance together at the same place, and the grandfathers, fathers, and sons all meet once more, but no further mention is madeabout the two mothers, who so deeply injured their own offspring. 

Ala Aldin Abu Al-Shamat. --This story is of considerable interest, forit begins with a recipe for an aphrodisiac, and contains manyallusions to Eastern manners and customs. Born of wealthy parents atCairo, details are given of Ala Aldin's youth and boyhood, and of howthe wish to travel and to trade was instilled into his mind by hisyoung companions, at the instigation of a crafty old sinner, Mahmud ofBalkh. With some reluctance his father at last allows him to start, and going first to Damascus, then to Aleppo, he is robbed of all hisproperty just before he reaches Baghdad, and very nearly loses hislife into the bargain, but his good fortune saves him on twooccasions. Arrived at Baghdad, his adventures begin, and they followeach other with considerable rapidity. He first is married to Zobeidahthe Lutist, on the understanding that it was for one night only, andthat he was to divorce her the next morning, so that she might bere-married to her former husband. But when the time comes, Ala Aldinand the lady find each other such pleasant company that they absolutelydecline to divorce, and elect to pay the fine. This money is providedfor them by Harun-ar-Rashid, who visits them one night with three ofhis companions all disguised as dervishes, and they are charmed withZobeidah's performance on the lute, her singing, and her recitations. 

Ala Aldin then goes to the Court, where he rises to high favour andreceives various good appointments. To his great grief he loses hiswife, who dies, as he supposes, and is buried with the usual mourning, but in reality turns up again at the end of the tale, and is re-unitedto her husband. It appears that a servant of the Jinn had carried heroff to another country, leaving a Jinneyah to be buried in her place. 

To make up for the loss of Zobeidah, the Khalif gives Ala Aldin one ofhis own slave-girls, Kut al Kulub by name, and sends her, with all herbelongings, to his house. Ala Aldin will not have anything to do withher, on the grounds--"What was the master's should not become theman's;" but he lodges, boards, and treats her handsomely. EventuallyHarun takes her back, and orders a slave-girl to be bought at hisexpense in the market for ten thousand dinars for Ala Aldin. This isdone, and a girl named Jessamine is purchased and given to him. Hesets her at once free and marries her. 

But at the time of the purchase another man had been bidding for thissame girl, and, being much in love with her, his family determine toassist him in getting hold of her. A whole lot of fresh charactersthen appear on the scene, and, after much plotting and intrigue, AlaAldin is arrested and sentenced to death. He, however, escapes toAlexandria, and there opens a shop. Further adventures follow, till hefinds himself at Genoa, where he remains for some time as servant in achurch. Meanwhile at Baghdad his wife Jessamine has borne him a son, named Asdan, who grows up, and in time discovers the author and natureof the theft of which his father had been accused, and thus preparesthe way for his return to the city of the Khalifs. This is broughtabout by the Princess Husn Maryam at Genoa, with whom Ala Aldin findshis first wife Zobeidah, and they all set out on a wonderful couch andgo first to Alexandria, then to Cairo to visit his parents, andfinally to Baghdad, where he marries the princess and lives happy everafterwards. 

Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper is a very short story, but quiteRabelaisian in its humour, and the manner in which the Persian and theKurd describe the contents of the small bag that had been lost. Allsorts of things are mentioned in a haphazard way, many of them, however, perhaps, being required to fulfil the exigencies of therhymed prose in which the story is written in the original Arabic. 

The Man of Al-Yaman and his six Slave-Girls. --The six girls in thisstory have all different qualities. One is white, another brown, thethird fat, the fourth lean, the fifth yellow, and the sixth black. Thehappy owner gets them together, and in verse and recitation eachpraises her own peculiarity, and abuses that of her opposite byexamples and quotations. There is an Oriental twang about the storywhich makes it worthy of notice, and some of the verses are not bad. 

Abu Al-Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud. --This story is not amusing, but it is very interesting, especially to persons studying the minutedetails of the Muhammadan faith, doctrine and practice, according tothe Shafai school, and the exegesis of the Koran, all of which arewonderfully expounded by the slave-girl. In the shape of questions andanswers an enormous amount of information of all sorts is put into themouth of this highly accomplished female. The writer deals not onlywith theology, but also with physiology in all its branches, or, atleast, with as many as were known at the period of the tale. Further, medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and all kinds of knowledge arediscussed. A series of conundrums are put to the girl and replied toby her, and she also displays her skill in chess, draughts, backgammon, and music. 

It is to be regretted that the exact date of this species ofMangnall's Questions and Answers cannot be ascertained, for this wouldenable us to appreciate better the amount of knowledge displayed onthe various subjects under discussion. Anyhow, it is certain that itmust have been written some time after the doctrines of the ImamShafai (he died A. D. 820) had been well-defined and established. Owingto certain medical and surgical queries and replies, it is to bepresumed that the whole must have been worked up after the Arab schoolof medicine and physiology had arrived at their highest stage ofperfection. The whole story is a good specimen of the state ofcivilization reached by the Arabs, and as such is worth a reference. 

Three other stories in the 'Nights' bear some affinity to the above, but they are much more limited, both as regards the subject they dealwith and the information they supply. One is 'King Jali'ad and hisvizier Shimas, ' in Payne's eighth and Burton's ninth volume; another, 'History of Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf and the young Sayyid, ' in Burton'sfifth supplemental; and the third, 'The Duenna and the King's Son, ' inhis sixth supplemental. 

The Rogueries of Dalilah the Crafty, and her daughter, Zeynab theTrickstress. --The tricks played by Dalilah the Crafty on all sorts ofpeople in this story are of a nature that would make the tale amusingto the Arabs generally, and to the frequenters of coffee-housesparticularly. Dalilah's father and husband had held lucrativeappointments under the Khalifs of Baghdad, and, with a view to obtainsomething for herself and her daughter Zeynab, these two womendetermined to bring themselves to notice by playing tricks, and doingthings which were likely to be talked of in the great city. In Europeat the present time the same method is often followed. Attemptedassassinations, attempted suicides, complaints in the police-courtsand cases in the law-courts are sometimes meant simply as anadvertisement. [7] Anyhow, Dalilah's tricks played on various peopleare certainly amusing, and as they run ingeniously one into the other, it is somewhat difficult to describe them in a few words. The tale, tobe appreciated, must be read through. Sufficient to add that Dalilahand Zeynab both eventually obtain what they wish, and the variousthings taken from the different parties are duly returned to them. 

 [Footnote 7: As an example take the following extract from the _Daily Telegraph_ of 16th July, 1889:

 'The sisters Macdonald have been giving a great deal more trouble to the police lately than even the bearers of so historic a name are entitled to give. Ethel Macdonald appeared at Marlborough Street charged with having wilfully smashed a window at the Junior Carlton Club, St. James's Square. It was stated that the aggressive Ethel was one of the daughters of an ex-superintendent of county constabulary deceased, and that his daughters, being left unprovided for, had taken to going on the "rampage. " One of the sisters alleges that she has been wronged by "a rich man, " and a short time since another Miss Macdonald, on being arraigned before Mr. Newton, flung a bottle at the head of that learned magistrate. Ethel was discharged, but it was ordered that she should be sent to the workhouse for inquiries to be made into her state of mind. ']

The Adventures of Quicksilver Ali of Cairo. --This story is of the samenature as the preceding one, and in all the editions of the 'Nights'the one always follows the other, while in the Breslau text the twostories run together. Ali begins life at Cairo, and ends at Baghdad, where his tricks and adventures follow each other in rapid succession, his object being to obtain in marriage the hand of Zeynab, thedaughter of Dalilah the Crafty. He is first tricked himself by Zeynab, but continues his pursuit of her, and though at times he istransformed into the shapes of an ass, a bear, and a dog by the magicarts of Azariah the Jew, eventually he succeeds, with the aid of theJew's daughter, in obtaining the property required, and finallymarries Zeynab, the Jewess, and two other women. 

Hasan of Busra and the King's Daughter of the Jinn. --This is a goodspecimen of a real Oriental romance, with the wonderful and marvellousadventures of the hero interlaced with magic, alchemy, the Jinns, andother fabulous varieties, so that the highest ideals of theimagination are almost arrived at. 

Bahram the Magician, who first beguiles Hasan with alchemy and thencarries him off and endeavours to destroy him, is himself destroyed inthe early part of the story. The kindness of the seven princesses toHasan during his stay with them, and his visits to them later on, aredescribed at length, as also is the way in which the hero fallsdesperately in love with the king's daughter of the Jinn, and securesher as his bride. The happy pair start for Busra, and rejoin hismother, and then settle down in Baghdad, where two sons are born andhappiness reigns supreme. But during Hasan's absence on a visit to hisformer friends the seven princesses, some domestic scenes between hiswife, his mother, and Zobeidah, the spouse of the KhalifHarun-ar-Rashid, are introduced, which end by the wife re-possessingherself of her original feather garment, and flying off with her twochildren to the islands of Wac, where her father and family resided. 

On his return Hasan is broken-hearted to find her gone, and determinesto set out and try and recover her. Then follows the description ofhis journeys, which fill pages describing the white country, and theblack mountain, the land of camphor, and the castle of crystal. Theislands of Wac were seven in number, peopled by Satans and Marids, andwarlocks and tribesmen of the Jinn. To reach them Hasan has totraverse the island of birds, the land of beasts, and the valley ofJinn. Without the aid of the princesses, their uncle Abdul-cuddous, Abourruweish, Dehnesh ben Fectesh, Hassoun, king of the land ofCamphor, and the old woman Shawahi, he never would have reached hisdestination. This, however, he finally does, and with the aid of amagic cup and wand recovers his wife and children, and returns withthem to Baghdad, where they live happily ever afterwards, till therecame to them the Creditor whose debt must always be paid sooner orlater, the Destroyer of delights, and the Severer of societies. 

Ali Nur Al-din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl (called by Payne, the FrankKing's Daughter). --The adventures of Ali with Miriam, whom he firstbuys as a slave-girl in Alexandria, and from whom he is separated andre-united, again separated and again united, are told at some length. But the principal features in this tale are the innumerable verses inpraise of various fruits, flowers, wine, women, musical instruments, the beauty of the hero, etc. , and on the subjects of love, union, separation, etc. Miriam herself is a charming character ofself-reliance and independence. On her first appearance in the slavemarket, at the time of her sale, she declines to be purchased by theold men, and abuses their age and their infirmities. Indeed, sheseemed to be of the same opinion as our great national poet, whowrote:

 'Crabbed age and youth Cannot live together; Youth is full of plaisance, Age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short, Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold, Youth is wild and age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee; Youth, I do adore thee; O my love, my love is young; Age, I do defy thee, O sweet shepherd, hie thee, For methinks thou stay'st too long'. 

However, she finally consents to be bought by the young andgood-looking Ali, who spends his last thousand dinars in her purchase, and then has nothing to live upon. Miriam remedies this by making everynight a beautiful girdle, which Ali sells for a good price in thebazaar next day. This goes on for upwards of a year, when the firstseparation is brought about by the crafty old Wazir of her father, theKing of France, who had sent him especially to look for his daughter. In the course of the adventures that follow, Miriam shows her capacityin sailing ships and in killing various men, among others her threebrothers, who pursued her in her last flight from her father's city. Eventually she and Ali get to Baghdad, where the Khalif makes thingssmooth for them, and they are married, and finally return to Cairo torejoin Ali's parents, from whom he had run away in his youth. 

Kamar Al-Zaman and the Jeweller's Wife is one of the modern tales ofthe 'Nights, ' and a very good one, containing a good plot and plentyof interesting incidents. The jeweller's wife, Halimah by name, is oneof the wickedest and craftiest of women in Busra, and her plots andintrigues are well described; some of them are to be found in Persianstory-books. After playing all sorts of tricks, she leaves herhusband, and elopes with the youth Kamar to Cairo, where his parentsreside. There his father will not let him marry her, but confines herand her slave-girl in a room, and arranges a marriage for his son withanother woman. After a time Halimah's husband, Obayd, the jeweller, turns up in Cairo in the most beggarly plight, having been plunderedby Bedouins _en route_. After explanations, Obayd ends by killinghis wife and her slave-girl, who had assisted her in all herdevilries, and Kanar's father marries him to his daughter, who turnsout the most virtuous of women. The moral of the tale is pointed outat the end, that there are both bad women and good women in the world, and is closed with the remark: 'So he who deemeth all women to bealike, there is no remedy for the disease of his insanity. '

Ma'aruf the Cobbler and his wife Fatimah commences with a domesticscene between the two, from which it appears that the poor husband hadbeen shamefully sat upon from the day of his marriage, and that hiswife was a dreadful woman. Affairs, however, at last reach a climax, and Ma'aruf seeks peace and safety in flight. Balzac, in his clevernovel of 'Le Contrat de Mariage, ' makes his hero Manerville fly fromthe machinations of his wife and mother-in-law, but Henri de Marsay, writing to his friend pages on the subject, contends that he is wrong, and points out to him the course that he should have followed. Anyhow, in Ma'aruf the Cobbler's case, the result is satisfactory. Arriving bythe aid of a Jinn at a far-away city, he found a friend, who directedhim how to behave, and to tell everybody that he was a great andwealthy merchant, but that his merchandise was still on the way, andexpected daily. Pending the arrival of his baggage-train, Ma'arufborrowed from everybody, gave it all away in largesse to the poor, andbehaved generally as if he were very well-to-do. By these means hemade such an impression on the King of the place that the lattermarried him to his daughter, and made large advances from the treasuryin anticipation of the arrival of the merchandise. 

Time goes on, but still the baggage does not turn up. The King, instigated by his Wazir, becomes suspicious, and persuades hisdaughter to worm out the real story from her husband. This she does ina clever way, and Ma'aruf tells her his true history. The womanbehaves admirably, refuses to expose his vagaries, and, giving himfifty thousand dinars, advises him to fly to a foreign country, tobegin to trade there, and to keep her informed of his whereabouts andthe turn of his fortunes. The Cobbler departs during the night, whilehis wife the next morning tells the King and the Wazir a longrigmarole story of how her husband had been summoned by his servants, who had informed him that his baggage-train and merchandise had beenattacked by the Arabs, and that he had gone himself to look after hisaffairs. 

Meanwhile Ma'aruf departs sore at heart, weeping bitterly, and, likeall 'Arabian Nights' heroes in adversity, repeating countless verses. After various adventures he falls in with a vast treasure, and acasket containing a seal ring of gold, which, when rubbed, causes theslave of the seal ring, naturally a Jinn, to appear and carry outevery wish and order that Ma'aruf might give him. With the aid, then, of the Jinn, Abu Al-Saddat by name, the Cobbler returns to his wifeladen with treasure and merchandise, and thus proves to all thedoubters that he is a true man. He pays all his debts, gives a greatdeal to the poor, and bestows presents of an enormous value on hiswife, her attendants, and all the people of the Court. 

As a matter of course, all this prosperity is followed by adversity. The King and his Wazir combine together, and ask Ma'aruf to agarden-party, make him drunk, and get him to relate the story of hissuccess. Recklessly he shows the ring to the Wazir, who gets hold ofit, rubs it, and on the appearance of the slave of the ring, orders himto carry off the Cobbler and cast him down in the desert. The Wazir thenorders the King to be treated in the same way, while he himself seizesthe Sultanate, and aspires to marry Ma'aruf's wife, the King'sdaughter. 

With much interesting detail the story relates how the Princess Dunyagets the ring into her possession, sends the Wazir to prison, andrescues her father and her husband from the desert. The Wazir is thenput to death, and the ring is kept by the lady, as she thinks it wouldbe safer in her keeping than in that of her relations. After this ason is born, the King dies, Ma'aruf succeeds to the throne, andshortly after loses his wife, who before her death gives him back thering, and urges him to take good care of it for his own sake and forthe sake of his boy. 

Time goes on, and the Cobbler's first wife, Fatimah, turns up in town, brought there also by a Jinn, and tells the story of the want andsuffering she had undergone since his departure from Cairo. Ma'aruftreats her generously, and sets her up in a palace with a separateestablishment, but the wickedness of the woman reappears, and shetries to get hold of the ring for her own purposes. Just as she hassecured it she is cut down and killed on the spot by Ma'aruf's son, who had been watching her proceedings, and is thus finally disposedof. The King and his son then marry, and live happily in the manner ofEastern story, all the other characters being properly provided for. 

So much for the 'Nights' proper. Other stories translated from theBreslau text (a Tunisian manuscript acquired, collated and translatedby Professor Habicht, of Breslau, Von der Hagen, and another; 15volumes, 12mo. , Breslau, 1825), the Calcutta fragment of 1814-1818, and other sources, have been given by Payne in three extra volumesentitled 'Tales from the Arabic, ' and by Burton in two of his sixvolumes of the 'Supplemental Nights. ' Payne's three books and Burton'stwo first volumes follow the same lines. They both contain twentyprincipal, and sixty-four subordinate stories, or eighty-fouraltogether, divided into nine short stories and seventy-five longerones. Some of them are very interesting, and some are amusing, especially a few of the sixteen Constables' Stories, which describethe cleverness of women, and the adroitness of thieves, and people ofthat class. It is probable that these are more or less of a moderndate. 

The first story in this collection, called 'The Sleeper and theWaker, ' commonly known as 'The Sleeper Awakened, ' is good, and alsoparticularly interesting as one of Galland's stories not traced at thetime, but afterwards turning up in the Tunis text of the 'Nights. '

The third volume of Burton's 'Supplemental Nights' is one of the mostinteresting of the whole lot. It contains eight principal and foursubordinate stories of Galland's 'Contes Arabes, ' which are notincluded in the Calcutta, Boulak, or Breslau editions of the 'Nights. 'For many years the sources from which Galland procured these taleswere unknown. Some said that he invented them himself. Othersconjectured that he got them from the story-tellers in Constantinopleand other places in the East. But in A. D. 1886 Mr. H. Zotenberg, thekeeper of Eastern Manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, obtained a manuscript copy of the "Nights, " which contained the Arabicoriginals of the stories of "Zayn Al Asnam, " and of "Aladdin, " two ofGalland's best stories. This was a very valuable acquisition, for itsets at rest the doubts that had always been expressed about theorigin of these two tales, and also leads to the supposition that theArabic originals of the other stories will also turn up some day. 

Of these eight principal and four subordinate stories of Galland, those of "Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp, " and of "Ali Baba and theForty Thieves, " have ever been most popular tales, and have beenappreciated by many generations from the time that Galland firstintroduced them to Europe. But some of the other stories are equallygood, and all are worth reading, as Burton has not only taken Gallandas a guide, but has also adapted his own translation from theHindustani version of the Gallandian tales, prepared by one TotárámShayán, whose texts of the "Nights, " along with those of others, arefully discussed. By this method Burton endeavoured to preserve theOriental flavour of the work itself, without introducing too muchFrench sauce. 

After the discovery of the Arabic original of the stories of"Zayn Al-Asnam" and "Aladdin, " Payne recognized its importance, andpublished his translation of these two tales in a separate volume in1889, which forms a sort of appendix to his previously issued twelvevolumes. This thirteenth book contains also an interesting introduction, giving a _résumé_ of Mr. Zotenberg's work, published at Paris in 1888, and which contains the Arab text of the story of Aladdin, along withan exhaustive notice of certain manuscripts of the "Thousand and OneNights, " and of Galland's translation. 

The fourth and fifth volumes of Burton's "Supplemental Nights" containcertain new stories from an Arabic manuscript of the "Nights" in sevenvolumes, brought to Europe by Edward Wortley Montague, Esq. , andbought at the sale of his library by Dr. Joseph White, Professor ofHebrew and Arabic at Oxford, from whom it passed into the hands of Dr. Jonathan Scott, who sold it to the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, forfifty pounds. 

Wortley Montague's manuscript contains many additional tales notincluded in the Calcutta, Boulak, or Breslau editions, and theseadditional stories Burton has now translated. It is uncertain how orwhere Wortley Montague obtained his copy of the 'Thousand and OneNights. ' Dr. White had at one time intended to translate the wholelot, but this was never accomplished. Jonathan Scott did, however, translate some of the stories, which were published in the sixthvolume of his 'Arabian Nights Entertainment' in A. D. 1811, but thework was badly and incompletely done. It has now been thoroughlyrevised and put into better form by Burton in these two volumes. 

In Appendix I. To Volume V. There is a catalogue of the contents ofthe Wortley Montague MS. , which is very interesting, as it containsnot only a description of the manuscript itself, but also a completelist of the tales making up the "Thousand and One Nights, " many ofwhich are, of course, to be found in the "Nights" proper. 

These two supplemental volumes contain 25 principal and 31 subordinatestories, or 56 in all. Some of them are very amusing, especially thetales of the Larrikins, while the whole add to our knowledge of thisvast répertoire of tales from the East, which has been graduallybrought to the notice of Europe during the last one hundred andeighty-five years. 

Burton's sixth supplemental volume contains certain stories taken froma book of Arabian tales, a continuation of the 'Arabian NightsEntertainment, ' brought out by Dom Chavis, a Syrian priest, andeventually teacher of Arabic at the University of Paris, and Mr. Jacques Cazotte, a well-known French _littérateur, _ unfortunately andunjustly guillotined in Paris on the 25th September, 1792, at the timeof the Revolution. 

This work, sometimes called 'The New Arabian Nights, ' is an imitationof Galland's marvellous production, and may be considered a sort ofcontinuation of it. Dom Chavis brought the manuscripts to France, andagreed with Mr. Cazotte to collaborate, the former translating theArabic into French, and the latter metamorphosing the manner andmatter to the style and taste of the day. The work first appeared in1788-89, and was translated into English in 1792. 

Burton, in his Foreword to this volume, gives a full account of thesestories, as translated and edited by Chavis and Cazotte. He himselfgives a translation of eight of them, one of which, The Linguist, theDuenna, and the King's Son, is interesting, as it contains a series ofconundrums, questions and answers, which may remind the reader of thestory of Abu Al-Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud, in the 'Nights'proper, and of the history of Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf and the youngSayyid, from the Wortley Montague MS. In addition to the eighttranslated stories, the sixth volume contains a great deal of matterin the shape of appendices, such as--Notes on Zotenberg's work onAladdin and on various manuscripts of the 'Nights'; Biography of thework and its Reviewers Reviewed; Opinions of the Press, etc. ; butthough well worthy of perusal by the curious, space does not allow offurther allusions to them here. 

To sum up, then, shortly, Payne's thirteen volumes contain 193principal, and 159 subordinate stories, or 352 in all, while Burton'ssixteen volumes contain 231 principal, and 195 subordinate stories, or426 altogether. These numerous stories, translated from the Calcutta(1814-18), Calcutta Macnaghten (1839-42), Boulak (Cairo, 1835-36), Breslau (Tunis), Wortley Montague, Galland and Chavis texts may beconsidered to form what is commonly called 'The Arabian NightsEntertainment. ' They date from A. D. 750, which may be considered asthe year of their commencement and that of the Abbaside dynasty, andgo on, continually added to, up to A. D. 1600, or even later. Manyauthors have had a hand in the work, the stories themselves havingbeen derived from Indian, Persian, Arabian, Egyptian, Syrian andGrecian sources, and adapted, more or less, for Arab readers andhearers. And as the manuscripts in some of these stories in differentcountries do not in any way tally, it must be supposed that no suchwork as an original copy of the 'Thousand and One Nights' has everbeen in existence. The repertoire, consisting of a few stories atfirst, has gradually grown to such a size that now it may almost beconsidered to contain the largest and best collection of stories thatthe world has, as yet seen. 

Mention has been already made in a previous page of the 'Kathá SaritSágara, ' or Ocean of the Streams of Story, and a brief description ofthis work was given in the third chapter of 'Early Ideas' (A. D. 1881). Since then a complete translation of the 'Kathá' has been made byProfessor C. H. Tawney, of the Calcutta College, and it has beenpublished in fourteen fasciculi, in the 'Bibliotheca Indica, ' by theAsiatic Society of Bengal, 1880-1887. It is to be regretted, for thesake of the student and the anthropologist, that the translation ispresented in an expurgated form. Still, the Professor has done hiswork (and a long and tedious work it must have been) excessively well, while many of his notes, corrigenda and addenda are most interesting. 

The 'Arabian Nights' and the 'Kathá Sarit Ságara' occupy respectivelythe same position in Arabic and Hindoo literature. They are bothcollections of tales adapted to the people of the country for whichthey have been written. A perusal of both the works will show how muchthey differ. The characters and ideas of the heroes and heroines, their thoughts, reflections, speeches, surroundings, and situationsare worth studying in the two books as an exposition of the mannersand customs, ideas and habits of two distinct peoples. The Hindoocharacters, as depicted in their story-book, will be found to beduller, heavier, more reverential, and more superstitious than thecharacters in the 'Nights. ' There are two things, however, common tothe two books: the power of destiny, and the power of love, againstwhich it is apparently useless to struggle. 

While there are 426 stories in Burton's 'Nights, ' there are 330 talesof sorts in Tawney's 'Kathá. ' Both works are rather formidable asregards size and quantity of matter; still, after a start has beenfairly made, the interest goes on increasing in a wonderful way, untilat last one becomes absorbed and interested to a degree that canscarcely be imagined. 

The stories in the 'Kathá Sarit Ságara' are supposed to have beenoriginally composed by one Gunádhya, in the Paisacha language, andmade known in Sanscrit under the title of 'Vrihat Kathá, ' or GreatTale. From this work one Bhatta Somadeva, in the eleventh centuryA. D. , prepared the work now known as the 'Kathá Sarit Ságara, ' butprobably stories have been added to it since. At present it consistsof eighteen books, divided into one hundred and twenty-four chapters, and containing three hundred and thirty stories, along with othermatter. Of Gunádhya, the supposed original author, not much is known, but Vatsyayana, in his 'Kama Sutra' (printed privately for the KamaShastra Society) mentions the name of Gunádhya as a writer whose workshe had consulted, and gives frequent quotations from them in hischapter on the duties of a wife. The exact date of Vatsyayana's lifeis also uncertain; some time not earlier than the first century B. C. , and not later than the sixth century A. D. , is considered to be theapproximate period of his existence. 

Like the 'Arabian Nights, ' it is highly probable that the 'Kathá' grewby degrees to its present size. Gunádhya's original work is apparentlynot now extant. Between the time it was written and the time thatSomadeva produced his edition of it, many stories may have been added, and the same process may have continued afterwards. Somadeva, however, says: 'I compose this collection, which contains the pith of the"Vrihat Kathá. "' Again he writes: 'This book is precisely on the modelof that from which it is taken; there is not the slightest deviation;only such language is selected as tends to abridge the prolixity ofthe work; the observance of propriety and natural connection, and thejoining together of the portions of the poem so as not to interferewith the spirit of the stories, are as far as possible kept in view. Ihave not made this attempt through desire of a reputation foringenuity, but in order to facilitate the recollection of a multitudeof various tales. '

The 'Kathá Sarit Ságara' contains many stories now existing in the'Pancha Tantra, ' or Five Chapters, in the 'Hitopodesa, ' or FriendlyAdvice, in the 'Baital Pachesi, ' or Twenty-five Stories of a Demon, and other Indian story-books. Owing to the total absence of dates itis difficult to determine from what sources all these stories werecollected. But as some of the same fables and animal stories are to befound in the 'Buddhist Birth Stories, ' or Játaka Tales, in the'Arabian Nights, ' and in the 'Kathá, ' it may fairly be conjecturedthat stories of this nature were in early years in considerablecirculation, and used as a means of conveying wisdom and advice bothto the classes and to the masses in those prehistoric times. 

To return to Arab story-books. Mention must be made of 'Antar, ' aBedouin romance, which has been partially translated from the Arabicinto English by Terrick Hamilton, Secretary to the British Embassy atConstantinople, and published in London (1820). Mr. Clouston, in his'Arabian Poetry for English Readers, ' Glasgow, 1881, has given anabstract of the story, with some specimens of translations from theoriginal. 

The work itself is generally supposed to have been written byAl-Asmai, the philologist and grammarian (born A. D. 740, died A. D. 831), who flourished at the court of Harun-ar-Rashid, and was a greatcelebrity in his time. It is probable that many of the stories toldabout Antar and his wonderful deeds came down orally and traditionallyto Al-Asmai, who embellished them with his own imagination, aided by awonderful knowledge of the language and idioms used by the Arabs intheir desert wilds. 

Antar is the hero, and Abla the heroine, of the romance. Antar himselfis supposed to have lived during the sixth century A. D. , and to havebeen the author of one of the seven famous poems suspended at Mecca, and known as the Mua'llakat. Besides this he was distinguished as agreat warrior, whose deeds of daring were quite marvellous. Thetranslator had intended to divide the work into three parts. The firstends with the marriage of Antar and Abla, to attain which manydifficulties had to be overcome. The second part includes the periodwhen Antar suspends his poem at Mecca, also a work of considerabledifficulty. The third part gives the hero's travels, conquests, anddeath. Mr. Hamilton only translated and published the first part ofthe three, and the two others have not yet been done into English. 

The romance of Antar, though tedious, is interesting, as it gives fulldetails of the life of the Arabs before Muhammad's time, and evenafter, for the Arab life of to-day is apparently much the same as itwas three thousand years ago. It appears to be an existence made up ofcontinual wanderings, constant feud and faction, and perpetualstruggles for food, independence and plunder. But in the deserts onthe frontiers of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Baghdad, it is saidthat the various tribes are now kept much more in subjection by theTurks, owing to the introduction of the breech-loader, against whichthe Arab and his matchlock and his peculiar mode of warfare issomewhat powerless. 

While the 'Arabian Nights' are supposed to treat more of theinhabitants of the towns, the romance of Antar deals more with theinhabitants of the desert. To the student of the Arabic language bothworks are interesting, as they occupy a prominent and standard placein Arabian literature, and afford much information about the mannersand customs, ideas and peculiarities of an ancient and interestingrace of people. It must be admitted that both Antar and the 'ArabianNights' are so long that they rather try the patience of readers notparticularly interested in them. Nowadays in England the daily presssupplies such a mass of information of all sorts in connection withevery branch of society, that a constant and persistent reader of ourdaily and weekly newspapers can find in them quite an 'Arabian NightsEntertainment' without going further afield. Indeed, the storiesconcerning the cures effected by certain patent medicines are aswonderful as anything one ever reads in the 'Nights' themselves. 

And in addition to the realities and actualities of life, as dailytold in our newspapers and law reports, many of which do certainlyprove that fact is stranger than fiction, there are numerous writerswho keep the public supplied with tales and stories of every kind anddescription. And from the great demand for such productions, whetherissued as the penny dreadful, the thrilling story, or the regulationromance in three volumes, one conclusion can only be drawn, whichis--that the human mind, everywhere in the East, West, North and South, is always anxious to be fed or amused with something startling orromantic, dreadful or improbable, exciting or depressing. 

It is to be presumed, then, that the 'Nights' filled the vacuum in theminds of the people of that day in the East, much the same as thebooks and newspapers of our time satisfy the cravings of thehumanities of the West, who still seem to be ever in search ofsomething new, even if not true; something original, even if nottrustworthy. Human nature appears to be much the same in all ages andat all times, and the scandals connected with high persons, thememoirs and reminiscences of celebrated ones, and the good sayings ofwitty ones, have always found much favour with the public generally, whether told as stories, published as books, or printed in the papers. Arabic literature abounds with biographical details and stories aboutcelebrated and distinguished men. It was always the custom and fashionto fill their works with much information of the kind. The samefashion appears to exist in England at the present time, with thisadvantage, however, that we now get all the details and stories directfrom the heroes themselves, and during their lifetime. 

CHAPTER V. 

ANECDOTES AND ANA. 

In Persian literature there are three celebrated works (Sa'di's'Gulistan, ' or Rose Garden, A. D. 1258; Jawini's 'Negaristan, ' orPortrait Gallery, A. D. 1334; and Jami's 'Beharistan, ' or Abode ofSpring, A. D. 1487, all translated by the Kama Shastra Society), containing an entertaining collection of stories, verses, and moralmaxims. In Arabic literature there are many books of the same sort, and in this chapter it is proposed to give a few specimens of storiesand philosophic reflections culled from various authors. This willperhaps be more interesting than a lengthened analysis of the worksthemselves. 

The following anecdotes have been taken from the 'Naphut-ul-Yaman'(Breeze or Breath of Yaman), a collection of stories and poeticalextracts of various Arabic authors, edited by Ahmad-ash-Shirwani. 

I. 

Al-Jahiz said: 'I never was put so much to shame as when a woman metme on the road and said, "I have some business with you, " and Ifollowed her till we reached the shop of a goldsmith, when she said, "Like this man, " and walked away. I stood amazed, and asked thegoldsmith to explain the matter. He replied: "This woman wanted me tomake her a figure of Satan, and I told her that I did not know hisphysiognomy; whereon she brought you!"'

II. 

A voracious man paid a visit to a hermit, who brought him four loaves, and then went to fetch a dish of beans; but when he had come with it, he found that his guest had consumed the bread. Accordingly hedeparted to bring some more bread, but when he returned with it he sawthat the man had devoured the beans. This proceeding was repeated tentimes, whereon the host asked his guest to what place he wastravelling. He replied, 'To Rei. ' 'Wherefore?' 'I heard of acelebrated physician in that town, and I mean to consult him about mystomach, because I have but little appetite for eating. ' 'I have arequest to make of you. ' 'What is it?' 'When you return, after havingrecovered your appetite, please do not pay me a visit again. '

III. 

One day the poet Abu Nuwas made his appearance at the gate of thepalace of Rashid, who, as soon as he was informed of this, called foreggs, and said to his courtiers: 'Here is Abu Nuwas at the door. Nowlet each of you take an egg and place it under his body, and when heenters I shall feign to be angry with all of you, and shall exclaim:"Now lay eggs each of you, and if you do not I shall order you all tobe beheaded, " and we shall see how he will behave. ' Then the poet wasadmitted, and the conversation continued. After a while, however, theKhalif became angry, and manifested his displeasure by exclaiming:'You are all like hens, and meddle with things that do concern you;now lay eggs each of you, for that is your nature, or I shall orderyour heads to be struck off. ' Then he looked at the courtier on hisright, saying: 'You are the first; now lay an egg. ' Accordingly hemade great efforts, and contorting his features, at last drew forth anegg. Then the Khalif addressed the others successively in the samemanner, and when the turn of Abu Nuwas came, he struck his sides withhis hands, and crowing like a cock, said: 'My lord, hens are uselesswithout a cock. These are hens, and I am their cock. ' Hereon theKhalif burst out laughing, and approved of his excuse. 

IV. 

A certain king was much addicted to women, and one of his vizierswarned him of the danger. Shortly afterwards some of his concubinesobserved that his behaviour towards them had changed, and one of themsaid: 'My lord, what is this?' He replied: 'One of my viziers(mentioning his name) advised me not to love you. ' 'Then, ' said thegirl, 'present me to him, O king, and do not reveal what I shall do tohim. ' Accordingly he gave the girl away, and when the vizier was alonewith her, she made herself so amiable that he fell in love with her, but she refused to grant him any favour except on condition ofallowing her first to ride on his back. He agreed. Accordingly shebridled and saddled him, but meanwhile sent word to the king what wastaking place; and when he arrived he saw the vizier in the positionalluded to, and said: 'You warned me of the love of woman, and this isthe state I see you in. ' The vizier replied: 'O king! this is justwhat I warned you of!'

V. 

Once a lion, a fox, and a wolf were associates in the chase, and afterthey had killed an ass, a gazelle, and a hare, the lion said to thewolf: 'Divide the prey among us;' whereon the latter said: 'The asswill be yours, the hare the fox's, and the gazelle mine;' and the lionknocked his eye out. Then the fox said: 'A curse on him, what a sillydivision he proposed!' Accordingly the lion said: 'Then do you makethe division, O possessor of the brush!' And the fox said: 'The asswill be for your dinner, the gazelle for your supper, and the hare foryour luncheon. ' The lion said: 'You rogue! who taught you to make sucha just distribution?' and Reynard answered, 'The eye of the wolf. '

VI. 

A certain king asked his vizier whether habit can vanquish nature, ornature habit? The vizier replied: 'Nature is stronger, because it is aroot, and habit a branch, and every branch returns to its root. ' Nowthe king called for wine, and a number of cats made their appearancewith candles in their paws, and stood around him; then he said to thevizier: 'Do you perceive your mistake in saying that nature isstronger than habit?' The vizier replied: 'Give me time till thisevening. ' The king continued: 'You shall have it. ' Accordingly thevizier appeared in the evening with a mouse in his sleeve, and whenthe cats were standing with their candles, he allowed it to slip out, whereon all the cats threw down the candles and ran after it, so thatthe house was nearly set on fire. Then the vizier said: 'Behold, Oking, how nature overcomes habit, and how the branch returns to theroot. '

The 'Merzubán námah, ' translated from the Persian into Arabic, is saidto be of very ancient origin, and to embody good maxims in fables. Itwas composed, or is supposed to have been composed, by one of the oldprinces of Persia called Merzuban, a brother of the King Nausherwanthe Just, who died A. D. 578. On referring to the great encyclopædicaland bibliographical dictionary, edited by Fluegel, it will be found, under No. 11, 783, that Haji Khalfa mentions this book, giving, however, its title only, without mentioning the time of itscomposition, nor the author of it, nor the language in which it hadbeen written. The following are some extracts from this work, and thestories resemble others that have come from the Farther East. 

I. 

The philosopher Merzubán said: 'I am informed that in a certaindistrict of Aderbaijan there is a mountain as high as the sky, withfine brooks, trees, fruits and herbs. Under the shelter of one of themost beautiful trees a pair of partridges lived most happily, but inthe vicinity there was likewise a powerful eagle with his brood, whoperiodically visited the abode of the partridges and devoured theiryoung ones. When the pair had thus several times lost their progeny, the male proposed that it would either be necessary for them toemigrate to some other locality, or to try some expedient by whichthey might escape from the rapacity of the eagle. He was of opinionthat even in case of failure they might gain some valuable experiencethat would be of use in future attempts to elude the persecution, andsaid: "We must at all events make a trial, and may learn somethingfrom it, like the donkey who endeavoured to become the companion ofthe camel. " The she-partridge asked, "How was that?" and the malecontinued:

II. 

'"Once a donkey tried to keep up walking with a big camel, who pacedlustily, and took long steps, but the ass, being in a hurry, stumbledevery moment, and found that he had undertaken an impossible task. Heasked the camel, 'How is it I wound my hoofs on the rocks so often, although I constantly look where I am stepping; whilst you, whoapparently walk with leisure, never cast a glance at any of theobstacles you meet with, and never hurt yourself?' The camel replied:'The reason is just because you are short-sighted and of weakintellect; you can look no further than your nose, and are, therefore, disappointed; whereas I look always forward, know the obstacles I amlikely to encounter, scan the road to a great distance, and avoid thedifficulties, selecting the easiest parts of the way. '" The wise hensaid: "To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and this principle Ifollow. " "I have narrated this story to show you that we must lookforward, now that the time of laying eggs is at hand, because when ourlittle ones are hatched it may again be too late to try and savethem. "

'The female partridge said: "This is all very well, but we might farelike the hungry fox who would have lost his life if the ichneumon hadnot interceded for him with the camel. " The male said "How was that?"and the female continued:

III. 

'"It is related that a certain fox had a fine large den, in which hecollected provisions for the winter and for the summer, faredsumptuously, and never suffered from want. Once, however, a large armyof ants invaded his domicile, and made short work of all the victualshe had carefully stored. This misfortune befel him just at a time whenthe weather happened to be very cold and food scarce, so that he beganto feel the pangs of hunger. One morning, however, when he was aboutto sally forth from his den, he perceived, to his no smallastonishment, at the mouth of it a camel kneeling, with the hinderpart of his body turned towards him. The fox said to himself, 'Here isgood luck, ' and made a foolhardy attempt to drag the animal into thecave by tying a rope to its tail, and to commence pulling at it withall his might. To make sure of his prey the fox had tied the other endof the rope to his own body, but when he began to jerk it ratherstrongly the camel became vexed, jumped up suddenly, and firstdischarging both urine and dung upon Reynard, began to shake himselfviolently. The fox dangled in the air, and was repeatedly knockedagainst the flanks of the gigantic animal. Then the fox repented ofhis silly attempt to feast on camel meat, and knew that hisdeath-knell would shortly sound. Luckily an ichneumon happened to bestanding close by, amazed at the strange spectacle, and the foximplored it to intercede for him. Accordingly, the ichneumon addressedthe camel in the following strain: 'Friend giant! it is meet that thestrong, hoping for an eternal reward, should have mercy upon the weak!Here is a poor stranger who has accidentally become entangled withyour tail. He will be strangled; you may save his life and become hisdeliverer by letting him go. ' The camel then released the fox, whowould assuredly have lost his life if the ichneumon had not intercededfor him. " When the male partridge had heard this story he fullyapproved of the moral of it, which is to the effect that ignorant andweak individuals are generally foiled in their designs against thosewho are powerful. He therefore considered that it would be best tothrow themselves upon the mercy of the eagle, and said: "We must pay avisit to his majesty the eagle, explain our case to him, implore hismercy, and enroll ourselves among the number of his servants. We maysucceed by gaining his favour; he is the king of all the birds, andcarnivorous, but for all we know his disposition may be so mercifulthat he will spare our offspring not only himself, but order all theother birds of prey, his subjects, to do likewise. "

'Then the she-partridge exclaimed: "Your advice is indeed wonderful!You propose nothing less than that we should court our own perdition, and of our own accord run into a trap! The eagle in treacherous, andwould deal with us like the heron dealt with the little fish. " Themale said, "Please narrate the occurrence, " and the female continued:

IV. 

'"A heron had taken up his abode, and had lived for a long time near abrook on the little fishes there. At last, however, he became so oldand weak that he was scarcely able to provide his daily food. He wasonce standing in a melancholy attitude on the bank of the streamlet, waiting for a chance to satisfy his hunger, when he happened to catchsight of a beautiful little fish disporting itself in the water, andmourned over his inability to get hold of it. The little fishperceived the heron standing immovable, and apparently taking not theleast notice of it; therefore it gradually ventured to approach him, and asked the cause of his melancholy. The heron replied, 'I amreflecting upon the time of my youth which has passed away, the life Ienjoyed, the pleasures I felt, all of which are irretrievably lost, and have left behind nothing but repentance for my sins, a weak body, and tottering limbs. I can now only regret the depredations I havecommitted, and wash away with my tears the stains of mytransgressions. How often have I given occasion, both to little fishesand to eels, to deplore the loss of members of their families, which Ihad greedily devoured; but I have now repented, and shall henceforthdo so no more. ' When the little fish had heard this wonderfulconfession it asked: 'What can I do for you?' The heron replied: 'Iwant you only to convey this declaration of mine, with my salutations, to all your acquaintances, with the information that they mayhenceforth live in perfect safety, and need not apprehend anydepredations on my part. There must, however, be covenants and pledgesof security between us. ' The little fish asked: 'How can I trust you, since I am the food on which you subsist, and you cannot be inclinedto dispense with that. ' He said: 'Take this grass and tie it round myneck for a sign that I shall not injure you. ' Accordingly, the littlefish took hold of a blade of grass, which was to serve for the heron'scollar, who then placed his beak near the surface of the water toreceive it, but as soon as the little fish had come within reach, theheron gobbled it up, and this was the end of the promised pledge. Mydear husband, I have narrated this occurrence only to show that wewould, by trusting to any promises of magnanimity that the eagle mightmake to us, only court our own perdition. "

'In spite of all her objections, however, the she-partridge agreed atlast to accompany her husband to the court of the eagle. They startedtogether, travelled for some time, arrived at his abode, and madetheir obeisance to a courtier whose name was Yuyu, whom the malepartridge addressed as follows: "Most noble lord, we are denizens ofan adjoining mountain, where we lived happily till his majesty theeagle crushed all our hopes by making his appearance on our mountainwith his court of birds of prey, destroyed our young on severalsuccessive occasions, and reduced us to despair. I proposed to my wifeto emigrate, and she at last consented, so that we have now arrivedhere and placed ourselves under the wings of your protection. "' Yuyuwas pleased with these words, and replied: "I bid you welcome, andapprove of your sagacity which induced you to seek a refuge at thecourt of our most noble sovereign. I must, however, tell you thatalthough his disposition is righteous, he feeds upon the meat ofanimals, but when the weak and helpless crave his mercy, or implorehis aid, he seldom disappoints them; those, on the contrary, whooppose or endeavour to deceive him must be prepared to fall under hiswrath. He is honest and veracious, because he lives in solitude, andkeeps aloof from intercourse with mankind, because all agree that thesociety of men crushes out all good qualities, and is productive ofmisery. You may now arise, and seek an audience from his majesty, because the opportunity will not present itself often. When you enterand make your obeisance you must watch his humour, which will beexcellent if he has been successful in the chase. Then you will beholdhim social and chatting with his courtiers, whilst the nightingale, the heron, and other birds are singing and dancing for his amusement, and you can then introduce the subject of your petition. But if youbehold him sitting dumb, with bloodshot eyes, or in an angry mood, saynothing if you value your life, and in any case, if you shouldperceive that silence is best, do not venture to speak. "

'After this advice the partridge flew with Yuyu up to a lofty peak ofthe mountain, and alighted in a beautiful garden, fragrant with theperfume of flowers, where the eagle was sitting with his court, whichconsisted of birds of every species. Then Yuyu presented himselfbefore his majesty, and craved an audience for the partridge, which, having been granted, he was admitted and spoke as follows: "Praise beto Allah, who has healed our wound and restored us to life! We livedin trouble and distress, but the justice of your majesty's governmentis the theme of every tongue; all our apprehensions have vanished, andwe hope for security under the wings of your protection, because it issaid that a noble Sultan is to his subjects like a kind father to hischildren, and protects them against all evils. "

'The king replied: "You are welcome in this region; here you may livein safety among the best of neighbours, and I grant you protection. "Accordingly, the partridge returned to his spouse, whom he informed ofthe condescension of his majesty, whose service both accordinglyentered, and whose favour they afterwards gained, so that they livedhappily to the end of their days. '

The 'Merzubán námah' contains also several stories about KesraNausherwan the Just, and his minister Buzarjimehr, but they are notvery interesting. The extracts given above sufficiently show thenature of this work, which puts into the mouths of animals how men andwomen ought to act under various circumstances, and it bears a strongresemblance in many ways to the 'Kalilah wa Dimnah. '

Two stories have been selected from the celebrated Arabic workentitled 'Al--Mustatraf, ' or 'The Gleaner, ' or 'The Collector. ' Thefull title of this work is 'Al-Mustatraf min kell finn al-mustazraf, 'which may be translated thus: 'Gleanings from every kind of Elegant(or Pleasing) Composition. ' The similarity of the first and last wordof the title is attributable to the fondness of the Arabs foralliterative or rhyming titles. As there are several meanings attachedto the word Mustatraf in the dictionaries, it might also beinterpreted as 'The Book of Pleasing Novelties. ' It contains ananthology of anecdotes, stories, proverbs, and elegant extracts byShaikh Muhammad Bin Ahmad Al-Bashihi. The work is mentioned by Fluegelin his edition of Haji Khalfa's great work. 

I. 

Abbas, the chief of the police of the Khalif Mamun, said: 'One day Iwas present in an assembly of the Prince of the Faithful, before whoma man was standing heavily fettered with chains of iron. As soon asthe Khalif perceived me he said: "Abbas, take good care of this man, and produce him again to-morrow. " Accordingly I called for some of mypeople, and they carried him away, because he was so heavily shackledthat he could scarcely move. Considering that I had been ordered totake every care of this prisoner, I concluded that I had better keephim in my own house, in a chamber of which I then confined him. Iasked him what place he had come from, and on his replying that it wasDamascus, I expressed my best wishes for the prosperity of that town, whereat he was astonished. I told him that I had been there, and askedhim about a certain man; he said that he would like to know how Icould be acquainted with him, and on my replying that I had had somebusiness with him, he promised to satisfy my curiosity if I gave himfirst some information. Accordingly I made the following statement:

"When I was with some other officials at Damascus the populationrebelled against us, and even the governor was under the necessity ofescaping by getting himself let down in a basket from his palace. Ialso fled, and whilst doing so the mob pursued me, and I ran into thehouse of the above-mentioned man, who was sitting at the door of it. Isaid to him: 'Help me and Allah will help you!' He received me kindly, and told his wife to put me into a certain room, whilst he remainedsitting at the door. I had scarcely gone in when my pursuers likewiserushed in and insisted on searching the house, which they actuallydid, and would certainly have discovered me had not the man's wifekept them off from the room in which I sat trembling for my life. Whenthe people at last dispersed, the man and his wife comforted me asmuch as they could, and hospitably entertained me in their house forfour months, till every danger had passed away. When I was bold enoughto go out and see what had become of my slaves, I found that they hadall dispersed, and I asked my kind host to allow me to depart toBaghdad. He consented, but when the caravan was starting he insistedon presenting me with a horse, a slave, and all the provisionsrequired for the journey. All these were surprises thrust upon me whenI was about to start, and was wondering how I could possibly travelwithout any of these things. Moreover, during my whole sojourn thiskind man had never asked me my name for fear that I might thereby becompromised. After I had safely arrived in Baghdad I desired many atime to show my gratitude to this man, but could obtain no informationabout him. I still desire to requite his services, and this is thereason why I was so anxious to learn something about him from you. "

'After the man had listened to the above statement he said: "Verily, Allah has enabled you to requite the kindness of that man. " I asked:"How can that be?" and he replied: "I am that man, but the trouble inwhich you see me has hindered you from recognising me. " Then hereminded me of various circumstances, and so established his identitythat I was perfectly convinced of it, and could not restrain myselffrom embracing him most fervently. To my inquiries how he had falleninto the calamity which had overtaken him, he replied:

"A disturbance arose in Damascus similar to the rebellion which hadbroken out when you were there; the Prince of the Believers senttroops and suppressed it, but I, having been suspected as one of theringleaders thereof, was captured by his command, brought as aprisoner to Baghdad, and considered to have forfeited my life, which Ishall certainly lose. I left my family without taking leave, but aslave of mine has followed me here, and will carry back informationabout me. He is to be found at such and such a place, and if you willsend for him I will give him the necessary instructions. I shallconsider it a high favour, and as a reward for all the obligationsunder which you were to me. "

'I told him to put his trust in Allah, and got a smith to relieve himfirst of his irons, then I made him enter the bath, provided him withgood clothes, and sent for his slave, to whom he gave, with tears inhis eyes, the message for his family. I then ordered my people to getready several horses and mules, which I loaded with baggage andprovisions, gave the man a bag of ten thousand dirhems, with anotherof five thousand dinars, and ordered my lieutenant to escort him onhis journey to Damascus as far as Anbar. ' But the man replied: "ThePrince of the Believers considers that I have committed high treason, and will send troops to pursue me; I shall be recaptured and executed, and by allowing me to escape you will endanger your own life. " I said:"Never mind what will became of me, but save your life, and I shallafterwards endeavour to save mine. " He rejoined: "That shall not be, and I cannot leave Baghdad without knowing what has become of you. "Seeing him determined in his purpose, I ordered my lieutenant to takehim to a certain place in the town where he could remain inconcealment till the next day, when he might be informed as to whetherI had extricated myself from the difficulty, or had lost my life, inwhich latter case I should only have repaid him for having risked hisin Damascus to save mine, and after that he could depart. 

'The lieutenant had taken the man away, and I made preparations for mydeath, getting ready my winding-sheet in which my corpse was to beshrouded, when an official on the part of Mamun arrived with thismessage: "The Prince of the Faithful orders you to bring the man withyou. " Accordingly I hastened to the palace, where I found the Khalifsitting and expecting me. The first words he said to me were these: "Iwant to see the man!" I remained silent, and on his uttering them moreemphatically, replied: "Will you please listen to me, O Commander ofthe Believers?" He continued: "I am determined to strike your head offif the man has fled. " I said: "O Prince of the Faithful, the man hasnot escaped, but listen to what I have to say about him, and then youmay act as you deem fit. " He continued: "Speak!" Accordingly Inarrated everything, and said that I was anxious to requite the man insome measure for all the good he had done to me, that I was desirousto save his life even at the cost of my own, if need be, and finishedmy explanation by showing the winding-sheet I had brought with me. After the Khalif had patiently listened, he exclaimed: "His merit issuperior to yours, because he has treated you nobly without knowingyou; whereas you only do so after having enjoyed his beneficence. Idesire to reward him myself. " "The man is here, and would not leaveuntil apprized of my fate; I can produce him at once. " The Khalifsaid: "This trait of his character is yet more noble; go, comfort theman, and bring him here. " Accordingly I departed, and when Iintroduced the man to the Khalif, he received him kindly, offered hima seat, conversed with him till dinner was brought in, of which hemade him partake in his own company. Lastly, the Khalif invested himwith a robe of honour, and wished to appoint him Governor of Damascus, but this he humbly refused. Accordingly, Mamun presented him with tenhorses saddled and bridled, ten mules caparisoned, and ten bags, eachof which contained ten thousand dinars; he also gave him ten slaves, with animals to ride upon, and a letter to the Governor of Damascus toabsolve him from the payment of taxes. This man afterwardscorresponded with Mamun, and when a courier arrived from Damascus theKhalif used to say to me, "Abbas! a letter from your friend hasarrived. "'

II. 

One night Harun-ar-Rashid was quite sleepless, and said to his vizier, Jaafar, the son of Yahya, the Barmekide: 'I cannot sleep this night; Ifeel oppressed, and do not know what to do. ' The servant Masrur, whohappened to be standing near, burst out laughing at these words, andthe Khalif continued: 'What are you laughing for? Do you mock me orwish to show your levity?' Masrur said: 'I swear by your relationshipto the Prince of Apostles that I have done this unwittingly; but lastevening I was near the castle, and walked to the bank of the Tigris, where I saw many persons assembled around a man who made them laugh, and just now I recollected some of his words, which caused me tosmile; his name is Ben Almugázeli, and I crave pardon from theCommander of the Faithful. ' Then Rashid said: 'Bring him here thismoment. ' Accordingly Masrur went to Ben Almugázeli and said to him:'The Commander of the Faithful wants you. ' He replied: 'To hear is toobey!' And Masrur continued: 'But on the condition that if he presentsyou with anything, one-fourth of it will belong to you, and the restto me. ' The man rejoined: 'No, I must have one-third of it and you theother two-thirds. ' Masrur would not agree to this proposal, but atlast consented after a great deal of haggling. When he was admittedand had made his salutations, the Khalif said: 'If you make me laugh Ishall give you five hundred dinars, but if not I shall give you threeblows with this sock. ' Now Ben Almugázeli said to himself: "What isthe odds if I get three strokes with the sock?" because he thought itwas empty. Accordingly he began to jest and to play tricks at whichlow people might have laughed, but not Rashid, who did not even smile. The man was first astonished, then grieved, and at last frightenedwhen Rashid said: "Now you have deserved the blows. " He then took upthe sock and twisted it, but at the bottom there were some balls, eachof which weighed two drachms. When he had struck Ben Almugázeli once, the latter yelled pitifully, but recollecting the condition Masrur hadimposed upon him, he exclaimed: "Mercy, O Commander of the Faithful, listen to two words of mine. " He said: "Speak what you like. " The mancontinued: "I have promised Masrur to let him have two-thirds of thebounty I might receive, and to keep one-third for myself, and to thishe agreed only after much bargaining. Now the Commander of theFaithful has decided that the bounty shall consist of three blows, ofwhich my share would be one, and Masrur's two. I have received mine, and now is his turn to take his. " Rashid laughed, called for Masrur, and struck him; Masrur groaned from pain, and said: "I present himwith the remainder. " The Khalif laughed and ordered them to bepresented with one thousand dinars, of which each received fivehundred, and Ben Almugázeli went away grateful. '

In this work there are several other stories concerning variousKhalifs, the Barmekide family, and other people, but the extractsgiven above are sufficient to show the nature of the volume. 

Two short anecdotes are taken from the 'Sihr-ul-oyoon, ' or 'Magic ofthe eyes, ' a work known to Haji Khalfa, and noted by Fluegel in hislexicon. This book contains seven chapters, with some drawings of theeye, and an appendix consisting entirely of poetry, which, however, isalso interspersed throughout the work, excepting in the chapterstreating on the anatomy, the infirmities of, and the remedies for theeye. 

I. 

Moghairah bin Shabah states that he never was so cunningly deceived asby a youth of the Benou-ul-Háreth. He intended to sue for the hand ofa girl of that tribe, when this youth, who stood near him, said: 'OAmir, you have no need of her. ' 'Why?' 'I saw a man kiss her. 'Accordingly Moghairah went away, but heard some time afterwards thatthe said youth had married the girl himself. On meeting againMoghairah said to the youth: 'Did you not tell me that you had seen aman kiss her. ' 'Certainly I did, ' the young man replied, 'but that manwas her father. '

II. 

A man happened to find on the road a silver brooch, which women usefor applying collyrium to their eyes. This pin was handsome, and heconcluded that the girl who had lost it must have very beautiful eyes. He indulged so much in this fancy that he conceived an affection forthe owner of the brooch, and was fond of showing the precious articleto his acquaintances. One day a friend paid him a visit, and after thewine they had drunk had taken effect, he took out the said broochaccording to his wont, kissed it, and wept over it. The friend, whoknew the brooch, asked whence he had obtained it, but he replied:'Pray do not question me, I am in love with the proprietress of it; myheart is melting, and it is so dear to me that I get jealous whenother eyes beside my own look at it. ' The friend said: 'I shall bringabout a meeting between you and your mistress. ' The other asked, 'Whocould procure me that felicity?' The friend went away, but returned ina short time bearing a covered platter, which he placed before him, saying, 'Uncover this basin, ' and lo! it contained a female head, weltering in its own gore, and on beholding it the man nearly faintedwith grief. His friend, however, said: 'Be not dismayed, but tell mehow you obtained this brooch, which I had presented to my wife, whosehead is before you. ' He replied that he had found the brooch on acertain day on the road, and described the spot, adding that heimagined the owner of it must be beautiful, and conceived a warmaffection for her, but that he had never seen her face, and knew notwho she might have been. The friend said: 'This is true enough, because she told me one day that she had lost it; hence no blame restson you. ' The two men parted; the would-be lover, however, took thismelancholy event so much to heart that he not only repented of hisfolly, but died of grief. 

The following curious philosophic discourse is taken from the'Siraj-ul-Mulûk, ' or Lamp of Kings, a well-known work composed aboutA. D. 1126, and typographed at Cairo A. D. 1872:

'Allah, the Most High, has said (Koran, vi. , verse 38): "There is nokind of beast on earth, nor fowl which flieth with its wing, but thesame is a people like unto you. " Allah the Most High has accordinglyestablished a resemblance between us and all the animals. It is wellknown that they are not like us in their figures and forms asperceived by the eye, but in their demeanour; and there is not a humanbeing who does not possess some qualities peculiar to animals. Whenyou perceive that a man's character is unusual, you must endeavour tofind out the qualities of the animal with which it may be compared, and judge of him according to these; and to avoid allmisunderstanding, and to maintain intercourse with him, you mustbehave towards him in conformity with them. 

'Accordingly, when you see an ignorant man of rude behaviour, strongin body, whose anger overpowers him at any moment, you are to comparehim to a tiger, and there is an Arab proverb: "He is more stupid thana tiger. " When you see a tiger, you avoid him, and do not fight withhim, therefore towards an individual of this kind you must behave inthe same manner. 

'When you observe a man wantonly attacking the reputation of others, compare him to a dog, because it is his nature. When a dog barks atyou it does not trouble you much, and you go your own way. You mustdeal in this manner with such men, because they are like dogs whoassault others without any provocation. 

'When you perceive that a man's nature is to say "Yes" when you say"No, " and "No" if you say "Yes, " compare him to an ass, because whenyou approach him he recedes, and when you move away he will movetowards you. You must put up with your donkey, and neither separatefrom him nor insult him. Deal in the same way with such a person. 

'When you perceive a man searching out the weaknesses or shortcomingsof people, compare him to a fly, which settles on a carcase, and thengluts itself with the vilest parts of it, such as the rotten flesh andthe filthy offal. 

'When you observe a Sultan taking the lives, and confiscating theproperty of his subjects, consider him to be a lion, and be on yourguard that he does not injure you. 

'When you see a wicked man full of tricks and boastings, compare himto a fox. 

'If you happen to meet with a tale-bearer who foments enmity amongfriends, consider him to be a "Zeriban, " which is a small beast offetid smell, so that when two persons fall out with each other, theArabs say that "a Zeriban has passed between them. " It is, indeed, thepeculiarity of this animal that an assembly disperses when it enters, accordingly it is driven off as soon as perceived, and a tale-bearerought to be dealt with similarly. 

'When you observe that a man loathes to listen to intelligentconversation, and hates meetings of learned men, but is fond ofgossip, all kinds of nonsense, and scandals of society, compare him tothe May-bug, which delights in impure exhalations, and lovesdunghills, but hates the perfumes of musk or of roses, which actuallykill it when sprinkled upon it. 

'If you meet an individual displaying a great deal of piety outwardly, but always intriguing to acquire property, to enrich himself byunrighteous means, and to cheat widows and orphans, consider him to bea wolf:

 "The wolf is so devout; You see him on his knees, He nicely prays and sighs. But when his game is near, He falls upon it speedily And tears it all to pieces. "

'When you discover a liar consider him to be like a dead man, who cangive no information, and with whom no one can associate. A liar mayalso be compared to an ostrich which buries all its eggs in the sand, but leaves one upon the surface, and one close under it, whilst allthe others are deeply concealed. When an inexperienced man perceivesthat egg he takes it, and perhaps also the one close below it, andafter scraping up the sand a little, and finding nothing more goesaway; whilst a person who knows this habit of the ostrich does notstop searching until he has got possession of all the eggs. You mustdeal in the same manner with a liar, and not believe him till you getto the bottom of his story, i. E. Until you elicit the actual truth. 

'When you observe that a man's whole attention is absorbed inendeavours to make a good appearance by keeping his clothes nice, andapprehensive lest they should be dirtied in any way, always pickingany little straws that might adhere to them, and constantly adjustinghis turban, consider him to be a peacock, whose nature is always toadmire his own person, to stalk about majestically, to display theplumage of his tail, and to solicit praise of his beauty. 

'If you become acquainted with a rancorous person who never forgetsthe slightest insult, but avenges himself for it even after aconsiderable lapse of time, compare him to a camel, for the Arabstruly say of such a man that "he is more rancorous than a camel. "Avoid such a man as you would an ill-natured camel. 

'When you meet a hypocrite, who is different from what he appears tobe, compare him to the Yarbu, _i. E. _ the mouse of the desert, whichhas two apertures to its lair, the one for an entrance, and the otherfor an exit, so that it always cheats the hunter who digs for it. '

Yet another story-book may be quoted, viz. , the 'Ilam en Nâs, ' orWarnings for Men, containing historical tales and anecdotes of thetime of the early Khalifates. Some of these were translated by Mrs. Godfrey Clerk in 1873 (King and Co. ), and her little volume alsocontains a very good genealogical table of the families of theProphet, and of the Rashidin (or 'rightly directed, ' _i. E. _ Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali), the Omaiyide, and the Abbaside Khalifs. 

Among the many works of Arabic literature one of the most interestingand the most amusing is Ibn Khallikan's celebrated BiographicalDictionary. The author must have been a very intelligent and a veryindustrious man, for his volumes contain an enormous amount ofinformation about many hundred Arabs. This work is rendered all themore readable and all the more amusing by the many anecdotes relatedin connection with their lives, and a few of these stories are nowgiven below. 

I. 

Ibn Abbas, son of Abbas, uncle of Muhammad, was one of the ablestinterpreters of the Koran. It was owing to his efforts that the studyof the poems, composed before the introduction of Islamism, became ofsuch importance to the Muslims, for he frequently quoted verses of theancient poets in proof of the explanation he gave of differentpassages of the Koran, and he used to say: 'When you meet with adifficulty in the Koran look for its solution in the poems of theArabs, for these are the registers of the Arabic nation. ' On beingasked how he had acquired his extensive knowledge, he replied: 'Bymeans of an inquiring tongue and an intelligent heart. '

It may here perhaps be stated that the Koran, composed avowedly in thepurest Arabic, offered many difficulties to those who were notacquainted with the idiom of the desert Arabs, a race who alone spokethe language in its perfection. The study of the ancient poets wastherefore considered as necessary for the intelligence of the Koran, and their poems, often obscure from the intricacy of theirconstruction and their obsolete terms, required the assistance ofgrammatical analysis and philology to render them comprehensible. 

II. 

Ibn Faris Ar-Razi, the Philologist, is the author of these verses:

'Well, some things succeed and some fail: when my heart is filled withcares I say: "One day perhaps they may be dispelled. " A cat is mycompanion; books the friends of my heart; and a lamp my belovedconsort. '

III. 

Badi Az-Zaman al-Hamadani, the author of some beautiful epistles andexcellent essays, which last Hariri took as a model in the compositionof his, wrote as follows about death: 'Death is awful till it comes, and then it is found light; its touch seems grating till felt, andthen it is smooth; the world is so hostile and its injustice so greatthat death is the lightest of its inflictions, the least of itswrongs. Look, then, to the right; do you see aught but affliction?Look to the left; do you see aught but woe?'

IV. 

Abu Wathila Iyas Al-Kadi was renowned for his excessive acuteness ofmind, observation, and penetration. Many stories are told about him inconnection with these qualities, which are really astonishing. It isrelated of him that he said: 'I was never worsted in penetration butby one man: I had taken my seat in the court of judgment at Busra, when a person came before me and gave testimony that a certain garden, of which he mentioned the boundaries, belonged to a man whom he named. As I had some doubts of his veracity, I asked him how many trees werein that garden, and he said to me, after a short silence: "How long isit since our lord the Kadi has been giving judgment in this hall?" Itold him the time. "How many beams, " said he, "are there in the roof?"On which I acknowledged that he was in the right, and I received histestimony. '

V. 

It is a curious circumstance that Homer the Greek poet, Radaki thePersian poet, and Bashshar bin Burd the Arabian poet, were all blind. Here is a specimen of one of the verses of the last-named:

'Yes, my friends! my ear is charmed by a person in that tribe; for theear is sometimes enamoured sooner than the eye. You say that I am ledby one whom I never saw; know that the ear as well as the eye caninform the mind of facts. '

He composed also the following verse, which is the most gallant of anymade by the poets of that epoch:

'Yes, by Allah! I love the magic of your eyes, and yet I dread theweapons by which so many lovers fell. '

VI. 

Several sayings of Al-Hasan bin Sahl, the vizier to the KhalifAl-Mamun, have been preserved. Once he himself wrote at the end of aletter of recommendation, dictated to his secretary: 'I have been toldthat on the day of judgment a man will be questioned respecting theuse he made of the influence given him by his rank in the world, inthe same manner as he will be questioned respecting the use he made ofthe superfluity of his wealth. '

Again he said to his sons: 'My sons, learn the use of language; it isby it that man holds his preeminence over other animals; the higherthe skill which you attain in the use of language, the nearer youapproach to the ideal of human nature. '

VII. 

It is related of Sari-as Sakati, the celebrated Sufi, that he saidthat for twenty years he never ceased imploring Divine pardon forhaving once exclaimed, 'Praise be to God!' and on being asked thereason he said: 'A fire broke out in Baghdad, and a person came up tome and told me that my shop had escaped, on which I uttered thesewords; and even to this moment I repent of having said so, because itshowed that I wished better to myself than to others. '

VIII. 

Al-Ahnaf bin Kais, whose prudence was proverbial among the Arabs, usedto say: 'I have followed three rules of conduct, which I now mentionmerely that the man of reflection may profit by my example--I neverinterfered between two parties unless invited by them to do so; Inever went to the door of these people (meaning princes) unless sentfor by them; and I never rose from my place to obtain a thing when allmen were anxious to possess it. '

IX. 

Abu Yazid Taifur al-Bastaimi, the famous ascetic, being asked how hehad acquired his knowledge of the spiritual world, answered that itwas by means of a hungry belly and naked body. He used to say: 'Whenyou see a man possessing miraculous powers, so as even to mount intothe air, let not that deceive you, but see if he observes God'scommands and prohibitions, if he keeps within the bounds imposed byreligion, and if he performs the duties which it prescribes. '

X. 

Abul Aswad ad-Duwali, the inventor of grammar, in intelligence one ofthe most perfect of men, and in reason one of the most sagacious, wasnotorious for his avarice, and he used to say: 'If we listened to thedemands made by the poor for our money, we should soon be worse offthan they. ' He said also to his sons: 'Strive not to rival AlmightyGod in generosity, for He is the most bountiful and the most glorious;had He pleased He would have given ample wealth to all men, so strivenot to be generous lest you die of starvation. ' It is also relatedthat Abul Aswad had an attack of the palsy, and that he used to go tothe market himself, though scarcely able to draw his legs after him, and yet he was rich, and possessed both male and female slaves. Aperson who knew this accosted him one day, and said: 'God hasdispensed you from the necessity of moving about on your own business, why do you not remain seated at home?' To which he replied: 'No; I goin and out, and the eunuch says "He is coming, " and the boy says "Heis coming, " whereas, were I to continue sitting in the house, thesheep would urine upon me without any person's preventing them. '

XI. 

It is related that on a dispute between the Sunnites and Shiites ofBaghdad about the relative merits of Abu Bakr and Ali, both partiesagreed to abide by the opinion of the Shaikh Abul Faraj bin Al-Jauzi. They consequently deputed a person, who questioned him on the subjectwhen he was seated in the preacher's chair. The one reply which hemade bears in Arabic two different meanings--the first, that the bestof them was he whose daughter was married to the other man; and thesecond, that the best of them was he who had married the daughter ofthe other man. He then withdrew promptly, lest he should be questionedfurther, and the Sunnites said: 'He means Abu Bakr, because hisdaughter Ayesha was married to the Prophet, ' 'Nay, ' said the Shiites, 'he means Ali, because Fatima, the Prophet's daughter, was married tohim. ' The answer was certainly very clever; had it even been theresult of long reflection and deep consideration, it would have beenadmirable, but coming as it did without any previous preparation, itwas still more so. 

XII. 

Shibab Ad-Din (flambeau of the faith) as-Suhrawardi was a pious andholy Shaikh, most assiduous in his spiritual exercises, and thepractice of devotion, and successfully guided a great number of Sufisin their efforts to obtain perfection. Many persons wrote to him forhis opinion on circumstances which concerned themselves, and one wroteas follows: 'My lord, --If I cease to work I shall remain in idleness, and if I work I am filled with self-satisfaction; which is best?' Tothis the Shaikh replied: 'Work, and ask Almighty God to pardon thyself-satisfaction. ' The following is one of his verses:

'If I contemplate you, I am all eyes; and if I think of you I am allheart. '

XIII. 

Abu Ali Al-Jubbai was an able master in the science of dogmatictheology, and had at one time a pupil named Abul Hasan Al-Ashari. Itis related that one day the two had the following discussion. Al-Ashari propounded to his master the case of three brothers, one ofwhom was a true believer, virtuous and pious; the second an infidel, adebauchee, and a reprobate; and the third an infant; they all died, and Al-Ashari wished to know what had become of them. To thisAl-Jubbai answered: 'The virtuous brother holds a high position inParadise, the infidel is in the depths of hell, and the child is amongthose who have obtained salvation. ' 'Suppose now, ' said Al-Ashari, 'that the child should wish to ascend to the place occupied by hisvirtuous brother, would he be allowed to do so?' 'No, ' repliedAl-Jubbai, 'it would be said to him: "Thy brother arrived at this placethrough his numerous works of obedience towards God, and thou hast nosuch works to set forward. "' 'Suppose, then, ' said Al-Ashari, 'thatthe child say, "That is not my fault; you did not let me live longenough, neither did you give me the means of proving my obedience. "''In that case, ' answered Al-Jubbai, 'the Almighty would say: "I knewthat if I allowed thee to live thou wouldst have been disobedient, andincurred the severe punishment of hell; I therefore acted for thyadvantage. "' 'Well, ' said Al-Ashari, 'and suppose the infidel brotherwere here to say: "O God of the Universe! since you knew what awaitedhim, you must have known what awaited me; why, then, did you act forhis advantage and not for mine?"' Al-Jubbai had not a word to offer inreply. This discussion proves that the Almighty elects some for mercy, and others for punishment, and that his acts are not the results ofany motive whatsoever. 

XIV. 

It is related that As-Shafi said: 'There are five men on whom peoplemust rely for the nourishment of their minds: he who wishes to becomelearned in jurisprudence must have recourse to Abu Hanifah; he whodesires to become skilled in poetry must apply to Zoheir bin AliSulma, the author of one of the Mua'llakas, or suspended poems atMecca; he who would like to become well acquainted with the history ofthe Muslim conquests must obtain his information from Muhammad binIshak; he who wishes to become deeply learned in grammar must haverecourse to Al-Kisai; and he who seeks to be acquainted with theinterpretations of the Koran must apply to Mukatil bin Sulaiman. '

XV. 

There are several stories current as to how the Khalif Omar binAl-Khattab took upon himself the title of 'Commander of the Faithful. 'One is that Omar was one day holding a public sitting, when he said:'By Allah! I do not know what we must say. Abu Bakr was the successorof the Apostle of God, and I am the successor of the successor ofGod's Apostle. Is there any title that can answer?' Those who werepresent said: 'Commander (Amir) will do. ' 'Nay, ' said Omar, 'you areall commanders. ' On this Al-Mughira said: 'We are the faithful, andyou are our Commander. ' 'Then, ' said Omar, 'I am the Commander of theFaithful. '

XVI. 

Abu Ali Yahya, the vizier of Harun-ar-Rashid, was the son of Khalid, and the grandson of Barmek. Yahya was highly distinguished for wisdom, nobleness of mind, and elegance of language. One of his sayings was:'Three things indicate the degree of intelligence possessed by him whodoes them: the bestowing of gifts, the drawing up of letters, and theacting as ambassador. ' He used to say to his sons: 'Write down thebest things which you hear; learn by heart the best things which youwrite down; and in speaking utter the best things which you havelearned by heart. '

XVII. 

Ibn As-Sikkit, the philologist, related that Muhammad bin As-Summakused to say: 'He who knows mankind humours them; he who has not thatknowledge thwarts them; and the main point in humouring mankind is toabstain from thwarting them. ' The neglect of carrying out this maximcost As-Sikkit his life. One day, whilst he was with the KhalifAl-Mutwakkil, that prince's two sons, Al-Motazz and Al-Muwaiyad, camein, and the Khalif said to him: 'Tell me, Yakub, which you likebest--these two sons of mine, or Al-Hasan and Al-Hussain, the sons ofAli. ' Ibn As-Sikkit answered by depreciating the merits of the twoprinces, and giving to Al-Hasan and Al-Hussain the praise to which theywere well entitled. On this Al-Mutwakkil ordered his Turkish guards tochastise him, and they threw him down and trod on his belly. He wasthen carried to his house, where he died two days afterwards, A. D. 859. 

XVIII. 

Three men met together; one of them expressed a wish to obtain athousand pieces of gold, so that he might trade with them; the otherwished for an appointment under the Emir of the Muslims; the thirdwished to possess the Emir's wife, who was the handsomest of women, and had great political influence. Yusuf bin Tashifin, the Emir of theMuslims, being informed of what they said, sent for the men, bestowedone thousand dinars on him who wished for that sum, gave anappointment to the other, and said to him who wished to possess thelady: 'Foolish man! what induced you to wish for that which you cannever obtain?' He then sent him to her, and she placed him in a tent, where he remained three days, receiving each day, one and the samekind of food. She had him then brought to her, and said: 'What did youeat these days past?' He replied: 'Always the same thing. ' 'Well, 'said she, 'all women are the same thing!' She then ordered some moneyand a dress to be given him, after which she dismissed him. 

The following anecdotes have been gathered from various sources. 

I. 

A certain shepherd had a dog of which he was very fond, and whichhaving, to his great grief, died, was buried by him with every mark ofaffection and regret. The Kadi of the village, whose ill-will theshepherd had in some way incurred, hearing of this, ordered him to bebrought before him on the serious charge of profanity in having mockedthe ceremonies of the Muhammadan religion, and buried an uncleananimal with sacred rites. On being asked what he had to say in hisdefence, the prisoner thus addressed the magistrate: 'If yourreverence will be pleased to hear my story, you will, I am sure, excuse me. My dog's mother died when he was quite a puppy, and he wasbrought up by a she-goat of my flock, who adopted him. When she diedin her turn she left him all her property, consisting of several fineyoung kids. Now when my dog was taken ill, and found himself at thepoint of death, I asked him what I should do with the kids whichbelonged to him, and he replied: "Give them to his reverence theKadi. " I thought the animal so sensible for this that I gave himMuslim burial. ' 'Quite right, ' said his reverence. 'What else was thelamented deceased pleased to observe?'

II. 

A knowledge of the language of birds and beasts is regarded as thegreatest divine gift, and was expressly vouchsafed, according to theKoranic legend, to Solomon, the son of David. It is related that oneday Solomon was returning to his palace when he saw a cock and hensparrow sitting near the gateway, and overheard the former telling thelatter that he was the person who had designed, and planned, and builtall the surroundings. On hearing this Solomon remarked to the malebird that he must know he was telling a fearful lie, and that nobodywould believe him. 'That is true, ' replied the sparrow, 'nobodyprobably will believe my story except my wife; she believes implicitlyeverything that I say. '

III. 

One day a king was sailing in a boat with a negro slave, who was soseasick that his groans and lamentations disturbed the royal repose. Adoctor who happened to be present undertook to keep the slave quiet, and, on receiving permission to do so, ordered him to be thrownoverboard, which was promptly done. The poor wretch managed withdifficulty to catch hold of the rudder of the boat, and, being takenon board once more, sat shivering in a corner, and did not utteranother sound. The king, delighted with this result, asked the doctorhow he had silenced the fellow. 'Your Majesty will see, ' was thereply, 'he had never before experienced the inconvenience of beingdrowned, and did not properly appreciate the security of a boat. '

IV. 

One day the Khalif Harun-ar-Rashid and his jester, the poet Abu Nuwas, were disputing as to the truth of an axiom laid down by Abu Nuwas, that 'an excuse was often worse than the crime, ' and the poet offeredto convince the monarch of it before the night was over. The Khalif, with a grim humour peculiarly his own, promised to take off hisjester's head if he failed to do so, and went out in a rage. Afterawhile Harun came in a somewhat surly temper to his harem, and thefirst thing which greeted him was a kiss from a rough-bearded face. Oncalling out violently for a light and an executioner, he found thathis assailant was Abu Nuwas himself. 'What on earth, you scoundrel, doyou mean by this conduct?' asked the enraged Sovereign. 'I beg yourMajesty's most humble pardon, ' said Abu Nuwas, 'I thought it was yourMajesty's favourite wife. ' 'What!' shrieked Harun, 'why the excuse isworse than the crime. ' 'Just what I promised to prove to yourMajesty, ' replied Abu Nuwas, and retired closely followed by one ofthe imperial slippers. 

V. 

An Arab whose camel had strayed swore an oath that he would, onfinding it, sell it for one dirhem. When he had again obtainedpossession of the animal he repented of his oath, but tied a cat tothe neck of the camel and shouted: 'Who will buy a camel for onedirhem, and a cat for a hundred dirhems? But I will not sell themseparately. ' A man who was there said: 'How cheap would this camel beif it had no collar on the neck!' Something of the same kind happenedin France the other day. A peasant died, leaving his property to besold by his wife. Among other things there was a dog and a horse, which the woman put up for sale together, saying that the dog's pricewas twenty pounds, and the horse's one pound, but that they must besold together. It turned out that the deceased husband had left thedog to his wife, and the horse to another relation, the moniesrealized by the sale of each to be paid to the respective parties. 

VI. 

An Arab of the desert said to his boy: 'O son! on the day ofresurrection thou wilt be asked what merit thou hast gained, and notfrom whom thou art descended; that is to say, thou wilt be asked whatthy merit is, and not who thy father was. '

VII. 

A learned man relates the following: 'I stood with a friend on a roadconversing with him when a woman halted opposite to me, looking at mesteadfastly. When this staring had passed all bounds, I despatched myslave to ask the woman what she was listening to. He came back andreported that the woman had said: "My eyes had committed a great sin. I intended to inflict a punishment upon them, and could devise noneworse than looking at that hideous face. "'

There are some good verses in the Arabic descriptive of the placeswhere certain Arabs wished to be buried. It was Abu Mihjan, theThackifite, who chose the vineyard. 

 'Bury me, when I die, by the roots of the vine, The moisture thereof will distil into my bones; Bury me not in the open plain, for then I much fear That no more again shall I taste the flavour of the grape. '

 Another version:

 'When the Death angel cometh mine eyes to close, Dig my grave 'mid the vines on the hill's fair side; For though deep in earth may my bones repose, The juice of the grape shall their food provide. Oh, bury me not in a barren land, Or Death will appear to me dread and drear! While fearless I'll wait what he hath in hand If the scent of the vineyard my spirit cheer. '

On the other hand, some of the wild people prefer the hill slopes, andan example is given in the address of the dying Bedouin to his tribe:

 'O bear with you my bones where the camel bears his load, And bury me before you, if buried I must be; And let me not be buried 'neath the burden of the vine, But high upon the hill whence your sight I ever see! As you pass along my grave cry aloud, and name your names, The crying of your names shall revive the bones of me, I have fasted through my life with my friends, and in my death I will feast when we meet on that day of joy and glee. '

The French poet, Alfred de Musset's, gentle verses in his elegy toLucie, and which have been engraved on his tomb in Paris, atPère-Lachaise, run as follows:

 'When I shall die, dear friends, aslant My silent grave a willow plant; I love its foliage weeping near, To me its colour's sweet and dear; Its shadow gray will lightly fall Upon my tomb--a mourning pall, And will likewise do the keeping Of the ground where I am sleeping. '

APPENDIX. 

LIST OF TRANSLATIONS

_Published under the patronage of the Old Oriental Translation Fund_. 

=From the Persian=. 

 1. Memoirs of the Emperor Jehanghir. 2. History of the Afghans. 3. The Adventures of Hatim Tai. 4. The Life of Sheikh Muhammad Ali Hazin. 5. Autobiographical Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Timur. 6. The Life of Hafiz ul Mulk Hafiz Rehmut Khan. 7. The Geographical Works of Sadik Isfahani. 8. Firdusi's Shah Nameh. 9. Private Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Humayun. 10. History of the Mahomedan Power in India during the Last Century. 11. Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia. 12. Mirkhond's History of the Early Kings of Persia. 13. The Political and Statistical History of Guzerat. 14. Chronique d'Abou Djafar Muhammad Tabari. 15. Laili and Majnun. 16. Practical Philosophy of the Mahomedan People. 17. Specimens of the Popular Poetry of Persia. 18. History of Hyder Naik, otherwise called Nuwab Hyder Ali. 19. The Dabistan, or School of Manners. 20. History of the Reign of Tipu Sultan. 21. Historical Memoirs of Early Conquerors of Hindustan, and Founders of the Ghaznavide Dynasty. 

=From the Arabic=. 

 1. The Travels of Ibn Batuta. 2. Travels of Marcarius, Patriarch of Antioch. 3. The Algebra of Muhammad Ben Musa. 4. History of the First Settlement of the Mahomedans in Malabar. 5. Alfiyya, ou la Quintessence de la Grammaire Arabe. 6. Haji Khalfæ Lexicon Encyclopædicum et Bibliographicum. 7. The History of the Temple of Jerusalem. 8. Histoire des Sultans Mamelouks de l'Égypte. 9. The History of the Mahomedan Dynasties in Spain. 10. El-Mas'udi's Historical Encyclopædia, entitled 'Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems. '11. Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary. 12. Makamat, or Rhetorical Anecdotes of Abul Kasem al Hariri of Basra. 13. The Chronology of Ancient Nations, by Albiruni. 

=From the Sanscrit=. 

1. Kalidasæ Raghuvansa Carmen. 2. Harivansa, ou Histoire de Famille de Hari. 3. The Sánkhya Káriká, or Memorial Verses on the Sánkhya Philosophy. 4. Rig Yeda Sanhita. 5. Kumara Sambhava. 6. The Vishnu Purana, a System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition. 7. Sama Veda. 8. Kalidasa, the Birth of the War God. 

=From the Chinese=. 

1. Han Koong Tsew, or the Sorrows of Hen--a Tragedy. 2. The Fortunate Union--A Romance. 3. Hoe Lan Ki--A Drama. 4. Le Livre des Récompenses et des Peines. 5. Mémoires sur les Contrées occidentales. 

=From The Japonais-Chinois=. 

1. San Kokf Tsou Ban To Sets; ou, Aperçu général des trois Royaumes. 2. Annales des Empereurs du Japon. 

=From the Turkish=. 

1. History of the War in Bosnia during 1837-38-39. 2. History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks. 3. Annals of the Turkish Empire, A. D. 1591 to 1659. 4. Narratives of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

=From the Armenian=. 

1. The History of Vartan, and of the Battle of the Armenians. 2. Chronique de Matthieu d'Edesse. 

=From The Cingalese=. 

1. Yakkun Nattannawa and Kolan Nattannawa, two Cingalese poems. 

=From the Coptic=. 

1. The Apostolic Constitutions, or Canons of the Apostles. 

=From the Ethiopic=. 

1. The Didascalia, or Apostolical Constitutions of the Abyssinian Church. 

=From the Hebrew=. 

1. The Chronicles of Rabbi Joseph Ben Joshua Ben Meir. 

=From the Hindustani=. 

1. Les Aventures de Kamrup. 

=From the Malay=. 

1. Memoirs of a Malayan Family. 

=From the Maghadi=. 

1. The Kalpa Sutra and Nava Tatva. Two works illustrative of the Jain Religion and Philosophy. 

=From the Syriac=. 

1. Spicilegium Syriacum; containing remains of Bardesan, Meliton, Ambrose, and Mara Bar Serapion. 

=Miscellaneous=. 

1. Miscellaneous Translations, two volumes, 1831-34. 2. Translations from the Chinese and Armenian. 3. A Description of the Burmese Empire. 4. Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus. 5. Histoire de la Littérature Hindoui et Hindustani. 6. Biographical Notices of Persian Poets. 7. The Poems of the Huzailis, edited in Arabic. 

INDEX. 

A. 

Aasha (Al), the poet, 30, 77, 82

Abbas, uncle of Muhammad, 3, 7

Abbasides, the, 7, 12

Abbaside Khalifs, the most celebrated, 12, 96

Abbaside Khalifs, list of, 19

Abd-al-Hamid, the secretary, 95

Abd-Allah bin Hilal, the translator, 90

Abd-Allah bin Rewaha, the poet, 34

Abd-Allah bin Zobeir, the politician, 34

Abd-ar-Rahman I. Of Spain, 8

Abd-ar-Rahman II. Of Spain, 9

Abd-ar-Rahman III. Of Spain, 9, 11, 102

Abdul-Muttalib, grandfather of Muhammad, 120, 121

Abdul Wahab, the reformer, 16

Abode of Wisdom, 106

Abraham, the father of three religions, 144

Abu Awana, the traditionist, 38

Abu Bakr, the Khalifah, 4, 18, 123, 137, 147

Abu Bakr as Sauli, the editor of poems, 77, 83, 84, 101

Abu Hatim es Sejastani, the philologist, editor of poems and author, 76

Abu Nuwas, the poet, 77, 79-82

Abu Obaida, the general, 4

Abu Obaida, the philologist, 60, 61

Abu Othman, the philologist, 62, 76

Abu Sa'ud, the mufti, 112

Abu Sofyan, the politician and Companion, 34, 137

Abu Sulaiman Dawud ez Zahari, the imam, 38

Abu Tammam, the poet, 76, 77

Abu Thaleb, uncle of Muhammad, 121, 125

Abu Zaid, the traditionist, 38

Abu Zaid bin Aus, the editor of poems, 76

Abul Abbas as Saffah, 7, 19

Abul Aina, the philologist, 63

Abul Ala-al-Maari, the philologist and poet, 84

Abul Atahya, the poet, 77, 78

Abul Faraj, the historian, 97

Abul Faraj al Ispahani, 77, 83, 84, 87

Abul Feda, the historian, 97, 108, 109

Abul Khair, or Ahmed bin Mustafa, 55, 113, 115

Abul Mashar (Albumasar), the astronomer, 24, 42

Ahmed-bin-ud Dmveri, the author, 58

Akhfash (Al), the grammarian, 49

Akhtal (Al), the poet, 77, 78, 82

Alchemists, 40 (Khalid bin Yazid, Jaafar as Sadik, Jaber bin Hayam, each indexed separately. )

Ali bin Abu Thaleb, the Khalifah, 5, 6, 19, 123, 127

Ali bin Ridhwan, the philosopher, 65, 69, 70

Ali bin Yunis, the astronomer, 43

Amina, mother of Muhammad, 121

Amr bin Al-Aasi, the general, 4, 129, 147

Amra-al-Kais (Amriolkais), the poet, 28, 79, 80

Amru, the poet, 29

Analysis of twelve stories from the 'Arabian Nights, ' 157-174

Anbari (Al), the grammarian, 49

Anecdotes, eighteen from Ibn Khalhkan's Biographical Dictionary, 217-228

Anecdotes from various sources, 228

Animal fables and stories, 153, 156

Ansari (Al), the philologist, 62

'Antar, ' a Bedouin romance, 184, 185

Antara, the poet, 28

Arab verses about burial places, 233

Arabia, description of, 1, 2; history of, 2; detached from the Abbasides, 15; semi-independent, 16; Turkish dealings with, 16; Wahhabi movement in 16; Egyptian dealings with, 17; Wahhabism in 17; present government of, 17; future prospects of 18

Arabian learning, 10, 24

'Arabian Nights, ' The. Date of their commencement 152, 153; the oldest part of the work, 153; the oldest tales and stories, 154; the remaining ones, 154; the sources from which they sprang, 152, 180; many authors composed the work, 153-180; compared with the 'Kathá Sarit Ságara', 181; remarks on the 'Nights' and 'Antar, ' 186; Galland's translation of, 154, 175, 176; Payne's, 155, and Burton's 155; stories from, 157-174

Arabic language, 23, 24

Arabic literature, decline of, 117, 118 its former position, 117; its present state, 118

Arabic literature, translation of, vii. 

Arabic story books, 151, 152, 184, 188, 192, 201, 210, 212, 216

Asmai (Al), the philologist, 60, 61, 62

Asmai (Al), supposed author of 'Antar, ' 184

Astronomers, 41 (Fezari (Al), Abul Mashar, Farghani (Al), Battani (Al), Ali bin Yunis, Es-Zerkel, each indexed separately. )

Ayesha, third wife of Muhammad, 4, 38, 125, 126, 128, 137, 138

Az-zahra, mistress or wife of Abd-ar-Rahman III. Of Spain, 12

B. 

Badger (Rev. G. P. ), on Muhammad, 120

Badger (Rev. G. P. ), about the Koran, 140

Badr, battle of, 127

Baghdad, founding of, 12; description of 96; fall and conquest of, 12

Baital Pachesi, 183

Baladori (Al), the translator and chronicler, 91

Barmekides, The, 12, 98-101

Bashshar bin Burd, the poet, 77, 78

Battani (Al), or Albategnius, the astronomer, 25, 43

Bekri (Al), the traveller and geographer, 49, 50, 52

Benjamin's (Mr. ) 'Persia and the Persians, ' 6

Beruni (Al), the traveller and geographer, 49, 50, 51

Biblos, or Book, or Bible, 139; the work of many men, 139; its increased interest after visiting Egypt, Palestine and Syria, 139; can be read in various ways, 139; its description by 'Il Secolo, ' 140 as a scientific work of little value, 140

Birgeli, or Birkeli, the dogmatist and grammarian, 112

Bohtori (Al), the poet, 76, 77, 84

Boulak (Cairo) text of the 'Nights, ' 156, 180

Breslau (Tunis) text of the 'Nights', 156, 174, 175, 180

Buddha, 119

Buddha compared with Jesus, 142, 143

Buddhism and Christianity, 142

Buddhist birth stories, or Jataka tales, 184

Bujeir bin Zoheir, the poet, 32

Bukhari (Al), the traditionist, 38, 39

Burton (Richard F. ), description of his 'Nights' translation in Sixteen volumes, 155, 156, 175-180

Busiri (Al)'s poem of the Mantle, 21, note

C. 

Calcutta texts of the 'Nights' 156, 175, 180

Calligraphers 113 (Ibn Mukla, Ibn Al Bawwab, Yakut Al Mausili, Ibn Hilal, Hamdallah, Mir Ah, Muhammad Hussain Tabrizi, each indexed separately)

Casiri, the bibliographer, 11

Caussin de Perceval, 26, 78, 155

Chavis and Cazotte, the translators, 155, 178, 179

Chinese language, 23

Christianity and Buddhism, 142

Clerk (Mrs. Godfrey), 216

Clouston, W. A. , 29, 184

Companions of the Prophet, 39

Compilers of encyclopædias and biographies, 55 (Nadim (An), Ibn Khallikan, Abul Khair, Haji Khalfa, each indexed separately. )

Contents of this work, ix. -xiv. 

Cordova, 7, 8, 9, 11

Cromwell and the Bible, 140

D. 

Democracy of Islam, 149

Dow, a translator, 154

Duwali (Ad), the grammarian, 45, 46

E. 

Early Ideas, ' a group of Hindoo stories, 151, 181

Egypt, the Fatimites established in, 13; invasion of, by Jawhar, 13; conquest of, by Saladin, 13; other dynasties in, 13; conquest of, by Selim the First, 14; incorporated with Turkey, 14

English newspapers, 186

English tales and stories, 186

Epistolography, 95

Erpenius, a translator, 26, 97

Essays and discourses by Hariri, 87, 88

Es-Zerkel, or Arzachel, the astronomer, 44, 45

F. 

Fadhl bin Yahya, the Barmekide, 99, 100

Farabi (Al), or Alfarabius, the philosopher, 24, 25, 65, 66, 67

Farazdak, the poet, 77, 78

Farghani (Al), or Alfraganius, the astronomer, 24, 25, 42

Farra (Al), the grammarian, 48

Fatimites, The, 13

Fezari (Al), the astronomer, 41

Firuzabadi, the lexicographer, 110

Fluegel, the translator, 115, 193, 202, 210

France, Invasion of, by the Arabs, 7

Freytag, the translator, 27

G. 

Gabriel bin Georgios, the physician, 73, 74

Galland, his translation of the fables of Lokman and Bidpay, 26; and of the 'Nights, ' 154, 175, 176; his biography, by Burton, 154; his texts, 180

Gauttier, a translator, 155

Gayangos (Pascual de), the translator 10, 11, 22, 117

Geographers and travellers, 49 (Muslim Homeir, Mervezi (Al), Ibn Foslan, Ibn Khordabeh, Jeihani, Istakhri (Al), Ibn Haukul, Beruni (Al), Bekri (Al), Idrisi, Ibn Batuta, each indexed separately. )

Georgios bin Bakhtyeshun, the physician, 72, 73, 98

Ghazali (Al), the mystic and philosopher, 65, 70

God of the Arabs, 148

God of the Jews, 148

Golius, 41, 42

Grammarians, The, 45 (Duwali (Ad), Khalil (Al), Sibawaih, Jahiz (Al), Kisai (Al), Mubarrad (Al), Thalab, Farra (Al), Akhfash (Al), Shaibani (As), Anbari (Al), each indexed separately. )

Granada, Kingdom of, established, 9; fall of, 9, 112; taken by Ferdinand and Isabella, 9; Alhambra at, 11, 112

Gunádhya, the Hindoo author, 182, 183

H. 

Habicht, a translator, 155, 175

Hajaj bin Yusuf bin Matta, the translator, 90, 98

Haji Khalfa, the bibliographer, 55, 113, 115

Hakim II. Of Spain, his education, 103; his diwan of poems, 103; his library; 104; and catalogue of books, 104, 105

Halaku Khan, 13, 107

Hamdallah, the penman, 113

Hamilton (Terrick), the translator of 'Antar, ' 184, 185

Hanbal, the imam, 37

Hanifa, the imam, 37

Hanyfs, The, 133

Harath, the poet, 29

Hariri (Al), the author of the 'Makâmat', 87, 88

Harun-ar-Rashid, the Khalif, 12, 19, 73, 96-100

Hasan bin Ali, the Fatimite, 5

Hasan bin Sehl, the translator, 91

Hasan bin Thabit, the poet, 34

Hazar Afsaneh, or Thousand Stories, 152

Hazim (Al), the traditionist, 38

Herbelot (D'), the translator and Orientalist, 97

Hertlemah, the hostile poetess, 31

Hijrah, or Emigration, 25

Historians, The, 52 (Ibn Ishak, Ibn Hisham, Wackidi (Al), Muhammad bin Saad, Madaini (Al), Tabari, Masudi, Ibn Athir, Baha-uddin, Imad-uddin, Kamal-uddin, Abul Feda, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Hajar, Ibn Kesir, Taki-uddin of Fez, Ibn Arabshaw, Makrisi (Al), Sayuti, Makkari (Al), each indexed separately. )

'Hitopodesa, ' a Hindoo story-book, 151, 153, 183

Hobeira, the hostile poet, 31

Honein, Battle of, 130

Honein bin Ishak, the physician and translator, 75, 91

Hughes's 'Dictionary of Islam, ' 120, 149

Hussain bin Ali, the Fatimite, 5

I. 

Ibn Al Arabi, the mystic, 95

Ibn Al Athir, the historian, 54, 55

Ibn Al Bawwab, the penman, 113, 114

Ibn Al Mukaffa, the translator and author, 89, 91-94, 152

Ibn Arabshaw, the historian, 110

Ibn As Sikkit, the editor of poems, 76

Ibn Bajah (Avempace), the philosopher, 24, 25, 65, 70

Ibn Batlan, the physician and philosopher, 70

Ibn Batuta, the geographer and traveller, 108, 109

Ibn Demash, the editor of poems, 76

Ibn Duraid, the philologist and writer on natural history, 64

Ibn Foslan, the geographer and traveller, 49

Ibn Hajar, the historian and biographer, 109

Ibn Haukul, the geographer and traveller, 49, 50

Ibn Hilal, the penman, 113

Ibn Hisham, the historian, 52

Ibn Ishak, the historian, 52

Ibn Kamal Pasha, a writer on law, 112

Ibn Kesir, the historian, 110

Ibn Khaldun, the historian, 108, 109

Ibn Khallikan, the biographer, 55-57, 116, 216; eighteen anecdotes from his work, 217-228

Ibn Khordabeh, the geographer, 49, 50

Ibn Kutaiba, the philologist and author, 63

Ibn Malik, the grammarian, 108

Ibn Mukla, the penman, 113, 114

Ibn Rashid (Averroes), the philosopher, 24, 25, 65, 71

Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the physician, 24, 25, 65, 67, 69

Ibn-ul-Marzaban, the editor of poems, 76

Ibn Wahshiyah, the translator, 91

Ibn Yunis, the historian, 44

Ibrahim of Aleppo, a writer on law, 112

Idrisi, the geographer, 49, 50, 52

'Ilam en nas, ' a story-book, 216

Imams, The Shiah, 37

Imams, The Sunni, 37, 38

Isa bin Musa, the physician, 75

Islam, The dogmas, precepts, and ordinances of, 148, 149

Istakhri (Al), the geographer and traveller, 49, 50

J. 

Jaafar as Sadik, the alchemist, 41

Jaafar bin Yahya, the Barmekide, 99-101

Jaber (Al), or Geber, the astronomer, 24, 25, 41

Jaber bin Hayam, the alchemist, 40, 41

Jahiz (Al), the philologist, 47, 58, 59

Jami's 'Beharistan, ' 188

Jarir, the poet, 77, 78, 80

Jawini's 'Negaristan, ' 188

Jeihani, the geographer, 49, 51

Jerusalem, the early Kiblah, 133; changed to Mecca, 136

Jesus compared with Buddha, 142; no details about his early career, 143

Jones (Sir William), 29

Jurisconsults, The seven, 36 (Obaid Allah, Orwa, Kasim, Said, Sulaiman, Abu Bakr, Kharija)

K. 

Kaabab, The, at Mecca, 3, 122, 144

Kab-bin-Zoheir, the poet, 31-33

Kali (Al), the philologist and author, 87, 103

Kama (Al), the poet, 30, 77

'Kama Sutra' of Vatsyayana, 182

Karitha, the hostile poetess, 31

Kasidas, _i. E. _, Arab idyls or elegies, 28, 29

Kasim bin Asbagh, the traditionist, 38

Kasim (Al) bin Ma'an, the philologist and author, 59

'Kathá Sarit Ságara, ' The, 153, 154, 181-184; translated by Professor Tawney, 181; compared with the 'Arabian Nights', 181; divided into 124 chapters, containing 330 stories, 182; their nature, 181-183

Khafaji, the poet, 117

Khalef al Ahmer, the author, 58

Khalid bin Barmek, 99

Khalid bin Walid, the general, 4, 129, 137, 147

Khalid bin Yazid, the alchemist, 40

Khahl (Al), the grammarian, 46, 47

'Khalilah wa Dimnah, ' a story-book, 151-153

Kiblah, The, changed to Mecca, 136

Kindi (Al), or Alchendius, the philosopher, 24, 25, 65, 66

Kisai (Al), the grammarian, 47, 225

Koraish, tribe of, 2, 124, 125, 128, 134

Koran, The 3, 23, 24, 138; quotation from the 26th chapter, 31; as defined by the Muslims, 138; its division into chapters, 138; how it represents Muhammad, 138; not arranged until after his death, 138; as compared with our Bible, 132; as described by Mr. Badger, 140, 141; as a literary composition, 142

Kosta bin Luka, the philosopher and physician, 65, 75, 91

Kuenen (Dr. A. ), on the religion of Israel, 146, note

Kutrub, the grammarian and philologist, 60

L. 

Labid, the poet, 29; his conversion, 34

Lane, a translator of the 'Nights', 155

Lokman, the sage, 26, 27

M. 

Madaini (Al), the historian, 53

Mahdi (Al), the Khalif, 19, 96, 98, 99

Majridi (Al), the philosopher, 65, 106

'Makamat Hariri', 87, 88

Makin (Al), the chronicler, 97

Makkari (Al), the historian, 10, 22, 96, 117

Makrisi (Al), the historian and geographer, 110

Malik, the imam, 37

Mamun (Al), the Khalif, 12, 19, 74, 90, 96, 101

Mansur (Al), the Khalif, 12, 19, 73, 90, 96, 98, 99

Marwan II. , the Khalif, 7, 19

Maseweib, the physician and translator, 75, 91

Masudi (Al), the historian, 53, 54

Mervezi (Al), the geographer, 49

'Merzuban-namah, ' The, 192 extracts from it, 193-201

Mir Ali, the penman, 113

Moawia I, the Khalif, 5, 19, 33

Mofaddhal (Al), the compiler and editor of poems, 76, 85, 86

Montague (E. Wortley), his 'Nights', 177, 178

Moors, The, in Spain, 9; their expulsion, 11, 112

Morell, a translator, 154

Moses compared with Muhammad, 142; as a liberator and organizer, 143, 145; why he stayed in the desert, 145; his legislation there, 146; to him the Jews owe their nationality, 146

Mothanna, the general, 4, 147

'Mua'llakat, ' The, or suspended poems, 24, 28, 30

Mubarrad (Al), the grammarian, 48

Muhammad, the Apostle, 3, 18; his birth, 120; details of his life, 120-132; his death, 132; as a poet, 24, 30; as a reformer, preacher and apostle at Mecca, 119, 120, 132; as a military leader, 147; his military expeditions, 127-131, 147; his failure at Mecca, 134; his success at Madinah, 135, 136; his power there as Pope-King, 135; his virtues at Mecca, his vices at Madinah, 136; his wives, 122, 125, 127, 128, 129, 137; his concubines, 128, 129, 137; reasons for his numerous marriages, 137; compared with Moses, 142; to him the Arabs owe their nationality, 146; always insisted on faith and prayer, 149; his parting address at Mina, 150; his immediate successors, 4, 5, 18, 25; his companions and their successors, 39; his converts, 123, 124, 126, 129

Muhammad Al-Amin, the philologist and lawyer, 116

Muhammad bin Habib, the editor of poems, 76

Muhammad bin Saad, the historian, 53

Muhammad Hussain Tabrizi, the penman, 113

Muir (Sir William), 120; his life of Muhammad, 120, 137; his annals of the early Khalifate, 147

Munkah, the Sanscrit translator, 91

Musa, the general, 7

Musa bin Khalid, the translator, 91

Muslim Homeir, the geographer, 49

Musset (Alfred de), the poet, 233; the verses on his tomb in Paris, 234

Mustaa'sim (Al) Billah, the Khalif, 12, 20, 107

Mustatraf (Al), a story-book, 201; extracts from it, 202-209

Muta, Battle at, 130

Mutanabbi (Al), the poet, 77, 84, 85

Mysticism, 95

N. 

Nabiga, the poet, 30

Nadim (An), author of the 'Fihrist, ' 55, 56, 84, 85

Nami (An), the poet, 77, 85

'Naphut-ul-Yaman, ' a story-book, 188; extracts from it, 188-192

Nasir-uddin-Tusy, the Persian, 107

Natural history, writers about, 58 (Khalef-al-Ahmer, Ahmad bin ud Dinveri, Jahiz (Al), Ibn Duraid, Shaibani (As), each indexed separately. )

Newton and the Bible, 140

Nubakht, the translator, 98

O. 

Obaid Allah bin Jahsh, the Hanyf, 133

Ohud, Battle of, 127

Omaiyide Khalifs, Abdul-Malik and Walid I, patrons of literature and art, 95

Omaiyides, The, list of 19; dynasty established, 5; conquests of, 6; fall of, 7

Omar, the Khalifah, 4, 19, 137, 147

Oriental Congress of 1889, v. , vi. 

Oriental lectures established, vi. 

Oriental literature, study of, vi. 

Oriental Translation Fund, Old, vi. , vii. ; its revival, vi. ; new fund to be permanent, vii. ; some of its works, 54, 57, 88, 109, 115, 117; list of works published by, Appendix, 235

Otbi (Al), the poet, 77, 80, 82

Othman, the Khalifah, 4, 19

Othman bin Huwairith, the Hanyf, 133

Othman bin Talha, the custodian of the Kaabah, 3, 129

Oweis Al Keremi, the mystic, 95

P. 

'Pancha Tantra, ' 151, 153, 183

Passion Play, the Arab, 6

Payne (John), description of his 'Nights, ' 155, 156, 175, 177, 180

Pelly (Sir Lewis), a translator, 6

Periods of Arab literature--first, 25; second, 20; third, 106; of Arab history, 2

Persia, its severance from the Abbasides, 13

Persian Portraits, 151

Petis de la Croix, a translator, 154

Philologists, Arab 59 (Kasim bin Ma'an, Kutrub, Jahiz (Al), Shaibani (As), Asmai (Al), Abu Obaida, Ansari (Al), Abu Othman, Abul Aina, Ibn Kutaiba, Ibn Duraid, each indexed separately. )

Philology, Arab, 59

Philosophers, Arab, 65 (Khalid bin Yazid, Kindi (Al), Farabi (Al), Ibn Sina, Ali bin Ridhwan, Ghazah (Al), Ibn Bajah, Ibn Rashid, Kosta bin Luka, Thaleb bin Korra, Tavhidi (Al), Majridi (Al), each indexed separately. )

Philosophy, Arab, 64

Physicians, Arab, 72 (Georgios bin Bakhtyeshun, Gabriel bin Georgios, Isa bin Musa, Maseweih, Yahya bin Maseweih, Honem bin Ishak, Kosta bin Luka, Razi, Ibn Batlan, each indexed separately. )

Places of learning, 105

Pococke, a translator, 97

Poem of the Mantle, by Kab bin Zoheir, 31, 33

Poem of the Mantle, by Al Busiri, 32, note

Poetry before Muhammad's time, 25, 28

Poetry, Collectors and editors of Arab, 76 (Mofaddhal (Al), Shaibani (As), Abu Zaid bin A'us, Ibn as Sikkit, Muhammad bin Habib, Abu Hatim as Sejastani, Abu Othman al Mazini, Abu Tammam, Bohton (Al), Ibn-ul-Marzaban, Ibn Demash, Zukkari, Abu Bakr As-Sauli, Abul Faraj al-Ispahani, each indexed separately. )

Poets, Arab, 28, 30, 77 (Amriolkais, Antara, Labid, Tarafa, Amru, Harath, Zoheir, Nabiga, Kama (Al), Aasha (Al), Akhtal (Al), Farazdak, Jarir, Abul-Atahya, Bashshar bin Burd, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam, Otbi (Al), Bohtori (Al), Mutanabbi (Al), Nami (An), each indexed separately. )

Printing presses of Arabic to-day, 118

Prophets mentioned by Muhammad, 133

Purgstall (Von Hammer), author and translator, 96, 155

Q. 

Quaritch (Bernard), his catalogue, vii. 

R. 

Radhi (Al) Billah, the Khalif, 20, 101, 102

Razi, or Rhazes, the physician, 24, 25, 75

Redhouse (J. W. ), the translator, 32

Rehatsek (E. ), the translator, viii. , 30, 53

Reiske, a translator, 97

Remarks, Introductory, v. 

Rénan, extracts from, 144, 145

Rodiger, a translator, 27

Ruckert, a translator, 89

S. 

Sacey de (Baron Silvestre), 26, 89, 108

Sad bin Malik, the general, 4

Sa'di's 'Gulistan, ' 188

Sayuti (Jalal-uddin), the Egyptian author, 111

Scott (Jonathan), a translator, 155, 177, 178

Sehl bin Nubakht, 90

Seville, 9

Shafai (Al), the imam, 37

Shaibani (Abu Amr as), the grammarian, philologist, writer on natural history and editor of poems, 49, 60, 76

Shiahs, Description of the, 5

Sibawaih, the grammarian, 46, 47

'Sihr-ul-oyoon, ' a book on the eye, 210 extracts from it, 210-212

'Siraj-ul Muluk, ' an interesting work, 212; extracts from it, 212-216

Society of the Brethren of Purity, 105

Sofyan at Thauri, an imaam, 38

Somadeva, '(Bhatta); an Indian author, 182, 183

Soudanese, The, 148

Spain, Omaiyide rulers in, 21; other rulers, 8; the Almoravides, 9; the Almohades, 9

Spanish Omaiyide Khalifs, 8, 21; the two greatest, Abd-ar-Rahman III and Hakim II. , 102

Sprengor (Dr. A. ), a translator, 54

Stories from Ibn Khallikan, 217-228

Stories from the 'Arabian Nights. ' 157-174

Stories from the 'Merzuban-namah. ' 193-201

Stories from the 'Mustatraf. ' 202-209

Stories from the 'Naphut-ul-Yaman. ' 188-192

Stories from the 'Sihr-ul-oyoon. ' 210-212

Stories from the 'Siraj-ul-Muluk. ' 212-216

Stories from various sources, 228-233

Sulaiman, the lawgiver, 112-116

Sunnis, Description of the, 5

Syria and Palestine, 14; conquest of, by the Fatimites, 14; by the Seljuks, 14; by Saladin, 15; by Selim I. , 15

T. 

Tabari, the historian, 53

Taki-uddin of Fez, the historian, 110

Tarafa, the poet, 29

Tarik, the general, 7

Tavhidi (Al), the philosopher, 65, 106

Tawney (C. H. ), the translator, 181

Testaments, our Old and New, 133, 139

Thalab, the grammarian, 48

Thalab bin Korra, the philosopher, 65

Theophilus of Edessa, the translator, 98

'Thousand and one Nights. ' 152, 154-156, 174-176

Torrens, a translator of the 'Nights. ' 155

Tradition, The six Fathers of, 38 (Al-Bukhari, Muslim, At-Tir-midi, Abu Dawud, An-Nasai, Ibn Majah. )

Traditionists, Early, 38

Traditionists, Minor, 38

Translations, how carried on, 90, 91, 98

Translators, 89, 90 (Ibn-AlMukaifa, Abd-Allah bin Hilal, Sehl bin Nubakht, Musa bin Khalid, Yusuf bin Khalid, Hassan bin Sehl, Baladori (Al), Munkah, the Indian, Ibn Washiyab, Honein bin Ishak, Maseweih and his son Yahya, Kosta bin Luka, Theophilus of Edessa, each indexed separately. )

Travellers, _see_ 'Geographers'

Trebutien, a translator, 155

U. 

Ulema, Establishment of the, 116

V. 

Vatsyayana, the Hindoo author of the 'Kama Sutra, ' 182

Voltaire and the Bible, 140

'Vrihat Katha, ' or Great Tale, 182, 183

W. 

Wackidi (Al), the historian, 53

Walid I. , the sixth Omaiyide Khalif, 7, 19

Warakah, the Hanyf, 123, 132

Weil (Dr. ), the translator, 53, 155

White (Dr. Joseph), 177

World, End of the, prophesied, 111

Wustenfeld (Dr. ), the editor and author, 52, 76

Y. 

Yahya bin Khalid, the Barmekide, 99, 100

Yahya bin Maseweih, the physician and translator, 74, 75, 91, 98

Yakut, the penman, 113, 114

Yazid I. , the second Omaiyide Khalif, 5, 6, 19

Yusuf bin Khalid, the translator, 91

Z. 

Zaid, the inquirer, 132

Zibary, the hostile poet, 31

Zinzerling, a translator, 155

Zobeida, the wife of Harun-ar-Rashid, 97, 168

Zoheir, the poet, 29

Zotenberg (H. ), of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 176, 177, 179

Zukkari, the editor of poems, 76

THE END