CHAPTER X

FROM THE MONGOL INVASION TO THE PRESENT DAY

[Sidenote: General characteristics of the period.]

Before proceeding to speak of the terrible catastrophe which filled the whole of Western Asia with ruin and desolation, I may offer a few preliminary remarks concerning the general character of the period which we shall briefly survey in this final chapter. It forms, one must admit, a melancholy conclusion to a glorious history. The Caliphate, which symbolised the supremacy of the Prophet's people, is swept away. Mongols, Turks, Persians, all in turn build up great Muḥammadan empires, but the Arabs have lost even the shadow of a leading part and appear only as subordinate actors on a provincial stage. The chief centres of Arabian life, such as it is, are henceforth Syria and Egypt, which were held by the Turkish Mamelukes until 1517 A.D., when they passed under Ottoman rule. In North Africa the petty Berber dynasties (Ḥafṣids, Ziyánids, and Marínids) gave place in the sixteenth century to the Ottoman Turks. Only in Spain, where the Naṣrids of Granada survived until 1492 A.D., in Morocco, where the Sharífs (descendants of ‘Alí b. Abí Ṭálib) assumed the sovereignty in 1544 A.D., and to some extent in Arabia itself, did the Arabs preserve their political independence. In such circumstances it would be vain to look for any large developments of literature and culture worthy to rank with those of the past. This is an age of imitation and compilation. Learned men abound, whose erudition embraces every subject under the sun. The mass of writing shows no visible diminution, and much of it is valuable and meritorious work. But with one or two conspicuous exceptions--_e.g._ the historian Ibn Khaldún and the mystic Sha‘rání--we cannot point to any new departure, any fruitful ideas, any trace of original and illuminating thought. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries "witnessed the rise and triumph of that wonderful movement known as the Renaissance,... but no ripple of this great upheaval, which changed the whole current of intellectual and moral life in the West, reached the shores of Islam."[817] Until comparatively recent times, when Egypt and Syria first became open to European civilisation, the Arab retained his mediæval outlook and habit of mind, and was in no respect more enlightened than his forefathers who lived under the ‘Abbásid Caliphate. And since the Mongol Invasion I am afraid we must say that instead of advancing farther along the old path he was being forced back by the inevitable pressure of events. East of the Euphrates the Mongols did their work of destruction so thoroughly that no seeds were left from which a flourishing civilisation could arise; and, moreover, the Arabic language was rapidly extinguished by the Persian. In Spain, as we have seen, the power of the Arabs had already begun to decline; Africa was dominated by the Berbers, a rude, unlettered race, Egypt and Syria by the blighting military despotism of the Turks. Nowhere in the history of this period can we discern either of the two elements which are most productive of literary greatness: the quickening influence of a higher culture or the inspiration of a free and vigorous national life.[818]

[Sidenote: The Mongol Invasion.]

Between the middle of the eleventh century and the end of the fourteenth the nomad tribes dwelling beyond the Oxus burst over Western Asia in three successive waves. First came the Seljúq Turks, then the Mongols under Chingíz Khan and Húlágú, then the hordes, mainly Turkish, of Tímúr. Regarding the Seljúqs all that is necessary for our purpose has been said in a former chapter. The conquests of Tímúr are a frightful episode which I may be pardoned for omitting from this history, inasmuch as their permanent results (apart from the enormous damage which they inflicted) were inconsiderable; and although the Indian empire of the Great Moguls, which Bábur, a descendant of Tímúr, established in the first half of the sixteenth century, ran a prosperous and brilliant course, its culture was borrowed almost exclusively from Persian models and does not come within the scope of the present work. We shall, therefore, confine our view to the second wave of the vast Asiatic migration, which bore the Mongols, led by Chingíz Khan and Húlágú, from the steppes of China and Tartary to the Mediterranean.

[Sidenote: Chingíz Khan and Húlágú.]

In 1219 A.D. Chingíz Khan, having consolidated his power in the Far East, turned his face westward and suddenly advanced into Transoxania, which at that time formed a province of the wide dominions of the Sháhs of Khwárizm (Khiva). The reigning monarch, ‘Alá’u ’l-Dín Muḥammad, was unable to make an effective resistance; and notwithstanding that his son, the gallant Jalálu ’l-Dín, carried on a desperate guerilla for twelve years, the invaders swarmed over Khurásán and Persia, massacring the panic-stricken inhabitants wholesale and leaving a wilderness behind them. Hitherto Baghdád had not been seriously threatened, but on the first day of January, 1256 A.D.--an epoch-marking date--Húlágú, the grandson of Chingíz Khan, crossed the Oxus, with the intention of occupying the ‘Abbásid capital. I translate the following narrative from a manuscript in my possession of the _Ta’ríkh al-Khamís_ by Diyárbakrí († 1574 A.D.):--

[Sidenote: Húlágú before Baghdád (1258 A.D.).]

[Sidenote: Sack of Baghdád.]

In the year 654 (A.H. = 1256 A.D.) the stubborn tyrant, Húlágú, the destroyer of the nations (_Mubídu ’l-Umam_), set forth and took the castle of Alamút from the Ismá‘ílís[819] and slew them and laid waste the lands of Rayy.... And in the year 655 there broke out at Baghdád a fearful riot between the Sunnís and the Shí‘ites, which led to great plunder and destruction of property. A number of Shí‘ites were killed, and this so incensed and infuriated the Vizier Ibnu ’l-‘Alqami that he encouraged the Tartars to invade ‘Iráq, by which means he hoped to take ample vengeance on the Sunnís.[820] And in the beginning of the year 656 the tyrant Húlágú b. Túlí b. Chingíz Khán, the Moghul, arrived at Baghdád with his army, including the Georgians (_al-Kurj_) and the troops of Mosul. The Dawídár[821] marched out of the city and met Húlágú's vanguard, which was commanded by Bájú.[822] The Moslems, being few, suffered defeat; whereupon Bájú advanced and pitched his camp to the west of Baghdád, while Húlágú took up a position on the eastern side. Then the Vizier Ibnu ’l-‘Alqamí said to the Caliph Musta‘ṣim Billáh: "I will go to the Supreme Khán to arrange peace." So the hound[823] went and obtained security for himself, and on his return said to the Caliph: "The Khán desires to marry his daughter to your son and to render homage to you, like the Seljúq kings, and then to depart." Musta‘ṣim set out, attended by the nobles of his court and the grandees of his time, in order to witness the contract of marriage. The whole party were beheaded except the Caliph, who was trampled to death. The Tartars entered Baghdád and distributed themselves in bands throughout the city. For thirty-four days the sword was never sheathed. Few escaped. The slain amounted to 1,800,000 and more. Then quarter was called.... Thus it is related in the _Duwalu ’l-Islám_.[824]... And on this wise did the Caliphate pass from Baghdád. As the poet sings:--

"_Khalati ’l-manábiru wa-’l-asirralu minhumú wa-‘alayhimú hatta ’l-mamáti salámú._"

"_The pulpits and the thrones are empty of them; I bid them, till the hour of death, farewell!_"

[Sidenote: Battle of ‘Ayn Jálút (September, 1260 A.D.).]

[Sidenote: Arabic ceases to be the language of the whole Moslem world.]

It seemed as if all Muḥammadan Asia lay at the feet of the pagan conqueror. Resuming his advance, Húlágú occupied Mesopotamia and sacked Aleppo. He then returned to the East, leaving his lieutenant, Ketboghá, to complete the reduction of Syria. Meanwhile, however, an Egyptian army under the Mameluke Sultan Muẓaffar Quṭuz was hastening to oppose the invaders. On Friday, the 25th of Ramaḍán, 658 A.H., a decisive battle was fought at ‘Ayn Jálút (Goliath's Spring), west of the Jordan. The Tartars were routed with immense slaughter, and their subsequent attempts to wrest Syria from the Mamelukes met with no success. The submission of Asia Minor was hardly more than nominal, but in Persia the descendants of Húlágú, the Íl-Kháns, reigned over a great empire, which the conversion of one of their number, Gházán (1295-1304 A.D.), restored to Moslem rule. We are not concerned here with the further history of the Mongols in Persia nor with that of the Persians themselves. Since the days of Húlágú the lands east and west of the Tigris are separated by an ever-widening gulf. The two races--Persians and Arabs--to whose co-operation the mediæval world, from Samarcand to Seville, for a long time owed its highest literary and scientific culture, have now finally dissolved their partnership. It is true that the cleavage began many centuries earlier, and before the fall of Baghdád the Persian genius had already expressed itself in a splendid national literature. But from this date onward the use of Arabic by Persians is practically limited to theological and philosophical writings. The Persian language has driven its rival out of the field. Accordingly Egypt and Syria will now demand the principal share of our attention, more especially as the history of the Arabs of Granada, which properly belongs to this period, has been related in the preceding chapter.

[Sidenote: The Mamelukes of Egypt (1250-1517 A.D.).]

[Sidenote: Sultan Baybars (1260-1277 A.D.).]

[Sidenote: The ‘Abbásid Caliphs of Egypt.]

The dynasty of the Mameluke[825] Sultans of Egypt was founded in 1250 A.D. by Aybak, a Turkish slave, who commenced his career in the service of the Ayyúbid, Malik Ṣáliḥ Najmu ’l-Dín. His successors[826] held sway in Egypt and Syria until the conquest of these countries by the Ottomans. The Mamelukes were rough soldiers, who seldom indulged in any useless refinement, but they had a royal taste for architecture, as the visitor to Cairo may still see. Their administration, though disturbed by frequent mutinies and murders, was tolerably prosperous on the whole, and their victories over the Mongol hosts, as well as the crushing blows which they dealt to the Crusaders, gave Islam new prestige. The ablest of them all was Baybars, who richly deserved his title Malik al-Ẓáhir, _i.e._, the Victorious King. His name has passed into the legends of the people, and his warlike exploits into romances written in the vulgar dialect which are recited by story-tellers to this day.[827] The violent and brutal acts which he sometimes committed--for he shrank from no crime when he suspected danger--made him a terror to the ambitious nobles around him, but did not harm his reputation as a just ruler. Although he held the throne in virtue of having murdered the late monarch with his own hand, he sought to give the appearance of legitimacy to his usurpation. He therefore recognised as Caliph a certain Abu ’l-Qásim Aḥmad, a pretended scion of the ‘Abbásid house, invited him to Cairo, and took the oath of allegiance to him in due form. The Caliph on his part invested the Sultan with sovereignty over Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and all the provinces that he might obtain by future conquests. This Aḥmad, entitled al-Mustanṣir, was the first of a long series of mock Caliphs who were appointed by the Mameluke Sultans and generally kept under close surveillance in the citadel of Cairo. There is no authority for the statement, originally made by Mouradgea d'Ohsson in 1787 and often repeated since, that the last of the line bequeathed his rights of succession to the Ottoman Sultan Selím I, thus enabling the Sultans of Turkey to claim the title and dignity of Caliph.[828]

[Sidenote: Arabic poetry after the Mongol Invasion.]

[Sidenote: Ṣafiyyu ’l-Dín al-Ḥillí.]

The poets of this period are almost unknown in Europe, and until they have been studied with due attention it would be premature to assert that none of them rises above mediocrity. At the same time my own impression (based, I confess, on a very desultory and imperfect acquaintance with their work) is that the best among them are merely elegant and accomplished artists, playing brilliantly with words and phrases, but doing little else. No doubt extreme artificiality may coexist with poetical genius of a high order, provided that it has behind it Mutanabbí's power, Ma‘arrí's earnestness, or Ibnu ’l-Fáriḍ's enthusiasm. In the absence of these qualities we must be content to admire the technical skill with which the old tunes are varied and revived. Let us take, for example, Ṣafiyyu ’l-Dín al-Ḥillí, who was born at Ḥilla, a large town on the Euphrates, in 1278 A.D., became laureate of the Urtuqid dynasty at Máridín, and died in Baghdád about 1350. He is described as "the poet of his age absolutely," and to judge from the extracts in Kutubí's _Fawátu ’l-Wafayát_[829] he combined subtlety of fancy with remarkable ease and sweetness of versification. Many of his pieces, however, are _jeux d'esprit_, like his ode to the Prophet, in which he employs 151 rhetorical figures, or like another poem where all the nouns are diminutives.[830] The following specimen of his work is too brief to do him justice:--

"How can I have patience, and thou, mine eye's delight, All the livelong year not one moment in my sight? And with what can I rejoice my heart, when thou that art a joy Unto every human heart, from me hast taken flight? I swear by Him who made thy form the envy of the sun (So graciously He clad thee with lovely beams of light): The day when I behold thy beauty doth appear to me As tho' it gleamed on Time's dull brow a constellation bright. O thou scorner of my passion, for whose sake I count as naught All the woe that I endure, all the injury and despite, Come, regard the ways of God! for never He at life's last gasp Suffereth the weight to perish even of one mite!"[831]

[Sidenote: Popular poetry.]

We have already referred to the folk-songs (_muwashshaḥ_ and _zajal_) which originated in Spain. These simple ballads, with their novel metres and incorrect language, were despised by the classical school, that is to say, by nearly all Moslems with any pretensions to learning; but their popularity was such that even the court poets occasionally condescended to write in this style. To the _zajal_ and _muwashshaḥ_ we may add the _dúbayt_, the _mawáliyyá_, the _kánwakán_, and the _ḥimáq_, which together with verse of the regular form made up the 'seven kinds of poetry' (_al-funún al-sab‘a_). Ṣafiyyu ’l-Dín al-Ḥillí, who wrote a special treatise on the Arabic folk-songs, mentions two other varieties which, he says, were invented by the people of Baghdád to be sung in the early dawn of Ramaḍán, the Moslem Lent.[832] It is interesting to observe that some few literary men attempted, though in a timid fashion, to free Arabic poetry from the benumbing academic system by which it was governed and to pour fresh life into its veins. A notable example of this tendency is the _Hazzu ’l-Quḥúf_[833] by Shirbíní, who wrote in 1687 A.D. Here we have a poem in the vulgar dialect of Egypt, but what is still more curious, the author, while satirising the uncouth manners and rude language of the peasantry, makes a bitter attack on the learning and morals of the Muḥammadan divines.[834] For this purpose he introduces a typical Fellah named Abú Shádúf, whose rôle corresponds to that of Piers the Plowman in Longland's _Vision_. Down to the end of the nineteenth century, at any rate, such isolated offshoots had not gone far to found a living school of popular poetry. Only the future can show whether the Arabs are capable of producing a genius who will succeed in doing for the national folk-songs what Burns did for the Scots ballads.

[Sidenote: Ibn Khallikán (1211-1282 A.D.).]

Biography and History were cultivated with ardour by the savants of Egypt and Syria. Among the numerous compositions of this kind we can have no hesitation in awarding the place of honour to the _Wafayátu ’l-A‘yán_, or 'Obituaries of Eminent Men,' by Shamsu ’l-Dín Ibn Khallikán, a work which has often been quoted in the foregoing pages. The author belonged to a distinguished family descending from Yaḥyá b. Khálid the Barmecide (see p. 259 seq.), and was born at Arbela in 1211 A.D. He received his education at Aleppo and Damascus (1229-1238) and then proceeded to Cairo, where he finished the first draft of his Biographical Dictionary in 1256. Five years later he was appointed by Sultan Baybars to be Chief Cadi of Syria. He retained this high office (with a seven years' interval, which he devoted to literary and biographical studies) until a short time before his death. In the Preface to the _Wafayát_ Ibn Khallikán observes that he has adopted the alphabetical order as more convenient than the chronological. As regards the scope and character of his Dictionary, he says:--

[Sidenote: His Biographical Dictionary.]

"I have not limited my work to the history of any one particular class of persons, as learned men, princes, emirs, viziers, or poets; but I have spoken of all those whose names are familiar to the public, and about whom questions are frequently asked; I have, however, related the facts I could ascertain respecting them in a concise manner, lest my work should become too voluminous; I have fixed with all possible exactness the dates of their birth and death; I have traced up their genealogy as high as I could; I have marked the orthography of those names which are liable to be written incorrectly; and I have cited the traits which may best serve to characterise each individual, such as noble actions, singular anecdotes, verses and letters, so that the reader may derive amusement from my work, and find it not exclusively of such a uniform cast as would prove tiresome; for the most effectual inducement to reading a book arises from the variety of its style."[835]

Ibn Khallikan might have added that he was the first Muḥammadan writer to design a Dictionary of National Biography, since none of his predecessors had thought of comprehending the lives of eminent Moslems of every class in a single work.[836] The merits of the book have been fully recognised by the author's countrymen as well as by European scholars. It is composed in simple and elegant language, it is extremely accurate, and it contains an astonishing quantity of miscellaneous historical and literary information, not drily catalogued but conveyed in the most pleasing fashion by anecdotes and excerpts which illustrate every department of Moslem life. I am inclined to agree with the opinion of Sir William Jones, that it is the best general biography ever written; and allowing for the difference of scale and scope, I think it will bear comparison with a celebrated English work which it resembles in many ways--I mean Boswell's _Johnson_.[837]

[Sidenote: Historians of the Mameluke period.]

[Sidenote: Maqrízí.]

To give an adequate account of the numerous and talented historians of the Mameluke period would require far more space than they can reasonably claim in a review of this kind. Concerning Ibn Khaldún, who held a professorship as well as the office of Cadi in Cairo under Sultan Barqúq (1382-1398 A.D.), we have already spoken at some length. This extraordinary genius discovered principles and methods which might have been expected to revolutionise historical science, but neither was he himself capable of carrying them into effect nor, as the event proved, did they inspire his successors to abandon the path of tradition. I cannot imagine any more decisive symptom of the intellectual lethargy in which Islam was now sunk, or any clearer example of the rule that even the greatest writers struggle in vain against the spirit of their own times. There were plenty of learned men, however, who compiled local and universal histories. Considering the precious materials which their industry has preserved for us, we should rather admire these diligent and erudite authors than complain of their inability to break away from the established mode. Perhaps the most famous among them is Taqiyyu ’l-Dín al-Maqrízí (1364-1442 A.D.). A native of Cairo, he devoted himself to Egyptian history and antiquities, on which subject he composed several standard works, such as the _Khiṭaṭ_[838] and the _Sulúk_.[839] Although he was both unconscientious and uncritical, too often copying without acknowledgment or comment, and indulging in wholesale plagiarism when it suited his purpose, these faults which are characteristic of his age may easily be excused. "He has accumulated and reduced to a certain amount of order a large quantity of information that would but for him have passed into oblivion. He is generally painstaking and accurate, and always resorts to contemporary evidence if it is available. Also he has a pleasant and lucid style, and writes without bias and apparently with distinguished impartiality."[840] Other well-known works belonging to this epoch are the _Fakhrí_ of Ibnu ’l-Ṭiqṭaqá, a delightful manual of Muḥammadan politics[841] which was written at Mosul in 1302 A.D.; the epitome of universal history by Abu ’l-Fidá, Prince of Ḥamát († 1331); the voluminous Chronicle of Islam by Dhahabí († 1348); the high-flown Biography of Tímúr entitled _‘Ajá’ibu ’l-Maqdúr_, or 'Marvels of Destiny,' by Ibn ‘Arabsháh († 1450); and the _Nujúm al-Záhira_ ('Resplendent Stars') by Abu ’l-Maḥásin b. Taghríbirdí († 1469), which contains the annals of Egypt under the Moslems. The political and literary history of Muḥammadan Spain by Maqqarí of Tilimsán († 1632) was mentioned in the last chapter.[842]

[Sidenote: Jalálu ’l-Dín al-Suyúṭí (1445-1505 A.D.).]

If we were asked to select a single figure who should exhibit as completely as possible in his own person the literary tendencies of the Alexandrian age of Arabic civilisation, our choice would assuredly fall on Jalálu ’l-Dín al-Suyúṭí, who was born at Suyúṭ (Usyúṭ) in Upper Egypt in 1445 A.D. His family came originally from Persia, but, like Dhahabí, Ibn Taghríbirdí, and many celebrated writers of this time, he had, through his mother, an admixture of Turkish blood. At the age of five years and seven months, when his father died, the precocious boy had already reached the _Súratu ’l-Taḥrím_ (Súra of Forbidding), which is the sixty-sixth chapter of the Koran, and he knew the whole volume by heart before he was eight years old. He prosecuted his studies under the most renowned masters in every branch of Moslem learning, and on finishing his education held one Professorship after another at Cairo until 1501, when he was deprived of his post in consequence of malversation of the bursary monies in his charge. He died four years later in the islet of Rawḍa on the Nile, whither he had retired under the pretence of devoting the rest of his life to God. We possess the titles of more than five hundred separate works which he composed. This number would be incredible but for the fact that many of them are brief pamphlets displaying the author's curious erudition on all sorts of abstruse subjects--_e.g._, whether the Prophet wore trousers, whether his turban had a point, and whether his parents are in Hell or Paradise. Suyúṭí's indefatigable pen travelled over an immense field of knowledge--Koran, Tradition, Law, Philosophy and History, Philology and Rhetoric. Like some of the old Alexandrian scholars, he seems to have taken pride in a reputation for polygraphy, and his enemies declared that he made free with other men's books, which he used to alter slightly and then give out as his own. Suyúṭí, on his part, laid before the Shaykhu ’l-Islám a formal accusation of plagiarism against Qasṭallání, an eminent contemporary divine. We are told that his vanity and arrogance involved him in frequent quarrels, and that he was 'cut' by his learned brethren. Be this as it may, he saw what the public wanted. His compendious and readable handbooks were famed throughout the Moslem world, as he himself boasts, from India to Morocco, and did much to popularise the scientific culture of the day. It will be enough to mention here the _Itqán_ on Koranic exegesis; the _Tafsíru ’l-Jalálayn_, or 'Commentary on the Koran by the two Jaláls,' which was begun by Jalálu ’l-Dín al-Maḥallí and finished by his namesake, Suyúṭí; the _Muzhir_ (_Mizhar_), a treatise on philology; the _Ḥusnu ’l-Muḥáḍara_, a history of Old and New Cairo; and the _Ta’ríkhu ’l-Khulafá_, or 'History of the Caliphs.'

[Sidenote: Other scholars of the period.]

To dwell longer on the literature of this period would only be to emphasise its scholastic and unoriginal character. A passing mention, however, is due to the encyclopædists Nuwayrí († 1332), author of the _Niháyatu ’l-Arab_, and Ibnu ’l-Wardí († 1349). Ṣafadí († 1363) compiled a gigantic biographical dictionary, the _Wáfí bi ’l-Wafayát_, in twenty-six volumes, and the learned traditionist, Ibn Ḥajar of Ascalon († 1449), has left a large number of writings, among which it will be sufficient to name the _Iṣába fí tamyíz al-Ṣaḥába_, or Lives of the Companions of the Prophet.[843] We shall conclude this part of our subject by enumerating a few celebrated works which may be described in modern terms as standard text-books for the Schools and Universities of Islam. Amidst the host of manuals of Theology and Jurisprudence, with their endless array of abridgments, commentaries, and supercommentaries, possibly the best known to European students are those by Abu ’l-Barakát al-Nasafí († 1310), ‘Aḍudu ’l-Dín al-Íjí († 1355), Sídí Khalíl al-Jundí († 1365), Taftázání († 1389), Sharíf al-Jurjání († 1413), and Muḥammad b. Yúsuf al-Sanúsí († 1486). For Philology and Lexicography we have the _Alfiyya_, a versified grammar by Ibn Málik of Jaen († 1273); the _Ájurrúmiyya_ on the rudiments of grammar, an exceedingly popular compendium by Ṣanhájí († 1323); and two famous Arabic dictionaries, the _Lisánu ’l-‘Arab_ by Jamálu ’l-Dín Ibn Mukarram († 1311), and the _Qámús_ by Fírúzábádí († 1414). Nor, although he was a Turk, should we leave unnoticed the great bibliographer Ḥájjí Khalífa († 1658), whose _Kashfu ’l-Ẓunún_ contains the titles, arranged alphabetically, of all the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish books of which the existence was known to him.

[Sidenote: The 'Thousand and One Nights.']

The Mameluke period gave final shape to the _Alf Layla wa-Layla_, or 'Thousand and One Nights,' a work which is far more popular in Europe than the Koran or any other masterpiece of Arabic literature. The modern title, 'Arabian Nights,' tells only a part of the truth. Mas‘údí († 956 A.D.) mentions an old Persian book, the _Hazár Afsána_ ('Thousand Tales') which "is generally called the Thousand and One Nights; it is the story of the King and his Vizier, and of the Vizier's daughter and her slave-girl: Shírázád and Dínázád."[844] The author of the _Fihrist_, writing in 988 A.D., begins his chapter "concerning the Story-Tellers and the Fabulists and the names of the books which they composed" with the following passage (p. 304):--

[Sidenote: Persian origin of the 'Thousand and One Nights.']

[Sidenote: The _Hazár Afsán_.]

"The first who composed fables and made books of them and put them by in treasuries and sometimes introduced animals as speaking them were the Ancient Persians. Afterwards the Parthian kings, who form the third dynasty of the kings of Persia, showed the utmost zeal in this matter. Then in the days of the Sásánian kings such books became numerous and abundant, and the Arabs translated them into the Arabic tongue, and they soon reached the hands of philologists and rhetoricians, who corrected and embellished them and composed other books in the same style. Now the first book ever made on this subject was the Book of the Thousand Tales (_Hazár Afsán_), on the following occasion: A certain king of Persia used to marry a woman for one night and kill her the next morning. And he wedded a wise and clever princess, called Shahrázád, who began to tell him stories and brought the tale at daybreak to a point that induced the king to spare her life and ask her on the second night to finish her tale. So she continued until a thousand nights had passed, and she was blessed with a son by him.... And the king had a stewardess (_qahramána_) named Dínárzád, who was in league with the queen. It is also said that this book was composed for Ḥumání, the daughter of Bahman, and there are various traditions concerning it. The truth, if God will, is that Alexander (the Great) was the first who heard stories by night, and he had people to make him laugh and divert him with tales; although he did not seek amusement therein, but only to store and preserve them (in his memory). The kings who came after him used the 'Thousand Tales' (_Hazár Afsán_) for this purpose. It covers a space of one thousand nights, but contains less than two hundred stories, because the telling of a single story often takes several nights. I have seen the complete work more than once, and it is indeed a vulgar, insipid book (_kitábun ghaththun báridu ’l-hadíth_).[845]

Abu ‘Abdalláh Muḥammad b. ‘Abdús al-Jahshiyárí († 942-943 A.D.), the author of the 'Book of Viziers,' began to compile a book in which he selected one thousand stories of the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks, and other peoples, every piece being independent and unconnected with the rest. He gathered the story-tellers round him and took from them the best of what they knew and were able to tell, and he chose out of the fable and story-books whatever pleased him. He was a skilful craftsman, so he put together from this material 480 nights, each night an entire story of fifty pages, more or less, but death surprised him before he completed the thousand tales as he had intended."

[Sidenote: Different sources of the collection.]

Evidently, then, the _Hazár Afsán_ was the kernel of the 'Arabian Nights,' and it is probable that this Persian archetype included the most finely imaginative tales in the existing collection, _e.g._, the 'Fisherman and the Genie,' 'Camaralzamán and Budúr,' and the 'Enchanted Horse.' As time went on, the original stock received large additions which may be divided into two principal groups, both Semitic in character: the one belonging to Baghdád and consisting mainly of humorous anecdotes and love romances in which the famous Caliph 'Haroun Alraschid' frequently comes on the scene; the other having its centre in Cairo, and marked by a roguish, ironical pleasantry as well as by the mechanic supernaturalism which is perfectly illustrated in 'Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.' But, apart from these three sources, the 'Arabian Nights' has in the course of centuries accumulated and absorbed an immense number of Oriental folk-tales of every description, equally various in origin and style. The oldest translation by Galland (Paris, 1704-1717) is a charming paraphrase, which in some respects is more true to the spirit of the original than are the scholarly renderings of Lane and Burton.

[Sidenote: The 'Romance of ‘Antar.']

The 'Romance of ‘Antar' (_Síratu ‘Antar_) is traditionally ascribed to the great philologist, Aṣma‘í,[846] who flourished in the reign of Hárún al-Rashíd, but this must be considered as an invention of the professional reciters who sit in front of Oriental cafés and entertain the public with their lively declamations.[847] According to Brockelmann, the work in its present form apparently dates from the time of the Crusades.[848] Its hero is the celebrated heathen poet and warrior, ‘Antara b. Shaddád, of whom we have already given an account as author of one of the seven _Mu‘allaqát_. Though the Romance exhibits all the anachronisms and exaggerations of popular legend, it does nevertheless portray the unchanging features of Bedouin life with admirable fidelity and picturesqueness. Von Hammer, whose notice in the _Mines de l'Orient_ (1802) was the means of introducing the _Síratu ‘Antar_ to European readers, justly remarks that it cannot be translated in full owing to its portentous length. It exists in two recensions called respectively the Arabian (_Ḥijáziyya_) and the Syrian (_Shámiyya_), the latter being very much curtailed.[849]

[Sidenote: Orthodoxy and mysticism.]

While the decadent state of Arabic literature during all these centuries was immediately caused by unfavourable social and political conditions, the real source of the malady lay deeper, and must, I think, be referred to the spiritual paralysis which had long been creeping over Islam and which manifested itself by the complete victory of the Ash‘arites or Scholastic Theologians about 1200 A.D. Philosophy and Rationalism were henceforth as good as dead. Two parties remained in possession of the field--the orthodox and the mystics. The former were naturally intolerant of anything approaching to free-thought, and in their principle of _ijmá‘_, _i.e._, the consensus of public opinion (which was practically controlled by themselves), they found a potent weapon against heresy. How ruthlessly they sometimes used it we may see from the following passage in the _Yawáqít_ of Sha‘rání. After giving instances of the persecution to which the Ṣúfís of old--Báyazíd, Dhú ’l-Nún, and others--were subjected by their implacable enemies, the _‘Ulamá_, he goes on to speak of what had happened more recently[850]:--

[Sidenote: Persecution of heretics.]

"They brought the Imám Abú Bakr al-Nábulusí, notwithstanding his merit and profound learning and rectitude in religion, from the Maghrib to Egypt and testified that he was a heretic (_zindíq_). The Sultan gave orders that he should be suspended by his feet and flayed alive. While the sentence was being carried out, he began to recite the Koran with such an attentive and humble demeanour that he moved the hearts of the people, and they were near making a riot. And likewise they caused Nasímí to be flayed at Aleppo.[851] When he silenced them by his arguments, they devised a plan for his destruction, thus: They wrote the _Súratu ’l-Ikhláṣ_[852] on a piece of paper and bribed a cobbler of shoes, saying to him, 'It contains only love and pleasantness, so place it inside the sole of the shoe.' Then they took that shoe and sent it from a far distance as a gift to the Shaykh (Nasímí), who put it on, for he knew not. His adversaries went to the governor of Aleppo and said: 'We have sure information that Nasímí has written, _Say, God is One_, and has placed the writing in the sole of his shoe. If you do not believe us, send for him and see!' The governor did as they wished. On the production of the paper, the Shaykh resigned himself to the will of God and made no answer to the charge, knowing well that he would be killed on that pretext. I was told by one who studied under his disciples that all the time when he was being flayed Nasímí was reciting _muwashshaḥs_ in praise of the Unity of God, until he composed five hundred verses, and that he was looking at his executioners and smiling. And likewise they brought Shaykh Abu ’l-Ḥasan al-Shádhilí[853] from the West to Egypt and bore witness that he was a heretic, but God delivered him from their plots. And they accused Shaykh ‘Izzu ’l-Dín b. ‘Abd al-Salám[854] of infidelity and sat in judgment over him on account of some expressions in his _‘Aqída_ (Articles of Faith) and urged the Sultan to punish him; afterwards, however, he was restored to favour. They denounced Shaykh Táju ’l-Dín al-Subkí[855] on the same charge, asserting that he held it lawful to drink wine and that he wore at night the badge (_ghiyár_) of the unbelievers and the zone (_zunnár_)[856]; and they brought him, manacled and in chains, from Syria to Egypt."

This picture is too highly coloured. It must be admitted for the credit of the _‘Ulamá_, that they seldom resorted to violence. Islam was happily spared the horrors of an organised Inquisition. On the other hand, their authority was now so firmly established that all progress towards moral and intellectual liberty had apparently ceased, or at any rate only betrayed itself in spasmodic outbursts. Ṣúfiism in some degree represented such a movement, but the mystics shared the triumph of Scholasticism and contributed to the reaction which ensued. No longer an oppressed minority struggling for toleration, they found themselves side by side with reverend doctors on a platform broad enough to accommodate all parties, and they saw their own popular heroes turned into Saints of the orthodox Church. The compromise did not always work smoothly--in fact, there was continual friction--but on the whole it seems to have borne the strain wonderfully well. If pious souls were shocked by the lawlessness of the Dervishes, and if bigots would fain have burned the books of Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí and Ibnu ’l-Fáriḍ, the divines in general showed a disposition to suspend judgment in matters touching holy men and to regard them as standing above human criticism.

As typical representatives of the religious life of this period we may take two men belonging to widely opposite camps--Taqiyyu ’l-Dín Ibn Taymiyya and ‘Abdu ’l-Wahháb al-Sha‘rání.

[Sidenote: Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328 A.D.).]

Ibn Taymiyya was born at Ḥarrán in 1263 A.D. A few years later his father, fleeing before the Mongols, brought him to Damascus, where in due course he received an excellent education. It is said that he never forgot anything which he had once learned, and his knowledge of theology and law was so extensive as almost to justify the saying, "A tradition that Ibn Taymiyya does not recognise is no tradition." Himself a Ḥanbalite of the deepest dye--holding, in other words, that the Koran must be interpreted according to its letter and not by the light of reason--he devoted his life with rare courage to the work of religious reform. His aim, in short, was to restore the primitive monotheism taught by the Prophet and to purge Islam of the heresies and corruptions which threatened to destroy it. One may imagine what a hornet's nest he was attacking. Mystics, philosophers, and scholastic theologians, all fell alike under the lash of his denunciation. Bowing to no authority, but drawing his arguments from the traditions and practice of the early Church, he expressed his convictions in the most forcible terms, without regard to consequences. Although several times thrown into prison, he could not be muzzled for long. The climax was reached when he lifted up his voice against the superstitions of the popular faith--saint-worship, pilgrimage to holy shrines, vows, offerings, and invocations. These things, which the zealous puritan condemned as sheer idolatry, were part of a venerable cult that was hallowed by ancient custom, and had engrafted itself in luxuriant overgrowth upon Islam. The mass of Moslems believed, and still believe implicitly in the saints, accept their miracles, adore their relics, visit their tombs, and pray for their intercession. Ibn Taymiyya even declared that it was wrong to implore the aid of the Prophet or to make a pilgrimage to his sepulchre. It was a vain protest. He ended his days in captivity at Damascus. The vast crowds who attended his funeral--we are told that there were present 200,000 men and 15,000 women--bore witness to the profound respect which was universally felt for the intrepid reformer. Oddly enough, he was buried in the Cemetery of the Ṣúfís, whose doctrines he had so bitterly opposed, and the multitude revered his memory--as a saint! The principles which inspired Ibn Taymiyya did not fall to the ground, although their immediate effect was confined to a very small circle. We shall see them reappearing victoriously in the Wahhábite movement of the eighteenth century.

[Sidenote: Sha‘rání († 1565 A.D.).]

Notwithstanding the brilliant effort of Ghazálí to harmonise dogmatic theology with mysticism, it soon became clear that the two parties were in essence irreconcilable. The orthodox clergy who held fast by the authority of the Koran and the Traditions saw a grave danger to themselves in the esoteric revelation which the mystics claimed to possess; while the latter, though externally conforming to the law of Islam, looked down with contempt on the idea that true knowledge of God could be derived from theology, or from any source except the inner light of heavenly inspiration. Hence the antithesis of _faqíh_ (theologian) and _faqír_ (dervish), the one class forming a powerful official hierarchy in close alliance with the Government, whereas the Ṣúfís found their chief support among the people at large, and especially among the poor. We need not dwell further on the natural antagonism which has always existed between these rival corporations, and which is a marked feature in the modern history of Islam. It will be more instructive to spend a few moments with the last great Muḥammadan theosophist, ‘Abdu ’l-Wahháb al-Sha‘rání, a man who, with all his weaknesses, was an original thinker, and exerted an influence strongly felt to this day, as is shown by the steady demand for his books. He was born about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Concerning his outward life we have little information beyond the facts that he was a weaver by trade and resided in Cairo. At this time Egypt was a province of the Ottoman Empire. Sha‘rání contrasts the miserable lot of the peasantry under the new _régime_ with their comparative prosperity under the Mamelukes. So terrible were the exactions of the tax-gatherers that the fellah was forced to sell the whole produce of his land, and sometimes even the ox which ploughed it, in order to save himself and his family from imprisonment; and every lucrative business was crushed by confiscation. It is not to be supposed, however, that Sha‘rání gave serious attention to such sublunary matters. He lived in a world of visions and wonderful experiences. He conversed with angels and prophets, like his more famous predecessor, Muḥyi ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí, whose _Meccan Revelations_ he studied and epitomised. His autobiography entitled _Laṭá’ifu ’l-Minan_ displays the hierophant in full dress. It is a record of the singular spiritual gifts and virtues with which he was endowed, and would rank as a masterpiece of shameless self-laudation, did not the author repeatedly assure us that all his extraordinary qualities are Divine blessings and are gratefully set forth by their recipient _ad majorem Dei gloriam_. We should be treating Sha‘rání very unfairly if we judged him by this work alone. The arrogant miracle-monger was one of the most learned men of his day, and could beat the scholastic theologians with their own weapons. Indeed, he regarded theology (_fiqh_) as the first step towards Ṣúfiism, and endeavoured to show that in reality they are different aspects of the same science. He also sought to harmonise the four great schools of law, whose disagreement was consecrated by the well-known saying ascribed to the Prophet: "The variance of my people is an act of Divine mercy" (_ikhtiláfu ummatí raḥmatun_). Like the Arabian Ṣúfís generally, Sha‘rání kept his mysticism within narrow bounds, and declared himself an adherent of the moderate section which follows Junayd of Baghdád († 909-910 A.D.). For all his extravagant pretensions and childish belief in the supernatural, he never lost touch with the Muḥammadan Church.

In the thirteenth century Ibn Taymiyya had tried to eradicate the abuses which obscured the simple creed of Islam. He failed, but his work was carried on by others and was crowned, after a long interval, by the Wahhábite Reformation.[857]

[Sidenote: Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahháb and his successors.]

Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahháb,[858] from whom its name is derived, was born about 1720 A.D. in Najd, the Highlands of Arabia. In his youth he visited the principal cities of the East, "as is much the practice with his countrymen even now,"[859] and what he observed in the course of his travels convinced him that Islam was thoroughly corrupt. Fired by the example of Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings he copied with his own hand,[860] Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahháb determined to re-establish the pure religion of Muḥammad in its primitive form. Accordingly he returned home and retired with his family to Ḑira‘iyya at the time when Muḥammad b. Sa‘úd was the chief personage of the town. This man became his first convert and soon after married his daughter. But it was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the Wahhábís, under ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz, son of Muḥammad b. Sa‘úd, gained their first great successes. In 1801 they sacked Imám-Ḥusayn,[861] a town in the vicinity of Baghdád, massacred five thousand persons, and destroyed the cupola of Ḥusayn's tomb; the veneration paid by all Shí‘ites to that shrine being, as Burckhardt says, a sufficient cause to attract the Wahhábí fury against it. Two years later they made themselves masters of the whole Ḥijáz, including Mecca and Medína. On the death of ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz, who was assassinated in the same year, his eldest son, Sa‘úd, continued the work of conquest and brought the greater part of Arabia under Wahhábite rule. At last, in 1811, Turkey despatched a fleet and army to recover the Holy Cities. This task was accomplished by Muḥammad ‘Alí, the Pasha of Egypt (1812-13), and after five years' hard fighting the war ended in favour of the Turks, who in 1818 inflicted a severe defeat on the Wahhábís and took their capital, Ḑira‘iyya, by storm. The sect, however, still maintains its power in Central Arabia, and in recent times has acquired political importance.

[Sidenote: The Wahhábite Reformation.]

The Wahhábís were regarded by the Turks as infidels and authors of a new religion. It was natural that they should appear in this light, for they interrupted the pilgrim-caravans, demolished the domes and ornamented tombs of the most venerable Saints (not excepting that of the Prophet himself), and broke to pieces the Black Stone in the Ka‘ba. All this they did not as innovators, but as reformers. They resembled the Carmathians only in their acts. Burckhardt says very truly: "Not a single new precept was to be found in the Wahaby code. Abd el Waháb took as his sole guide the Koran and the Sunne (or the laws formed upon the traditions of Mohammed); and the only difference between his sect and the orthodox Turks, however improperly so termed, is, that the Wahabys rigidly follow the same laws which the others neglect, or have ceased altogether to observe."[862] "The Wahhábites," says Dozy, "attacked the idolatrous worship of Mahomet; although he was in their eyes a Prophet sent to declare the will of God, he was no less a man like others, and his mortal shell, far from having mounted to heaven, rested in the tomb at Medína. Saint-worship they combated just as strongly. They proclaimed that all men are equal before God; that even the most virtuous and devout cannot intercede with Him; and that, consequently, it is a sin to invoke the Saints and to adore their relics."[863] In the same puritan spirit they forbade the smoking of tobacco, the wearing of gaudy robes, and praying over the rosary. "It has been stated that they likewise prohibited the drinking of coffee; this, however, is not the fact: they have always used it to an immoderate degree."[864]

[Sidenote: The Sanúsís in Africa.]

The Wahhábite movement has been compared with the Protestant Reformation in Europe; but while the latter was followed by the English and French Revolutions, the former has not yet produced any great political results. It has borne fruit in a general religious revival throughout the world of Islam and particularly in the mysterious Sanúsiyya Brotherhood, whose influence is supreme in Tripoli, the Sahara, and the whole North African Hinterland, and whose members are reckoned by millions. Muḥammad b. ‘Alí b. Sanúsí, the founder of this vast and formidable organisation, was born at Algiers in 1791, lived for many years at Mecca, and died at Jaghbúb in the Libyan desert, midway between Egypt and Tripoli, in 1859. Concerning the real aims of the Sanúsís I must refer the reader to an interesting paper by the Rev. E. Sell (_Essays on Islam_, p. 127 sqq.). There is no doubt that they are utterly opposed to all Western and modern civilisation, and seek to regenerate Islam by establishing an independent theocratic State on the model of that which the Prophet and his successors called into being at Medína in the seventh century after Christ.

[Sidenote: Islam and modern civilisation.]

Since Napoleon showed the way by his expedition to Egypt in 1798, the Moslems in that country, as likewise in Syria and North Africa, have come more and more under European influence.[865] The above-mentioned Muḥammad ‘Alí, who founded the Khedivial dynasty, and his successors were fully alive to the practical benefits which might be obtained from the superior culture of the West, and although their policy in this respect was marked by greater zeal than discretion, they did not exert themselves altogether in vain. The introduction of the printing-press in 1821 was an epoch-making measure. If, on the one hand, the publication of many classical works, which had well-nigh fallen into oblivion, rekindled the enthusiasm of the Arabs for their national literature, the cause of progress--I use the word without prejudice--has been furthered by the numerous political, literary, and scientific journals which are now regularly issued in every country where Arabic is spoken.[866] Besides these ephemeral sheets, books of all sorts, old and new, have been multiplied by the native and European presses of Cairo, Búláq, and Beyrout. The science and culture of Europe have been rendered accessible in translations and adaptations of which the complete list would form a volume in itself. Thus, an Arab may read in his own language the tragedies of Racine, the comedies of Molière,[867] the fables of La Fontaine, 'Paul and Virginia,' the 'Talisman,' 'Monte Cristo' (not to mention scores of minor romances), and even the Iliad of Homer.[868] Parallel to this imitative activity, we see a vigorous and growing movement away from the literary models of the past. "Neo-Arabic literature is only to a limited extent the heir of the old 'classical' Arabic literature, and even shows a tendency to repudiate its inheritance entirely. Its leaders are for the most part men who have drunk from other springs and look at the world with different eyes. Yet the past still plays a part in their intellectual background, and there is a section amongst them upon whom that past retains a hold scarcely shaken by newer influences. For many decades the partisans of the 'old' and the 'new' have engaged in a struggle for the soul of the Arabic world, a struggle in which the victory of one side over the other is even yet not assured. The protagonists are (to classify them roughly for practical purposes) the European-educated classes of Egyptians and Syrians on the one hand, and those in Egypt and the less advanced Arabic lands whose education has followed traditional lines on the other. Whatever the ultimate result may be, there can be no question that the conflict has torn the Arabic world from its ancient moorings, and that the contemporary literature of Egypt and Syria breathes in its more recent developments a spirit foreign to the old traditions."[869]

Hitherto Western culture has only touched the surface of Islam. Whether it will eventually strike deeper and penetrate the inmost barriers of that scholastic discipline and literary tradition which are so firmly rooted in the affections of the Moslem peoples, or whether it will always remain an exotic and highly-prized accomplishment of the enlightened and emancipated few, but an object of scorn and detestation to Muḥammadans in general--these are questions that may not be fully solved for centuries to come.

Meanwhile the Past affords an ample and splendid field of study.

"_Man lam ya‘i ’l-ta’ríkha fí ṣadrihí Lam yadri ḥulwa ’l-‘ayshi min murrihi Wa-man wa‘á akhbára man qad maḍá Aḍáfa a‘máran ilá ‘umrihí._"

"He in whose heart no History is enscrolled Cannot discern in life's alloy the gold. But he that keeps the records of the Dead Adds to his life new lives a hundredfold."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] H. Grimme, _Weltgeschichte in Karakterbildern: Mohammed_ (Munich, 1904), p. 6 sqq.

[2] _Cf._ Nöldeke, _Die Semitischen Sprachen_ (Leipzig, 1899), or the same scholar's article, 'Semitic Languages,' in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 11th edition. Renan's _Histoire générale des langues sémitiques_ (1855) is now antiquated. An interesting essay on the importance of the Semites in the history of civilisation was published by F. Hommel as an introduction to his _Semitischen Völker und Sprachen_, vol. i (Leipzig, 1883). The dates in this table are of course only approximate.

[3] Ibn Qutayba, _Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árij_, ed. by Wüstenfeld, p. 18.

[4] Full information concerning the genealogy of the Arabs will be found in Wüstenfeld's _Genealogische Tabellen der Arabischen Stämme und Familien_ with its excellent _Register_ (Göttingen, 1852-1853).

[5] The tribes Ḑabba, Tamím, Khuzayma, Hudhayl, Asad, Kinána, and Quraysh together formed a group which is known as Khindif, and is often distinguished from Qays ‘Aylán.

[6] Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 133 sqq., 177 sqq.

[7] Nöldeke in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 40, p. 177.

[8] See Margoliouth, _Mohammed and the Rise of Islam_, p. 4.

[9] Concerning the nature and causes of this antagonism see Goldziher, _op. cit._, Part I, p. 78 sqq.

[10] The word 'Arabic' is always to be understood in this sense wherever it occurs in the following pages.

[11] First published by Sachau in _Monatsberichte der Kön. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_ (February, 1881), p. 169 sqq.

[12] See De Vogüé, _Syrie Centrale, Inscriptions Sémitiques_, p. 117. Other references are given in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 35, p. 749.

[13] On this subject the reader may consult Goldziher. _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 110 sqq.

[14] Professor Margoliouth in _F.R.A.S._ for 1905, p. 418

[15] Nöldeke, _Die Semitischen Sprachen_, p. 36 sqq. and p. 51.

[16] _Journal Asiatique_ (March, 1835), p. 209 sqq.

[17] Strictly speaking, the _Jáhiliyya_ includes the whole time between Adam and Muḥammad, but in a narrower sense it may be used, as here, to denote the Pre-islamic period of Arabic Literature.

[18] _Die Namen der Säugethiere bei den Südsemitischen Völkern_, p. 343 seq.

[19] _Iramu Dhátu ’l-‘Imád_ (Koran, lxxxix, 6). The sense of these words is much disputed. See especially Ṭabarí's explanation in his great commentary on the Koran (O. Loth in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 35, p. 626 sqq.).

[20] I have abridged Ṭabarí, _Annals_, i, 231 sqq. _Cf._ also chapters vii, xi, xxvi, and xlvi of the Koran.

[21] Koran, xi, 56-57.

[22] See Doughty's _Documents Epigraphiques recueillis dans le nord de l'Arabie_, p. 12 sqq.

[23] Koran, vii, 76.

[24] Properly Saba’ with _hamza_, both syllables being short.

[25] The oldest record of Saba to which a date can be assigned is found in the Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions. We read in the Annals of King Sargon (715 B.C.), "I received the tribute of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, of Shamsiyya, the Queen of Arabia, of Ithamara the Sabæan--gold, spices, slaves, horses, and camels." Ithamara is identical with Yatha‘amar, a name borne by several kings of Saba.

[26] A. Müller, _Der Islam im Morgen und Abendland_, vol. i, p. 24 seq.

[27] Nöldeke, however, declares the traditions which represent Kulayb as leading the Rabí‘a clans to battle against the combined strength of Yemen to be entirely unhistorical (_Fünf Mo‘allaqát_, i, 44).

[28] _Op. cit._, p. 94 seq. An excellent account of the progress made in discovering and deciphering the South Arabic inscriptions down to the year 1841 is given by Rödiger, _Excurs ueber himjaritische Inschriften_, in his German translation of Wellsted's _Travels in Arabia_, vol. ii, p. 368 sqq.

[29] Seetzen's inscriptions were published in _Fundgruben des Orients_, vol. ii (Vienna, 1811), p. 282 sqq. The one mentioned above was afterwards deciphered and explained by Mordtmann in the _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 31, p. 89 seq.

[30] The oldest inscriptions, however, run from left to right and from right to left alternately (βουστρορηδόν).

[31] _Notiz ueber die himjaritische Schrift nebst doppeltem Alphabet derselben_ in _Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, vol. i (Göttingen, 1837), p. 332 sqq.

[32] See Arnaud's _Relation d'un voyage à Mareb (Saba) dans l'Arabie méridionale_ in the _Journal Asiatique_, 4th series, vol. v (1845), p. 211 sqq. and p. 309 sqq.

[33] See _Rapport sur une mission archéologique dans le Yémen_ in the _Journal Asiatique_, 6th series, vol. xix (1872), pp. 5-98, 129-266, 489-547.

[34] See D. H. Müller, _Die Burgen und Schlösser Südarabiens_ in _S.B.W.A._, vol. 97, p. 981 sqq.

[35] The title _Mukarrib_ combines the significations of prince and priest.

[36] Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 3.

[37] See F. Prætorius, _Unsterblichkeitsglaube und Heiligenverehrung bei den Himyaren_ in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 27, p. 645. Hubert Grimme has given an interesting sketch of the religious ideas and customs of the Southern Arabs in _Weltgeschichte in Karakterbildern: Mohammed_ (Munich, 1904), p. 29 sqq.

[38] _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. 5, p. 409.

[39] This table of contents is quoted by D. H. Müller (_Südarabische Studien_, p. 108, n. 2) from the title-page of the British Museum MS. of the eighth book of the _Iklíl_. No complete copy of the work is known to exist, but considerable portions of it are preserved in the British Museum and in the Berlin Royal Library.

[40] The poet ‘Alqama b. Dhí Jadan, whose verses are often cited in the commentary on the 'Ḥimyarite Ode.'

[41] _Die Himjarische Kasideh_ herausgegeben und übersetzt von Alfred von Kremer (Leipzig, 1865). _The Lay of the Himyarites_, by W. F. Prideaux (Sehore, 1879).

[42] Nashwán was a philologist of some repute. His great dictionary, the _Shamsu ’l-‘Ulúm_, is a valuable aid to those engaged in the study of South Arabian antiquities. It has been used by D. H. Müller to fix the correct spelling of proper names which occur in the Ḥimyarite Ode (_Z.D.M.G._, vol. 29, p. 620 sqq.; _Südarabische Studien_, p. 143 sqq.).

[43] _Fihrist_, p. 89, l. 26.

[44] _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. iv, p. 89.

[45] Von Kremer, _Die Südarabische Sage_, p. 56. Possibly, as he suggests (p. 115), the story may be a symbolical expression of the fact that the Sabæans were divided into two great tribes, Ḥimyar and Kahlán, the former of which held the chief power.

[46] _Cf._ Koran xxxiv, 14 sqq. The existing ruins have been described by Arnaud in the _Journal Asiatique_, 7th series, vol. 3 (1874), p. 3 sqq.

[47] I follow Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_ (ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. iii, p. 378 sqq., and Nuwayrí in Reiske's _Primæ lineæ Historiæ Rerum Arabicarum_, p. 166 sqq.

[48] The story of the migration from Ma’rib, as related below, may have some historical basis, but the Dam itself was not finally destroyed until long afterwards. Inscriptions carved on the existing ruins show that it was more or less in working order down to the middle of the sixth century A.D. The first recorded flood took place in 447-450, and on another occasion (in 539-542) the Dam was partially reconstructed by Abraha, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen. See E. Glaser, _Zwei Inschriften über den Dammbruch von Mârib_ (_Mitteilungen der Vorderastatischen Gesellschaft_, 1897, 6).

[49] He is said to have gained this sobriquet from his custom of tearing to pieces (_mazaqa_) every night the robe which he had worn during the day.

[50] Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. i, p. 497.

[51] Hamdání, _Iklíl_, bk. viii, edited by D. H. Müller in _S.B.W.A._ (Vienna, 1881), vol. 97, p. 1037. The verses are quoted with some textual differences by Yáqút, _Mu‘jam al-Buldán_, ed. by Wüstenfeld, vol. iv, 387, and Ibn Hishám, p. 9.

[52] The following inscription is engraved on one of the stone cylinders described by Arnaud. "Yatha‘amar Bayyin, son of Samah‘alí Yanúf, Prince of Saba, caused the mountain Balaq to be pierced and erected the flood-gates (called) Raḥab for convenience of irrigation." I translate after D. H. Müller, _loc. laud._, p. 965.

[53] The words _Ḥimyar_ and _Tubba‘_ do not occur at all in the older inscriptions, and very seldom even in those of a more recent date.

[54] See Koran, xviii, 82-98.

[55] Dhu ’l-Qarnayn is described as "the measurer of the earth" (_Massáḥu ’l-arḍ_) by Hamdání, _Jazíratu ’l-‘Arab_, p. 46, l. 10. If I may step for a moment outside the province of literary history to discuss the mythology of these verses, it seems to me more than probable that Dhu ’l-Qarnayn is a personification of the Sabæan divinity ‘Athtar, who represents "sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name" (see D. H. Müller in _S.B.W.A._, vol. 97, p. 973 seq.). The Minæan inscriptions have "‘Athtar of the setting and ‘Athtar of the rising" (_ibid._, p. 1033). Moreover, in the older inscriptions ‘Athtar and Almaqa are always mentioned together; and Almaqa, which according to Hamdání is the name of Venus (_al-Zuhara_), was identified by Arabian archæologists with Bilqís. For _qarn_ in the sense of 'ray' or 'beam' see Goldziher, _Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie_, Part I, p. 114. I think there is little doubt that Dhu ’l-Qarnayn and Bilqís may be added to the examples (_ibid._, p. 111 sqq.) of that peculiar conversion by which many heathen deities were enabled to maintain themselves under various disguises within the pale of Islam.

[56] The Arabic text will be found in Von Kremer's _Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen_, p. 15 (No. viii, l. 6 sqq.). Ḥassán b. Thábit, the author of these lines, was contemporary with Muḥammad, to whose cause he devoted what poetical talent he possessed. In the verses immediately preceding those translated above he claims to be a descendant of Qaḥṭán.

[57] Von Kremer, _Die Südarabische Sage_, p. vii of the Introduction.

[58] A prose translation is given by Von Kremer, _ibid._, p. 78 sqq. The Arabic text which he published afterwards in _Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen_, p. 18 sqq., is corrupt in some places and incorrect in others. I have followed Von Kremer's interpretation except when it seemed to me to be manifestly untenable. The reader will have no difficulty in believing that this poem was meant to be recited by a wandering minstrel to the hearers that gathered round him at nightfall. It may well be the composition of one of those professional story-tellers who flourished in the first century after the Flight, such as ‘Abíd b. Sharya (see p. 13 _supra_), or Yazíd b. Rabí‘a b. Mufarrigh († 688 A.D.), who is said to have invented the poems and romances of the Ḥimyarite kings (_Aghání_, xvii, 52).

[59] Instead of Hinwam the original has Hayyúm, for which Von Kremer reads Ahnúm. But see Hamdání, _Jazíralu ’l-‘Arab_, p. 193, last line and fol.

[60] I read _al-jahdi_ for _al-jahli_.

[61] I omit the following verses, which tell how an old woman of Medína came to King As‘ad, imploring him to avenge her wrongs, and how he gathered an innumerable army, routed his enemies, and returned to Ẓafár in triumph.

[62] Ibn Hishám, p. 13, l. 14 sqq.

[63] Ibn Hishám, p. 15, l. 1 sqq.

[64] _Ibid._, p. 17, l. 2 sqq.

[65] Arabic text in Von Kremer's _Altarabische Gedichte ueber die Volkssage von Jemen_, p. 20 seq.; prose translation by the same author in _Die Südarabische Sage_, p. 84 sqq.

[66] The second half of this verse is corrupt. Von Kremer translates (in his notes to the Arabic text, p. 26): "And bury with me the camel stallions (_al-khílán_) and the slaves (_al-ruqqán_)." Apart, however, from the fact that _ruqqán_ (plural of _raqíq_) is not mentioned by the lexicographers, it seems highly improbable that the king would have commanded such a barbarity. I therefore take _khílán_ (plural of _khál_) in the meaning of 'soft stuffs of Yemen,' and read _zuqqán_ (plural of _ziqq_).

[67] Ghaymán or Miqláb, a castle near Ṣan‘á, in which the Ḥimyarite kings were buried.

[68] The text and translation of this section of the _Iklíl_ have been published by D. H. Müller in _S.B.W.A._, vols. 94 and 97 (Vienna, 1879-1880).

[69] _Aghání_, xx, 8, l. 14 seq.

[70] Koran, lxxxv, 4 sqq.

[71] Ṭabarí, i, 927, l. 19 sqq.

[72] The following narrative is abridged from Ṭabarí, i, 928, l. 2 sqq. = Nöldeke, _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden_, p. 192 sqq.

[73] The reader will find a full and excellent account of these matters in Professor Browne's _Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, pp. 178-181.

[74] Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 225.

[75] Maydání's collection has been edited, with a Latin translation by Freytag, in three volumes (_Arabum Proverbia_, Bonn, 1838-1843).

[76] The _Kitábu ’l-Aghání_ has been published at Buláq (1284-1285 A.H.) in twenty volumes. A volume of biographies not contained in the Buláq text was edited by R. E. Brünnow (Leiden, 1888).

[77] _Muqaddima_ of Ibn Khaldún (Beyrout, 1900), p. 554, ll. 8-10; _Les Prolégomènes d' Ibn Khaldoun traduits par M. de Slane_ (Paris, 1863-68) vol. iii, p. 331.

[78] Published at Paris, 1847-1848, in three volumes.

[79] These are the same Bedouin Arabs of Tanúkh who afterwards formed part of the population of Ḥíra. See p. 38 _infra_.

[80] Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's _Chrestomathy_, p. 29.

[81] Properly _al-Zabbá_, an epithet meaning 'hairy.' According to Ṭabarí (i, 757) her name was Ná’ila. It is odd that in the Arabic version of the story the name Zenobia (Zaynab) should be borne by the heroine's sister.

[82] The above narrative is abridged from _Aghání_, xiv, 73, l. 20-75, l. 25. _Cf._ Ṭabarí, i, 757-766; Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_ (ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. iii, pp. 189-199.

[83] Concerning Ḥíra and its history the reader may consult an admirable monograph by Dr. G. Rothstein, _Die Dynastie der Laẖmiden in al-Ḥíra_ (Berlin, 1899), where the sources of information are set forth (p. 5 sqq.). The incidental references to contemporary events in Syriac and Byzantine writers, who often describe what they saw with their own eyes, are extremely valuable as a means of fixing the chronology, which Arabian historians can only supply by conjecture, owing to the want of a definite era during the Pre-islamic period. Muḥammadan general histories usually contain sections, more or less mythical in character, "On the Kings of Ḥíra and Ghassán." Attention may be called in particular to the account derived from Hishám b. Muḥammad al-Kalbí, which is preserved by Ṭabarí and has been translated with a masterly commentary by Nöldeke in his _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden_. Hishám had access to the archives kept in the churches of Ḥíra, and claims to have extracted therefrom many genealogical and chronological details relating to the Lakhmite dynasty (Ṭabarí, i, 770, 7).

[84] Ḥíra is the Syriac _ḥértá_ (sacred enclosure, monastery), which name was applied to the originally mobile camp of the Persian Arabs and retained as the designation of the garrison town.

[85] Sadír was a castle in the vicinity of Ḥíra.

[86] Ṭabarí, i, 853, 20 sqq.

[87] Bahrám was educated at Ḥíra under Nu‘mán and Mundhir. The Persian grandees complained that he had the manners and appearance of the Arabs among whom he had grown up (Ṭabarí, i, 858, 7).

[88] Má’ al-samá (_i.e._, Water of the sky) is said to have been the sobriquet of Mundhir's mother, whose proper name was Máriya or Máwiyya.

[89] For an account of Mazdak and his doctrines the reader may consult Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, pp. 140-144, 154, and 455-467, and Professor Browne's _Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, pp. 168-172.

[90] Mundhir slaughtered in cold blood some forty or fifty members of the royal house of Kinda who had fallen into his hands. Ḥárith himself was defeated and slain by Mundhir in 529. Thereafter the power of Kinda sank, and they were gradually forced back to their original settlements in Ḥaḍramawt.

[91] On another occasion he sacrificed four hundred Christian nuns to the same goddess.

[92] See p. 50 _infra_.

[93] _Aghání_, xix, 86, l. 16 sqq.

[94] _Aghání_, xix, 87, l. 18 sqq.

[95] Hind was a princess of Kinda (daughter of the Ḥárith b. ‘Amr mentioned above), whom Mundhir probably captured in one of his marauding expeditions. She was a Christian, and founded a monastery at Ḥíra. See Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, p. 172, n. 1.

[96] _Aghání_, xxi, 194, l. 22.

[97] Zayd was actually Regent of Ḥíra after the death of Qábús, and paved the way for Mundhir IV, whose violence had made him detested by the people (Nöldeke's translation of Ṭabarí, p. 346, n. 1).

[98] The Arabs called the Byzantine emperor '_Qayṣar_,' _i.e._, Cæsar, and the Persian emperor '_Kisrá_,' _i.e._, Chosroes.

[99] My friend and colleague, Professor A. A. Bevan, writes to me that "the story of ‘Adí's marriage with the king's daughter is based partly on a verse in which the poet speaks of himself as connected by marriage with the royal house (_Aghání_, ii, 26, l. 5), and partly on another verse in which he mentions 'the home of Hind' (_ibid._, ii, 32, l. 1). But this Hind was evidently a Bedouin woman, not the king's daughter."

[100] _Aghání_, ii, 22, l. 3 sqq.

[101] When Hurmuz summoned the sons of Mundhir to Ctesiphon that he might choose a king from among them, ‘Adí said to each one privately, "If the Chosroes demands whether you can keep the Arabs in order, reply, 'All except Nu‘mán.'" To Nu‘mán, however, he said: "The Chosroes will ask, 'Can you manage your brothers?' Say to him: 'If I am not strong enough for them, I am still less able to control other folk!'" Hurmuz was satisfied with this answer and conferred the crown upon Nu‘mán.

[102] A full account of these matters is given by Ṭabarí, i, 1016-1024 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 314-324.

[103] A similar description occurs in Freytag's _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. ii. p. 589 sqq.

[104] Ṭabarí, i, 1024-1029 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 324-331. Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's _Chrestomathy_, pp. 32-33.

[105] A town in Arabia, some distance to the north of Medína.

[106] See Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. ii, p. 611.

[107] A celebrated Companion of the Prophet. He led the Moslem army to the conquest of Syria, and died of the plague in 639 A.D.

[108] Ibn Qutayba in Brünnow's _Chrestomathy_, pp. 26-28.

[109] The following details are extracted from Nöldeke's monograph: _Die Ghassânischen Fürsten aus dem Hause Gafna's_, in _Abhand. d. Kön. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften_ (Berlin, 1887).

[110] Nöldeke, _op. cit._, p. 20, refers to John of Ephesus, iii, 2. See _The Third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John, Bishop of Ephesus_, translated by R. Payne Smith, p. 168.

[111] Iyás b. Qabíṣa succeeded Nu‘mán III as ruler of Ḥíra (602-611 A.D.). He belonged to the tribe of Ṭayyi’. See Rothstein, _Laẖmiden_, p. 119.

[112] I read _yatafaḍḍalu_ for _yanfaṣilu_. The arrangement which the former word denotes is explained in Lane's Dictionary as "the throwing a portion of one's garment over his left shoulder, and drawing its extremity under his right arm, and tying the two extremities together in a knot upon his bosom."

[113] The _fanak_ is properly a kind of white stoat or weasel found in Abyssinia and northern Africa, but the name is also applied by Muḥammadans to other furs.

[114] _Aghání_, xvi, 15, ll. 22-30. So far as it purports to proceed from Ḥassán, the passage is apocryphal, but this does not seriously affect its value as evidence, if we consider that it is probably compiled from the poet's _díwán_ in which the Ghassánids are often spoken of. The particular reference to Jabala b. al-Ayham is a mistake. Ḥassán's acquaintance with the Ghassánids belongs to the pagan period of his life, and he is known to have accepted Islam many years before Jabala began to reign.

[115] Nábigha, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 78; Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 96. The whole poem has been translated by Sir Charles Lyall in his _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 95 sqq.

[116] Thorbecke, _‘Antarah, ein vorislamischer Dichter_, p. 14.

[117] The following narrative is an abridgment of the history of the War of Basús as related in Tibrízí's commentary on the _Ḥamása_ (ed. by Freytag), pp. 420-423 and 251-255. _Cf._ Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 39 sqq.

[118] See p. 5 _supra_.

[119] Wá’il is the common ancestor of Bakr and Taghlib. For the use of stones (anṣáb) in the worship of the Pagan Arabs see Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidentums_ (2nd ed.), p. 101 sqq. Robertson Smith, _Lectures on the Religion of the Semites_ (London, 1894), p. 200 sqq.

[120] _Ḥamása_, 422, 14 sqq. Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 39, last line and foll.

[121] _Ḥamása_, 423, 11 sqq. Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 41, l. 3 sqq.

[122] _Ḥamása_, 252, 8 seq. Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 44, l. 3 seq.

[123] Hind is the mother of Bakr and Taghlib. Here the Banú Hind (Sons of Hind) are the Taghlibites.

[124] _Ḥamása_, 9, 17 seq. Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 45, l. 10 sqq.

[125] _Ḥamása_, 252, 14 seq. Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 46, l. 16 sqq.

[126] _Ḥamása_, 254, 6 seq. Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 47, l. 2 seq.

[127] _Ḥamása_, 96. Ibn Nubáta, cited by Rasmussen, _Additamenta ad Historiam Arabum ante Islamismum_, p. 34, remarks that before Qays no one had ever lamented a foe slain by himself (_wa-huwa awwalu man rathá maqtúlahu_).

[128] Ibn Hishám, p. 51, l. 7 sqq.

[129] In the account of Abraha's invasion given below I have followed Ṭabarí, i, 936, 9-945, 19 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 206-220.

[130] I read _ḥilálak_. See Glossary to Ṭabarí.

[131] Ṭabarí, i, 940, 13.

[132] Another version says: "Whenever a man was struck sores and pustules broke out on that part of his body. This was the first appearance of the small-pox" (Ṭabarí, i, 945, 2 sqq.). Here we have the historical fact--an outbreak of pestilence in the Abyssinian army--which gave rise to the legend related above.

[133] There is trustworthy evidence that Abraha continued to rule Yemen for some time after his defeat.

[134] Ibn Hishám, p. 38, l. 14 sqq.

[135] _Ibid._, p. 40, l. 12 sqq.

[136] See pp. 48-49 _supra_.

[137] Full details are given by Ṭabarí, i, 1016-1037 = Nöldeke's translation, pp. 311-345.

[138] A poet speaks of three thousand Arabs and two thousand Persians (Ṭabarí, i, 1036, 5-6).

[139] Ibn Rashíq in Suyúṭí's Muzhir (Buláq, 1282 A.H.), Part II, p. 236, l. 22 sqq. I quote the translation of Sir Charles Lyall in the Introduction to his _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 17, a most admirable work which should be placed in the hands of every one who is beginning the study of this difficult subject.

[140] Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. ii, p. 494.

[141] Numb. xxi, 17. Such well-songs are still sung in the Syrian desert (see Enno Littmann, _Neuarabische Volkspoesie_, in _Abhand. der Kön. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse_, Göttingen, 1901), p. 92. In a specimen cited at p. 81 we find the words _witla yā dlêwēna_--_i.e._, "Rise, O bucket!" several times repeated.

[142] Goldziher, _Ueber die Vorgeschichte der Higâ-Poesie_ in his _Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie_, Part I (Leyden, 1896), p. 26.

[143] _Cf._ the story of Balak and Balaam, with Goldziher's remarks thereon, _ibid._, p. 42 seq.

[144] _Ibid._, p. 46 seq.

[145] _Rajaz_ primarily means "a tremor (which is a symptom of disease) in the hind-quarters of a camel." This suggested to Dr. G. Jacob his interesting theory that the Arabian metres arose out of the camel-driver's song (_ḥidá_) in harmony with the varying paces of the animal which he rode (_Studien in arabischen Dichtern_, Heft III, p. 179 sqq.).

[146] The Arabic verse (_bayt_) consists of two halves or hemistichs (_miṣrá‘_). It is generally convenient to use the word 'line' as a translation of _miṣrá‘_, but the reader must understand that the 'line' is not, as in English poetry, an independent unit. _Rajaz_ is the sole exception to this rule, there being here no division into hemistichs, but each line (verse) forming an unbroken whole and rhyming with that which precedes it.

[147] In Arabic 'al-bayt,' the tent, which is here used figuratively for the grave.

[148] Ibn Qutayba, _Kitábu ’l-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará_, p. 36, l. 3 sqq.

[149] Already in the sixth century A.D. the poet ‘Antara complains that his predecessors have left nothing new for him to say (_Mu‘allaqa_, v. 1).

[150] _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, Introduction, p. xvi.

[151] _Qaṣída_ is explained by Arabian lexicographers to mean a poem with an artistic purpose, but they differ as to the precise sense in which 'purpose' is to be understood. Modern critics are equally at variance. Jacob (_Stud. in Arab. Dichtern_, Heft III, p. 203) would derive the word from the principal motive of these poems, namely, to gain a rich reward in return for praise and flattery. Ahlwardt (_Bemerkungen über die Aechtheit der alten Arab. Gedichte_, p. 24 seq.) connects it with _qaṣada, to break_, "because it consists of verses, every one of which is divided into two halves, with a common end-rhyme: thus the whole poem is _broken_, as it were, into two halves;" while in the _Rajaz_ verses, as we have seen (p. 74 _supra_), there is no such break.

[152] _Kitábu ’l-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará_, p. 14, l. 10 sqq.

[153] Nöldeke (_Fünf Mo‘allaqát_, i, p. 3 sqq.) makes the curious observation, which illustrates the highly artificial character of this poetry, that certain animals well known to the Arabs (_e.g._, the panther, the jerboa, and the hare) are seldom mentioned and scarcely ever described, apparently for no reason except that they were not included in the conventional repertory.

[154] _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 83.

[155] Verses 3-13. I have attempted to imitate the 'Long' (_Ṭawíl_) metre of the original, viz.:--

⌣ | ⌣ | ⌣ | ⌣ - - | ⌣ - - - | ⌣ - - | ⌣ - ⌣ -

The Arabic text of the _Lámiyya_, with prose translation and commentary, is printed in De Sacy's _Chrestomathie Arabe_ (2nd. ed.), vol. iiº, p. 134 sqq., and vol. ii, p. 337 sqq. It has been translated into English verse by G. Hughes (London, 1896). Other versions are mentioned by Nöldeke, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss d. Poesie d. alten Araber_, p. 200.

[156] The poet, apparently, means that his three friends are _like_ the animals mentioned. Prof. Bevan remarks, however, that this interpretation is doubtful, since an Arab would scarcely compare his _friend_ to a hyena.

[157] _Ḥamása_, 242.

[158] _Ḥamása_, 41-43. This poem has been rendered in verse by Sir Charles Lyall, _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 16, and by the late Dr. A. B. Davidson, _Biblical and Literary Essays_, p. 263.

[159] Mahaffy, _Social Life in Greece_, p. 21.

[160] See pp. 59-60 _supra_.

[161] _Ḥamása_, 82-83. The poet is ‘Amr b. Ma‘díkarib, a famous heathen knight who accepted Islam and afterwards distinguished himself in the Persian wars.

[162] Al-Afwah al-Awdí in Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 4, ll. 8-10. The poles and pegs represent lords and commons.

[163] _Ḥamása_, 122.

[164] _Ibid._, 378.

[165] _Cf._ the verses by al-Find, p. 58 _supra_.

[166] _Ḥamása_, 327.

[167] Imru’u ’l-Qays was one of the princes of Kinda, a powerful tribe in Central Arabia.

[168] _Aghání_, xix, 99. The last two lines are wanting in the poem as there cited, but appear in the Selection from the Aghání published at Beyrout in 1888, vol. ii, p. 18.

[169] See p. 45 sqq.

[170] _Aghání_, xvi, 98, ll. 5-22.

[171] _Aghání_, xvi, 97, l. 5 sqq.

[172] His _Díwán_ has been edited with translation and notes by F. Schulthess (Leipzig, 1897).

[173] _Ḥamása_, 729. The hero mentioned in the first verse is ‘Ámir b. Uḥaymir of Bahdala. On a certain occasion, when envoys from the Arabian tribes were assembled at Ḥíra, King Mundhir b. Má’ al-samá produced two pieces of cloth of Yemen and said, "Let him whose tribe is noblest rise up and take them." Thereupon ‘Ámir stood forth, and wrapping one piece round his waist and the other over his shoulders, carried off the prize unchallenged.

[174] Lady Anne and Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, _The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia_, Introduction, p. 14.

[175] _Aghání_ xvi, 22, ll. 10-16.

[176] _Aghání_, xviii, 137, ll. 5-10. Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. ii, p. 834.

[177] _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 81.

[178] _Mufaḍḍaliyyát_, ed. Thorbecke, p. 23.

[179] See Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part II, p. 295 sqq.

[180] Koran, xvi, 59-61.

[181] Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. i, p. 229.

[182] Koran, xvii, 33. _Cf._ lxxxi, 8-9 (a description of the Last Judgment): "_When the girl buried alive shall be asked for what crime she was killed._"

[183] Literally: "And tear the veil from (her, as though she were) flesh on a butcher's board," _i.e._, defenceless, abandoned to the first-comer.

[184] _Ḥamása_, 140. Although these verses are not Pre-islamic, and belong in fact to a comparatively late period of Islam, they are sufficiently pagan in feeling to be cited in this connection. The author, Isḥáq b. Khalaf, lived under the Caliph Ma’mún (813-833 A.D.). He survived his adopted daughter--for Umayma was his sister's child--and wrote an elegy on her, which is preserved in the _Kámil_ of al-Mubarrad, p. 715, l. 7 sqq., and has been translated, together with the verses now in question, by Sir Charles Lyall, _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 26.

[185] _Ḥamása_, 142. Lyall, _op. cit._, p. 28.

[186] _Ḥamása_, 7.

[187] _Ḥamása_, 321.

[188] See p. 55 sqq.

[189] _Cf._ Rückert's _Hamâsa_, vol. i, p. 61 seq.

[190] _Ḥamása_, 30.

[191] _Aghání_, ii, 160, l. 11-162, l. 1 = p. 13 sqq. of the Beyrout Selection.

[192] The Bedouins consider that any one who has eaten of their food or has touched the rope of their tent is entitled to claim their protection. Such a person is called _dakhíl_. See Burckhardt, _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys_ (London, 1831), vol. i, p. 160 sqq. and 329 sqq.

[193] See p. 81 _supra_.

[194] Stuttgart, 1819, p. 253 sqq. The other renderings in verse with which I am acquainted are those of Rückert (_Hamâsa_, vol. i, p. 299) and Sir Charles Lyall (_Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 48). I have adopted Sir Charles Lyall's arrangement of the poem, and have closely followed his masterly interpretation, from which I have also borrowed some turns of phrase that could not be altered except for the worse.

[195] The Arabic text will be found in the _Hamása_, p. 382 sqq.

[196] This and the following verse are generally taken to be a description not of the poet himself, but of his nephew. The interpretation given above does no violence to the language, and greatly enhances the dramatic effect.

[197] In the original this and the preceding verse are transposed.

[198] Although the poet's uncle was killed in this onslaught, the surprised party suffered severely. "The two clans" belonged to the great tribe of Hudhayl, which is mentioned in the penultimate verse.

[199] It was customary for the avenger to take a solemn vow that he would drink no wine before accomplishing his vengeance.

[200] _Ḥamása_, 679.

[201] _Cf._ the lines translated below from the _Mu‘allaqa_ of Ḥárith.

[202] The best edition of the _Mu‘allaqát_ is Sir Charles Lyall's (_A Commentary on Ten Ancient Arabic Poems_, Calcutta, 1894), which contains in addition to the seven _Mu‘allaqát_ three odes by A‘shá, Nábigha, and ‘Abíd b. al-Abraṣ. Nöldeke has translated five Mu‘allaqas (omitting those of Imru’ u’ l-Qays and Ṭarafa) with a German commentary, _Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Akad. der Wissenschaften in Wien_, _Phil.-Histor. Klasse_, vols. 140-144 (1899-1901); this is by far the best translation for students. No satisfactory version in English prose has hitherto appeared, but I may call attention to the fine and original, though somewhat free, rendering into English verse by Lady Anne Blunt and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (_The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia_, London, 1903).

[203] _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, Introduction, p. xliv. Many other interpretations have been suggested--_e.g._, 'The Poems written down from oral dictation' (Von Kremer), 'The richly bejewelled' (Ahlwardt), 'The Pendants,' as though they were pearls strung on a necklace (A. Müller).

[204] The belief that the _Mu‘allaqát_ were written in letters of gold seems to have arisen from a misunderstanding of the name _Mudhhabát_ or _Mudhahhabát_ (_i.e._, the Gilded Poems) which is sometimes given to them in token of their excellence, just as the Greeks gave the title χρύσεα ἔπη to a poem falsely attributed to Pythagoras. That some of the _Mu‘allaqát_ were recited at ‘Ukáẓ is probable enough and is definitely affirmed in the case of ‘Amr b. Kulthúm (_Aghání_, ix, 182).

[205] The legend first appears in the _‘Iqd al-Faríd_ (ed. of Cairo, 1293 A.H., vol. iii, p. 116 seq.) of Ibn ‘Abdi Rabbihi, who died in 940 A.D.

[206] See the Introduction to Nöldeke's _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber_ (Hannover, 1864), p. xvii sqq., and his article Mo‘allaḳát' in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.

[207] It is well known that the order of the verses in the _Mu‘allaqát_, as they have come down to us, is frequently confused, and that the number of various readings is very large. I have generally followed the text and arrangement adopted by Nöldeke in his German translation.

[208] See p. 42 _supra_.

[209] _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, p. 105.

[210] See the account of his life (according to the _Kitábu’ l-Aghání_) in _Le Diwan d'Amro’lkaïs_, edited with translation and notes by Baron MacGuckin de Slane (Paris, 1837), pp. 1-51; and in _Amrilkais, der Dichter und König_ by Friedrich Rückert (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1843).

[211] That he was not, however, the inventor of the Arabian _qaṣída_ as described above (p. 76 sqq.) appears from the fact that he mentions in one of his verses a certain Ibn Ḥumám or Ibn Khidhám who introduced, or at least made fashionable, the prelude with which almost every ode begins: a lament over the deserted camping-ground (Ibn Qutayba, _K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará_, p. 52).

[212] The following lines are translated from Arnold's edition of the _Mu‘allaqát_ (Leipsic, 1850), p. 9 sqq., vv. 18-35.

[213] The native commentators are probably right in attributing this and the three preceding verses (48-51 in Arnold's edition) to the brigand-poet, Ta’abbaṭa Sharran.

[214] We have already (p. 39) referred to the culture of the Christian Arabs of Ḥíra.

[215] Vv. 54-59 (Lyall); 56-61 (Arnold).

[216] See Nöldeke, _Fünf Mu‘allaqát_, i, p. 51 seq. According to the traditional version (_Aghání_, ix, 179), a band of Taghlibites went raiding, lost their way in the desert, and perished of thirst, having been refused water by a sept of the Banú Bakr. Thereupon Taghlib appealed to King ‘Amr to enforce payment of the blood-money which they claimed, and chose ‘Amr b. Kulthúm to plead their cause at Ḥíra. So ‘Amr recited his _Mu‘allaqa_ before the king, and was answered by Ḥárith on behalf of Bakr.

[217] Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. ii, p. 233.

[218] _Aghání_, ix, 182.

[219] Vv. 1-8 (Arnold); in Lyall's edition the penultimate verse is omitted.

[220] Vv. 15-18 (Lyall); 19-22 (Arnold).

[221] The Arabs use the term _kunya_ to denote this familiar style of address in which a person is called, not by his own name, but 'father of So-and-so' (either a son or, as in the present instance, a daughter).

[222] _I.e._, even the _jinn_ (genies) stand in awe of us.

[223] Here Ma‘add signifies the Arabs in general.

[224] Vv. 20-30 (Lyall), omitting vv. 22, 27, 28.

[225] This is a figurative way of saying that Taghlib has never been subdued.

[226] Vv. 46-51 (Lyall), omitting v. 48.

[227] _I.e._, we will show our enemies that they cannot defy us with impunity. This verse, the 93rd in Lyall's edition, is omitted by Arnold.

[228] Vv. 94-104 (Arnold), omitting vv. 100 and 101. If the last words are anything more than a poetic fiction, 'the sea' must refer to the River Euphrates.

[229] Vv. 16-18.

[230] Vv. 23-26.

[231] A place in the neighbourhood of Mecca.

[232] Vv. 40-42 (Lyall); 65-67 (Arnold).

[233] See _‘Antarah, ein vorislamischer Dichter_, by H. Thorbecke (Leipzig, 1867).

[234] I have taken some liberties in this rendering, as the reader may see by referring to the verses (44 and 47-52 in Lyall's edition) on which it is based.

[235] Ghayẓ b. Murra was a descendant of Dhubyán and the ancestor of Harim and Ḥárith.

[236] The Ka‘ba.

[237] This refers to the religious circumambulation (_ṭawáf_).

[238] Vv. 16-19 (Lyall).

[239] There is no reason to doubt the genuineness of this passage, which affords evidence of the diffusion of Jewish and Christian ideas in pagan Arabia. Ibn Qutayba observes that these verses indicate the poet's belief in the Resurrection (_K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará_, p. 58, l. 12).

[240] Vv. 27-31.

[241] The order of these verses in Lyall's edition is as follows: 56, 57, 54, 50, 55, 53, 49, 47, 48, 52, 58.

[242] Reference has been made above to the old Arabian belief that poets owed their inspiration to the _jinn_ (genii), who are sometimes called _shayátín_ (satans). See Goldziher, _Abhand. zur arab. Philologie_, Part I, pp. 1-14.

[243] Vv. 1-10 (Lyall), omitting v. 5.

[244] Vv. 55-60 (Lyall).

[245] The term _nábigha_ is applied to a poet whose genius is slow in declaring itself but at last "jets forth vigorously and abundantly" (_nabagha_).

[246] _Díwán_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 83; Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 96.

[247] He means to say that Nu‘mán has no reason to feel aggrieved because he (Nábigha) is grateful to the Ghassánids for their munificent patronage; since Nu‘mán does not consider that his own favourites, in showing gratitude to himself, are thereby guilty of treachery towards their former patrons.

[248] _Diwán_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 76, ii, 21. In another place (p. 81, vi, 6) he says, addressing his beloved:--

"Wadd give thee greeting! for dalliance with women is lawful to me no more, Since Religion has become a serious matter."

Wadd was a god worshipped by the pagan Arabs. Derenbourg's text has _rabbí_, _i.e._, Allah, but see Nöldeke's remarks in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. xli (1887), p. 708.

[249] _Aghání_, viii, 85, last line-86, l. 10.

[250] Lyall, _Ten Ancient Arabic Poems_, p. 146 seq., vv. 25-31.

[251] Ahlwardt, _The Divans_, p. 106, vv. 8-10.

[252] _Ḥamása_, p. 382, l. 17.

[253] Nöldeke, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber_, p. 152.

[254] Nöldeke, _ibid._, p. 175.

[255] The original title is _al-Mukhtárát_ (The Selected Odes) or _al-Ikhtiyárát_ (The Selections).

[256] Oxford, 1918-21. The Indexes of personal and place-names, poetical quotations, and selected words were prepared by Professor Bevan and published in 1924 in the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series.

[257] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 350 = De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 51.

[258] See Nöldeke, _Beiträge_, p. 183 sqq. There would seem to be comparatively few poems of Pre-islamic date in Buḥturí's anthology.

[259] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 204 = De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 470.

[260] Many interesting details concerning the tradition of Pre-islamic poetry by the _Ráwís_ and the Philologists will be found in Ahlwardt's _Bemerkungen ueber die Aechtheit der alten Arabischen Gedichte_ (Greifswald, 1872), which has supplied materials for the present sketch.

[261] _Aghání_, v, 172, l. 16 sqq.

[262] This view, however, is in accordance neither with the historical facts nor with the public opinion of the Pre-islamic Arabs (see Nöldeke, _Die Semitischen Sprachen_, p. 47).

[263] See Wellhausen, _Reste Arab. Heidentums_ (2nd ed.), p. 88 seq.

[264] _Ḥamása_, 506.

[265] _Ibid._, 237.

[266] _Díwán_ of Imru’u ’l-Qays, ed. by De Slane, p. 22 of the Arabic text, l. 17 sqq. = No. 52, ll. 57-59 (p. 154) in Ahlwardt's _Divans of the Six Poets_. With the last line, however, _cf._ the words of Qays b. al-Khaṭím on accomplishing his vengeance: "_When this death comes, there will not be found any need of my soul that I have not satisfied_" (_Ḥamása_, 87).

[267] _Aghání_, ii, 18, l. 23 sqq.

[268] _Aghání_, ii, 34, l. 22 sqq.

[269] See Von Kremer, _Ueber die Gedichte des Labyd_ in _S.B.W.A._, _Phil.-Hist. Klasse_ (Vienna, 1881), vol. 98, p. 555 sqq. Sir Charles Lyall, _Ancient Arabian Poetry_, pp. 92 and 119. Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidentums_ (2nd ed.), p. 224 sqq.

[270] I prefer to retain the customary spelling instead of Qur’án, as it is correctly transliterated by scholars. Arabic words naturalised in English, like Koran, Caliph, Vizier, &c., require no apology.

[271] Muir's _Life of Mahomet_, Introduction, p. 2 seq. I may as well say at once that I entirely disagree with the view suggested in this passage that Muḥammad did not believe himself to be inspired.

[272] The above details are taken from the _Fihrist_, ed. by G. Fluegel, p. 24, l. 14 sqq.

[273] Muir, _op. cit._, Introduction, p. 14.

[274] With the exception of the Opening Súra (_al-Fátiḥa_), which is a short prayer.

[275] Sprenger, _Ueber das Traditionswesen bei den Arabern_, _Z.D.M.G._, vol. x, p. 2.

[276] Quoted by Sprenger, _loc. cit._, p. 1.

[277] Quoted by Nöldeke in the Introduction to his _Geschichte des Qorâns_, p 22.

[278] See especially pp. 28-130.

[279] _Muhamm. Studien_, Part II, p. 48 seq.

[280] The reader may consult Muir's Introduction to his _Life of Mahomet_, pp. 28-87.

[281] Ibn Hishám, p. 105, l. 9 sqq.

[282] This legend seems to have arisen out of a literal interpretation of Koran, xciv, 1, "_Did we not open thy breast?_"--_i.e._, give thee comfort or enlightenment.

[283] This name, which may signify 'Baptists,' was applied by the heathen Arabs to Muḥammad and his followers, probably in consequence of the ceremonial ablutions which are incumbent upon every Moslem before the five daily prayers (see Wellhausen, _Reste Arab. Heid._, p. 237).

[284] Sir Charles Lyall, _The Words 'Ḥaníf' and 'Muslim,'_ _J.R.A.S._ for 1903, p. 772. The original meaning of _ḥaníf_ is no longer traceable, but it may be connected with the Hebrew _ḥánéf_, 'profane.' In the Koran it generally refers to the religion of Abraham, and sometimes appears to be nearly synonymous with _Muslim_. Further information concerning the Ḥanífs will be found in Sir Charles Lyall's article cited above; Sprenger, _Das Leben und die Lehre des Moḥammed_, vol. i, pp. 45-134; Wellhausen, _Reste Arab. Heid._, p. 238 sqq.; Caetani, _Annali dell' Islam_, vol. i, pp. 181-192.

[285] Ibn Hishám, p. 143, l. 6 sqq.

[286] _Aghání_, iii, 187, l. 17 sqq.

[287] See p. 69 _supra_.

[288] Tradition associates him especially with Waraqa, who was a cousin of his first wife, Khadíja, and is said to have hailed him as a prophet while Muḥammad himself was still hesitating (Ibn Hishám, p. 153, l. 14 sqq.).

[289] This is the celebrated 'Night of Power' (_Laylatu ’l-Qadr_) mentioned in the Koran, xcvii, 1.

[290] The Holy Ghost (_Rúḥu’l-Quds_), for whom in the Medína Súras Gabriel (Jibríl) is substituted.

[291] But another version (Ibn Hishám, p. 152, l. 9 sqq.) represents Muḥammad as replying to the Angel, "What am I to read?" (_má aqra’u_ or _má dhá aqra’u_). Professor Bevan has pointed out to me that the tradition in this form bears a curious resemblance, which can hardly be accidental, to the words of Isaiah xl. 6: "The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry?" The question whether the Prophet could read and write is discussed by Nöldeke (_Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 7 sqq.), who leaves it undecided. According to Nöldeke (_loc. cit._, p. 10), the epithet _ummí_, which is applied to Muḥammad in the Koran, and is commonly rendered by 'illiterate,' does not signify that he was ignorant of reading and writing, but only that he was unacquainted with the ancient Scriptures; _cf._ 'Gentile.' However this may be, it appears that he wished to pass for illiterate, with the object of confirming the belief in his inspiration: "_Thou_" (Muḥammad) "_didst not use to read any book before this_" (the Koran) "_nor to write it with thy right hand; else the liars would have doubted_" (Koran, xxix, 47).

[292] The meaning of these words (_iqra’ bismi rabbika_) is disputed. Others translate, "Preach in the name of thy Lord" (Nöldeke), or "Proclaim the name of thy Lord" (Hirschfeld). I see no sufficient grounds for abandoning the traditional interpretation supported by verses 4 and 5. Muḥammad dreamed that he was commanded to read the Word of God inscribed in the Heavenly Book which is the source of all Revelation.

[293] Others render, "who taught (the use of) the Pen."

[294] This account of Muḥammad's earliest vision (Bukhárí, ed. by Krehl, vol. iii, p. 380, l. 2 sqq.) is derived from ‘A’isha, his favourite wife, whom he married after the death of Khadíja.

[295] Ibn Hishám, p. 152, l. 9 sqq.

[296] See p. 72 _supra_.

[297] This interval is known as the Fatra.

[298] Literally, 'warn.'

[299] 'The abomination' (_al-rujz_) probably refers to idolatry.

[300] Literally, "The Last State shall be better for thee than the First," referring either to Muḥammad's recompense in the next world or to the ultimate triumph of his cause in this world.

[301] _Islám_ is a verbal noun formed from _Aslama_, which means 'to surrender' and, in a religious sense, 'to surrender one's self to the will of God.' The participle, _Muslim_ (Moslem), denotes one who thus surrenders himself.

[302] Sprenger, _Leben des Mohammad_, vol. i, p. 356.

[303] It must be remembered that this branch of Muḥammadan tradition derives from the pietists of the first century after the Flight, who were profoundly dissatisfied with the reigning dynasty (the Umayyads), and revenged themselves by painting the behaviour of the Meccan ancestors of the Umayyads towards Muḥammad in the blackest colours possible. The facts tell another story. It is significant that hardly any case of real persecution is mentioned in the Koran. Muḥammad was allowed to remain at Mecca and to carry on, during many years, a religious propaganda which his fellow-citizens, with few exceptions, regarded as detestable and dangerous. We may well wonder at the moderation of the Quraysh, which, however, was not so much deliberate policy as the result of their indifference to religion and of Muḥammad's failure to make appreciable headway in Mecca.

[304] Ibn Hishám, p. 168, l. 9. sqq.

[305] At this time Muḥammad believed the doctrines of Islam and Christianity to be essentially the same.

[306] Ṭabarí, i, 1180, 8 sqq. _Cf._ Caetani, _Annali dell' Islam_, vol. i, p. 267 sqq.

[307] Muir, _Life of Mahomet_, vol. ii, p. 151.

[308] We have seen (p. 91 _supra_) that the heathen Arabs disliked female offspring, yet they called their three principal deities the daughters of Allah.

[309] It is related by Ibn Isḥáq (Ṭabarí, i, 1192, 4 sqq.). In his learned work, _Annali dell' Islam_, of which the first volume appeared in 1905, Prince Caetani impugns the authenticity of the tradition and criticises the narrative in detail (p. 279 sqq.), but his arguments do not touch the main question. As Muir says, "it is hardly possible to conceive how the tale, if not founded in truth, could ever have been invented."

[310] The Meccan view of Muḥammad's action may be gathered from the words uttered by Abú Jahl on the field of Badr--"O God, bring woe upon him who more than any of us hath severed the ties of kinship and dealt dishonourably!" (Ṭabarí, i, 1322, l. 8 seq.). Alluding to the Moslems who abandoned their native city and fled with the Prophet to Medína, a Meccan poet exclaims (Ibn Hishám, p. 519, ll. 3-5):--

_They_ (the Quraysh slain at Badr) _fell in honour. They did not sell their kinsmen for strangers living in a far land and of remote lineage;_

_Unlike you, who have made friends of Ghassán_ (the people of Medína), _taking them instead of us--O, what a shameful deed!_

_Tis an impiety and a manifest crime and a cutting of all ties of blood: your iniquity therein is discerned by men of judgment and understanding._

[311] _Súra_ is properly a row of stones or bricks in a wall.

[312] See p. 74 _supra_.

[313] Koran, lxix, 41.

[314] Nöldeke, _Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 56.

[315] _I.e._, what it has done or left undone.

[316] The Last Judgment.

[317] Moslems believe that every man is attended by two Recording Angels who write down his good and evil actions.

[318] This is generally supposed to refer to the persecution of the Christians of Najrán by Dhú Nuwás (see p. 26 _supra_). Geiger takes it as an allusion to the three men who were cast into the fiery furnace (Daniel, ch. iii).

[319] See above, p. 3.

[320] According to Muḥammadan belief, the archetype of the Koran and of all other Revelations is written on the Guarded Table (_al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfúẓ_) in heaven.

[321] Koran, xvii, 69.

[322] See, for example, the passages translated by Lane in his _Selections from the Kur-án_ (London, 1843), pp. 100-113.

[323] _Ikhláṣ_ means 'purifying one's self of belief in any god except Allah.'

[324] The Prophet's confession of his inability to perform miracles did not deter his followers from inventing them after his death. Thus it was said that he caused the infidels to see "the moon cloven asunder" (Koran, liv, 1), though, as is plain from the context, these words refer to one of the signs of the Day of Judgment.

[325] I take this opportunity of calling the reader's attention to a most interesting article by my friend and colleague, Professor A. A. Bevan, entitled _The Beliefs of Early Mohammedans respecting a Future Existence_ (_Journal of Theological Studies_, October, 1904, p. 20 sqq.), where the whole subject is fully discussed.

[326] Shaddád b. al-Aswad al-Laythí, quoted in the _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_ of Abu ’l-‘Alá al-Ma‘arrí (see my article in the _J.R.A.S._ for 1902, pp. 94 and 818); _cf._ Ibn Hishám, p. 530, last line. Ibn (Abí) Kabsha was a nickname derisively applied to Muḥammad. _Ṣadá_ and _háma_ refer to the death-bird which was popularly supposed to utter its shriek from the skull (_háma_) of the dead, and both words may be rendered by 'soul' or 'wraith.'

[327] Nöldeke, _Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 78.

[328] _Cf._ also Koran, xviii, 45-47; xx, 102 sqq.; xxxix, 67 sqq.; lxix, 13-37.

[329] The famous freethinker, Abu ’l-‘Alá al-Ma‘arrí, has cleverly satirised Muḥammadan notions on this subject in his _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_ (_J.R.A.S._ for October, 1900, p. 637 sqq.).

[330] _Journal of Theological Studies_ for October, 1904, p. 22.

[331] Ibn Hishám, p. 411, l. 6 sqq.

[332] _Ibid._, p. 347.

[333] L. Caetani, _Annali dell' Islam_, vol. i, p. 389.

[334] Nöldeke, _Geschichte des Qorâns_, p. 122.

[335] Translated by E. H. Palmer.

[336] Ibn Hishám, p. 341, l. 5.

[337] _Muḥammad's Gemeindeordnung von Medina in Skizzen und Vorarbeiten_, Heft IV, p. 67 sqq.

[338] Ibn Hishám, p. 763, l. 12.

[339] Koran, ii, 256, translated by E. H. Palmer.

[340] _Muhamm. Studien_, Part I, p. 12.

[341] See Goldziher's introductory chapter entitled _Muruwwa und Dîn_ (_ibid._, pp. 1-39).

[342] Bayḍáwí on Koran, xxii, 11.

[343] _Die Berufung Mohammed's_, by M. J. de Goeje in _Nöldeke-Festschrift_ (Giessen, 1906), vol. i, p. 5.

[344] _On the _Origin and Import of the Names Muslim and Ḥaníf_ (_J.R.A.S._ for 1903, p. 491)

[345] See T. W. Arnold's _The Preaching of Islam_, p. 23 seq., where several passages of like import are collected.

[346] Nöldeke, _Sketches from Eastern History_, translated by J. S. Black, p. 73.

[347] See Professor Browne's _Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, p. 200 sqq.

[348] Ṭabarí, i, 2729, l. 15 sqq.

[349] _Ibid._, i, 2736, l. 5 sqq. The words in italics are quoted from Koran, xxviii, 26, where they are applied to Moses.

[350] ‘Umar was the first to assume this title (_Amíru ’l-Mu’minín_), by which the Caliphs after him were generally addressed.

[351] Ṭabarí, i, 2738, 7 sqq.

[352] _Ibid._, i, 2739, 4 sqq.

[353] _Ibid._, i, 2737, 4 sqq.

[354] It is explained that ‘Umar prohibited lamps because rats used to take the lighted wick and set fire to the house-roofs, which at that time were made of palm-branches.

[355] Ṭabarí, i, 2742, 13 sqq.

[356] _Ibid._, i, 2745, 15 sqq.

[357] _Ibid._, i, 2747, 7 sqq.

[358] _Ibid._, i, 2740, last line and foll.

[359] _Al-Fakhrí_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 116, l. 1 to p. 117, l. 3.

[360] Ṭabarí, i, 2751, 9 sqq.

[361] Ibn Khallikán (ed. by Wüstenfeld), No. 68, p. 96, l. 3; De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 152.

[362] Mu‘áwiya himself said: "I am the first of the kings" (Ya‘qúbí, ed. by Houtsma, vol. ii, p. 276, l. 14).

[363] _Al-Fakhrí_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 145.

[364] Ya‘qúbí, vol. ii, p. 283, l. 8 seq.

[365] Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_ (ed. by Barbier de Meynard), vol. v. p. 77.

[366] Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 25, l. 3 sqq., omitting l. 8.

[367] The _Continuatio_ of Isidore of Hispalis, § 27, quoted by Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz_, p. 105.

[368] Ḥamása, 226. The word translated 'throne' is in Arabic _mínbar_, _i.e._, the pulpit from which the Caliph conducted the public prayers and addressed the congregation.

[369] Kalb was properly one of the Northern tribes (see Robertson Smith's _Kinship and Marriage_, 2nd ed., p. 8 seq.--a reference which I owe to Professor Bevan), but there is evidence that the Kalbites were regarded as 'Yemenite' or 'Southern' Arabs at an early period of Islam. _Cf._ Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 83, l. 3 sqq.

[370] _Muhammedanische Studien_, i, 78 sqq.

[371] Qaḥṭán is the legendary ancestor of the Southern Arabs.

[372] _Aghání_, xiii, 51, cited by Goldziher, _ibid._, p. 82.

[373] A verse of the poet Suḥaym b. Wathíl.

[374] The _Kámil_ of al-Mubarrad, ed. by W. Wright, p. 215, l. 14 sqq.

[375] Ibn Qutayba, _Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árif_, p. 202.

[376] _Al-Fakhrí_, p. 173; Ibnu ’l-Athír, ed. by Tornberg, v, 5.

[377] _Ibid._, p. 174. _Cf._ Mas‘údi, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, v, 412.

[378] His mother, Umm ‘Áṣim, was a granddaughter of ‘Umar I.

[379] Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, v, 419 seq.

[380] Ibnu ’l-Athír, ed. by Tornberg, v, 46. _Cf._ _Agání_, xx, p. 119, l. 23. ‘Umar made an exception, as Professor Bevan reminds me, in favour of the poet Jarír. See Brockelmann's _Gesch. der Arab. Litteratur_, vol. i, p. 57.

[381] The exhaustive researches of Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz_ (pp. 169-192) have set this complicated subject in a new light. He contends that ‘Umar's reform was not based on purely ideal grounds, but was demanded by the necessities of the case, and that, so far from introducing disorder into the finances, his measures were designed to remedy the confusion which already existed.

[382] Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, v, 479.

[383] The Arabic text and literal translation of these verses will be found in my article on Abu ’l-‘Alá's _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_ (_J.R.A.S._ for 1902, pp. 829 and 342).

[384] Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz_, p. 38.

[385] _I.e._, the main body of Moslems--_Sunnís_, followers of the _Sunna_, as they were afterwards called--who were neither Shí‘ites nor Khárijites, but held (1) that the Caliph must be elected by the Moslem community, and (2) that he must be a member of Quraysh, the Prophet's tribe. All these parties arose out of the struggle between ‘Alí and Mu‘áwiya, and their original difference turned solely on the question of the Caliphate.

[386] Brünnow, _Die Charidschiten unter den ersten Omayyaden_ (Leiden, 1884), p. 28. It is by no means certain, however, that the Khárijites called themselves by this name. In any case, the term implies _secession_ (_khurúj_) from the Moslem community, and may be rendered by 'Seceder' or 'Nonconformist.'

[387] _Cf._ Koran, ix, 112.

[388] Brünnow, _op. cit._, p. 8.

[389] Wellhausen, _Die religiös-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam_ (_Abhandlungen der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen_, _Phil.-Hist. Klasse_, 1901), p. 8 sqq. The writer argues against Brünnow that the oldest Khárijites were not true Bedouins (_A‘rábí_), and were, in fact, even further removed than the rest of the military colonists of Kúfa and Baṣra from their Bedouin traditions. He points out that the extreme piety of the Readers--their constant prayers, vigils, and repetitions of the Koran--exactly agrees with what is related of the Khárijites, and is described in similar language. Moreover, among the oldest Khárijites we find mention made of a company clad in long cloaks (_baránis_, pl. of _burnus_), which were at that time a special mark of asceticism. Finally, the earliest authority (Abú Mikhnaf in Ṭabarí, i, 3330, l. 6 sqq.) regards the Khárijites as an offshoot from the Readers, and names individual Readers who afterwards became rabid Khárijites.

[390] Later, when many non-Arab Moslems joined the Khárijite ranks the field of choice was extended so as to include foreigners and even slaves.

[391] Ṭabarí, ii, 40, 13 sqq.

[392] Shahrastání, ed. by Cureton, Part I, p. 88. l. 12.

[393] _Ibid._, p. 86, l. 3 from foot.

[394] Ṭabarí, ii, 36, ll. 7, 8, 11-16.

[395] _Ḥamása_, 44.

[396] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 555, p. 55, l. 4 seq.; De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 523.

[397] Dozy, _Essai sur l'histoire de l'Islamisme_ (French translation by Victor Chauvin), p. 219 sqq.

[398] Wellhausen thinks that the dogmatics of the Shí‘ites are derived from Jewish rather than from Persian sources. See his account of the Saba’ites in his most instructive paper, to which I have already referred, _Die religiös-politischen Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam_ (_Abh. der König. Ges. der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen_, _Phil.-Hist. Klasse_, 1901), p. 89 sqq.

[399] Ṭabarí, i, 2942, 2.

[400] "_Verily, He who hath ordained the Koran for thee_ (_i.e._, for Muḥammad) _will bring thee back to a place of return_" (_i.e._, to Mecca). The ambiguity of the word meaning 'place of return' (_ma‘ád_) gave some colour to Ibn Sabá's contention that it alluded to the return of Muḥammad at the end of the world. The descent of Jesus on earth is reckoned by Moslems among the greater signs which will precede the Resurrection.

[401] This is a Jewish idea. ‘Alí stands in the same relation to Muḥammad as Aaron to Moses.

[402] Ṭabarí, _loc. cit._

[403] Shahrastání, ed. by Cureton, p. 132, l. 15.

[404] _Aghání_, viii, 32, l. 17 sqq. The three sons of ‘Alí are Ḥasan, Ḥusayn, and Muḥammad Ibnu ’l-Ḥanafiyya.

[405] Concerning the origin of these sects see Professor Browne's _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, vol. i, p. 295 seq.

[406] See Darmesteter's interesting essay, _Le Mahdi depuis les origines de l'Islam jusqu'à nos jours_ (Paris, 1885). The subject is treated more scientifically by Snouck Hurgronje in his paper _Der Mahdi_, reprinted from the _Revue coloniale internationale_ (1886).

[407] _Ṣiddíq_ means 'veracious.' Professor Bevan remarks that in this root the notion of 'veracity' easily passes into that of 'endurance,' 'fortitude.'

[408] Ṭabarí, ii, 546. These 'Penitents' were free Arabs of Kúfa, a fact which, as Wellhausen has noticed, would seem to indicate that the _ta‘ziya_ is Semitic in origin.

[409] Wellhausen, _Die religiös-politischen Oppositionsparteien_, p. 79.

[410] Ṭabarí, ii, 650, l. 7 sqq.

[411] Shahrastání, Haarbrücker's translation, Part I, p. 169.

[412] Von Kremer, _Culturgeschicht_. _Streifzüge_, p. 2 sqq.

[413] The best account of the early Murjites that has hitherto appeared is contained in a paper by Van Vloten, entitled _Irdjâ_ (_Z.D.M.G._, vol. 45, p. 161 sqq.). The reader may also consult Shahrastání, Haarbrücker's trans., Part I, p. 156 sqq.; Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part II, p. 89 sqq.; Van Vloten, _La domination Arabe_, p. 31 seq.

[414] Van Vloten thinks that in the name 'Murjite' (_murji’_) there is an allusion to Koran, ix, 107: "_And others are remanded (murjawna) until God shall decree; whether He shall punish them or take pity on them--for God is knowing and wise._"

[415] _Cf._ the poem of Thábit Quṭna (_Z.D.M.G._, _loc. cit._, p. 162), which states the whole Murjite doctrine in popular form. The author, who was himself a Murjite, lived in Khurásán during the latter half of the first century A.H.

[416] Van Vloten, _La domination Arabe_, p. 29 sqq.

[417] Ibn Ḥazm, cited in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 45, p. 169, n. 7. Jahm († about 747 A.D.) was a Persian, as might be inferred from the boldness of his speculations.

[418] Ḥasan himself inclined for a time to the doctrine of free-will, but afterwards gave it up (Ibn Qutayba, _Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árif_, p. 225). He is said to have held that everything happens by fate, except sin (_Al-Mu‘tazilah_, ed. by T. W. Arnold, p. 12, l. 3 from foot). See, however, Shahrastání, Haarbrücker's trans., Part I, p. 46.

[419] Koran, lxxiv, 41.

[420] _Ibid._, xli, 46.

[421] _Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árif_, p. 301. Those who held the doctrine of free-will were called the Qadarites (_al-Qadariyya_), from _qadar_ (power), which may denote (1) the power of God to determine human actions, and (2) the power of man to determine his own actions. Their opponents asserted that men act under compulsion (_jabr_); hence they were called the Jabarites (_al-Jabariyya_).

[422] As regards Ghaylán see _Al-Mu‘tazilah_, ed. by T. W. Arnold, p. 15, l. 16 sqq.

[423] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iii, p. 642; Shahrastání, trans. by Haarbrücker, Part I, p. 44.

[424] Sha‘rání, _Lawáqihu ’l-Anwár_ (Cairo, 1299 A.H.), p. 31.

[425] _Ibid._

[426] See Von Kremer, _Herrschende Ideen_, p. 52 sqq.; Goldziher, _Materialien zur Entwickelungsgesch. des Súfismus_ (_Vienna Oriental Journal_, vol. 13, p. 35 sqq.).

[427] Sha‘rání, _Lawáqiḥ_, p. 38.

[428] Qushayrí's _Risála_ (1287 A.H.), p. 77, l. 10.

[429] _Tadhkiratu ’l-Awliyá_ of Farídu’ddín ‘Aṭṭár, Part I, p. 37, l. 8 of my edition.

[430] _Kámil_ (ed. by Wright), p. 57, l. 16.

[431] The point of this metaphor lies in the fact that Arab horses were put on short commons during the period of training, which usually began forty days before the race.

[432] _Kámil_, p. 57, last line.

[433] _Kámil_, p. 58, l. 14.

[434] _Ibid._, p. 67, l. 9.

[435] _Ibid._, p. 91, l. 14.

[436] _Ibid._, p. 120, l. 4.

[437] Qushayrí's _Risála_, p. 63, last line.

[438] It is noteworthy that Qushayrí († 1073 A.D.), one of the oldest authorities on Ṣúfiism, does not include Ḥasan among the Ṣúfí Shaykhs whose biographies are given in the _Risála_ (pp. 8-35), and hardly mentions him above half a dozen times in the course of his work. The sayings of Ḥasan which he cites are of the same character as those preserved in the _Kámil_.

[439] See Nöldeke's article, _'Ṣūfī_,' in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 48, p. 45.

[440] An allusion to _safá_ occurs in thirteen out of the seventy definitions of Ṣúfí and Ṣúfiism (_Taṣawwuf_) which are contained in the _Tadhkiratu ’l-Awliyá_, or 'Memoirs of the Saints,' of the well-known Persian mystic, Farídu’ddín ‘Aṭṭár († _circa_ 1230 A.D.), whereas _ṣúf_ is mentioned only twice.

[441] Said by Bishr al-Ḥáfí (the bare-footed), who died in 841-842 A.D.

[442] Said by Junayd of Baghdád († 909-910 A.D.), one of the most celebrated Ṣúfí Shaykhs.

[443] Ibn Khaldún's _Muqaddima_ (Beyrout, 1900), p. 467 = vol. iii, p. 85 seq. of the French translation by De Slane. The same things are said at greater length by Suhrawardí in his _‘Awárifu ’l-Ma‘árif_ (printed on the margin of Ghazálí's _Iḥyá_, Cairo, 1289 A.H.), vol. i, p. 172 _et seqq._ _Cf._ also the passage from Qushayrí translated by Professor E. G. Browne on pp. 297-298 of vol. i. of his _Literary History of Persia_.

[444] Suhrawardí, _loc. cit._, p. 136 seq.

[445] _Loc. cit._, p. 145.

[446] _I.e._, he yields himself unreservedly to the spiritual 'states' (_aḥwál_) which pass over him, according as God wills.

[447] Possibly Ibráhím was one of the _Shikaftiyya_ or 'Cave-dwellers' of Khurásán (_shikaft_ means 'cave' in Persian), whom the people of Syria called _al-Jú‘íyya_, _i.e._, 'the Fasters.' See Suhrawardí, _loc. cit._, p. 171.

[448] Ghazálí, _Iḥyá_ (Cairo, 1289 A.H.), vol. iv, p. 298.

[449] Brockelmann, _Gesch. d. Arab. Litteratur_, vol. i, p. 45.

[450] _E.g._, Ma‘bad, Gharíḍ, Ibn Surayj, Ṭuways, and Ibn ‘Á’isha.

[451] _Kámil_ of Mubarrad, p. 570 sqq.

[452] _Aghání_, i, 43, l. 15 sqq.; Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 17, last line and foll.

[453] Nöldeke's _Delectus_, p. 9, l. 11 sqq., omitting l. 13.

[454] An edition of the _Naqá’iḍ_ by Professor A. A. Bevan has been published at Leyden.

[455] _Aghání_, vii, 55, l. 12 sqq.

[456] _Aghání_, vii, 182, l. 23 sqq.

[457] _Ibid._, vii, 183, l. 6 sqq.

[458] _Ibid._, p. 178, l. 1 seq.

[459] _Ibid._, xiii, 148, l. 23.

[460] _Encomium Omayadarum_, ed. by Houtsma (Leyden, 1878).

[461] _Aghání_, vii, 172, l. 27 sqq.

[462] _Ibid._, p. 179, l. 25 sqq.

[463] _Ibid._, p. 178, l. 26 seq.

[464] _Aghání_, xix, 34, l. 18.

[465] _Kámil_ of Mubarrad, p. 70, l. 17 sqq.

[466] Al-Kusa‘í broke an excellent bow which he had made for himself. See _The Assemblies of Ḥarírí_, trans. by Chenery, p. 351. Professor Bevan remarks that this half-verse is an almost verbal citation from a verse ascribed to ‘Adí b. Maríná of Ḥíra, an enemy of ‘Adí b. Zayd the poet (_Aghání_, ii, 24, l. 5).

[467] Ibn Khallikán (ed. by Wüstenfeld), No. 129; De Slane's translation vol. i, p. 298.

[468] _Aghání_, iii, 23, l. 13.

[469] _Aghání_, vii, 49, l. 8 sqq.

[470] The following account is mainly derived from Goldziher's _Muhamm. Studien_, Part II, p. 203 sqq.

[471] _Cf._ Browne's _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, vol. i, p. 230.

[472] Nöldeke, _Sketches from Eastern History_, tr. by J. S. Black, p. 108 seq.

[473] Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich_, p. 307.

[474] _Recherches sur la domination Arabe_, p. 46 sqq.

[475] Dínawarí, ed. by Guirgass, p. 356.

[476] _Ibid._, p. 360, l. 15. The whole poem has been translated by Professor Browne in his _Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, p. 242.

[477] _Sketches from Eastern History_, p. 111.

[478] Professor Bevan, to whose kindness I owe the following observations, points out that this translation of _al-Saffáḥ_, although it has been generally adopted by European scholars, is very doubtful. According to Professor De Goeje, _al-Saffáḥ_ means 'the munificent' (literally, 'pouring out' gifts, &c.). In any case it is important to notice that the name was given to certain Pre-islamic chieftains. Thus Salama b. Khálid, who commanded the Banú Taghlib at the first battle of al-Kuláb (Ibnu ’l-Athír, ed. by Tornberg, vol. i, p. 406, last line), is said to have been called _al-Saffáḥ_ because he 'emptied out' the skin bottles (_mazád_) of his army before a battle (Ibn Durayd, ed. by Wüstenfeld, p. 203, l. 16); and we find mention of a poet named al-Saffáḥ b. ‘Abd Manát (_ibid._, p. 277, penult. line).

[479] See p. 205.

[480] G. Le Strange, _Baghdad under the Abbasid Caliphate_, p. 4 seq.

[481] Professor De Goeje has kindly given me the following references:--Ṭabarí, ii, 78, l. 10, where Ziyád is called the _Wazír_ of Mu‘áwiya; Ibn Sa‘d, iii, 121, l. 6 (Abú Bakr the _Wazír_ of the Prophet). The word occurs in Pre-islamic poetry (Ibn Qutayba, _K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará_, p. 414, l. 1). Professor De Goeje adds that the ‘Abbásid Caliphs gave the name _Wazír_ as title to the minister who was formerly called _Kátib_ (Secretary). Thus it would seem that the Arabic _Wazír_ (literally 'burden-bearer'), who was at first merely a 'helper' or 'henchman,' afterwards became the representative and successor of the _Dapír_ (official scribe or secretary) of the Sásánian kings.

[482] This division is convenient, and may be justified on general grounds. In a strictly political sense, the period of decline begins thirty years earlier with the Caliphate of Ma’mún (813-833 A.D.). The historian Abu ’l-Maḥásin († 1469 A.D.) dates the decline of the Caliphate from the accession of Muktafí in 902 A.D. (_al-Nujúm al-Záhira_, ed. by Juynboll, vol. ii, p. 134).

[483] See Nöldeke's essay, _Caliph Manṣur_, in his _Sketches from Eastern History_, trans. by J. S. Black, p. 107 sqq.

[484] Professor Browne has given an interesting account of these ultra-Shí‘ite insurgents in his _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, vol. i, ch. ix.

[485] Ṭabarí, iii, 404, l. 5 sqq.

[486] Ṭabarí, iii, 406, l. 1 sqq.

[487] _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. iv, p. 47 seq.

[488] When the Caliph Hádí wished to proclaim his son Ja‘far heir-apparent instead of Hárún, Yaḥyá pointed out the danger of this course and dissuaded him (_al-Fakhrí_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 281).

[489] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 105.

[490] Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, vol. vi, p. 364.

[491] See, for example, _Haroun Alraschid_, by E. H. Palmer, in the New Plutarch Series, p. 81 sqq.

[492] _Cf._ A. Müller, _Der Islam_, vol. i, p. 481 seq.

[493] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 112.

[494] Literally, "No father to your father!" a common form of imprecation.

[495] Green was the party colour of the ‘Alids, black of the ‘Abbásids.

[496] _Al-Nujúm al-Záhira_, ed. by Juynboll, vol. i, p. 631.

[497] The court remained at Sámarrá for fifty-six years (836-892 A.D.). The official spelling of Sámarrá was _Surra-man-ra’á_, which may be freely rendered 'The Spectator's Joy.'

[498] My account of these dynasties is necessarily of the briefest and barest character. The reader will find copious details concerning most of them in Professor Browne's _Literary History of Persia_: Ṣaffárids and Sámánids in vol. i, p. 346 sqq.; Fáṭimids in vol. i, pp. 391-400 and vol. ii, p. 196 sqq.; Ghaznevids in vol. ii, chap. ii; and Seljúqs, _ibid._, chaps. iii to v.

[499] Ibn Abí Usaybi‘a, _Ṭabaqátu ’l-Atibbá_, ed. by A. Müller, vol. ii, p. 4, l. 4 sqq. Avicenna was at this time scarcely eighteen years of age.

[500] ‘Abdu ’l-Hamíd flourished in the latter days of the Umayyad dynasty. See Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 173, Mas‘údí, _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, vol. vi, p. 81.

[501] See Professor Margoliouth's Introduction to the _Letters of ‘Abu ’l-‘Alá al-Ma‘arrí_, p. xxiv.

[502] Abu ’l-Mahásin, _al-Nujúm al-Záhira_, ed. by Juynboll, vol. ii, p. 333. The original Ráfiḍites were those schismatics who rejected (_rafaḍa_) the Caliphs Abú Bakr and ‘Umar, but the term is generally used as synonymous with Shí‘ite.

[503] Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 148, last line and foll.

[504] D. B. Macdonald, _Muslim Theology_, p. 43 seq.

[505] I regret that lack of space compels me to omit the further history of the Fáṭimids. Readers who desire information on this subject may consult Stanley Lane-Poole's _History of Egypt in the Middle Ages_; Wüstenfeld's _Geschichte der Faṭimiden-Chalifen_ (Göttingen, 1881); and Professor Browne's _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, vol. ii, p. 196 sqq.

[506] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 441.

[507] See the Introduction.

[508] Ibn Khaldún, _Muqaddima_ (Beyrout, 1900), p. 543 seq.--De Slane, _Prolegomena_, vol. iii, p. 296 sqq.

[509] _Cf._ Goldziher, _Muhamm. Studien_, Part I, p. 114 seq.

[510] Read _mashárátí ’l-buqúl_ (beds of vegetables), not _mushárát_ as my rendering implies. The change makes little difference to the sense, but _mashárat_, being an Aramaic word, is peculiarly appropriate here.

[511] _Aghání_, xii, 177, l. 5 sqq; Von Kremer, _Culturgesch. Streifzüge_, p. 32. These lines are aimed, as has been remarked by S. Khuda Bukhsh (_Contributions to the History of Islamic Civilisation_, Calcutta, 1905, p. 92), against Nabatæans who falsely claimed to be Persians.

[512] The name is derived from Koran, xlix, 13: "_O Men, We have created you of a male and a female and have made you into peoples_ (shu‘úban) _and tribes, that ye might know one another. Verily the noblest of you in the sight of God are they that do most fear Him._" Thus the designation 'Shu‘úbite' emphasises the fact that according to Muḥammad's teaching the Arab Moslems are no better than their non-Arab brethren.

[513] _Muhamm. Studien_, Part I, p. 147 sqq.

[514] The term _Falsafa_ properly includes Logic, Metaphysics, Mathematics, Medicine, and the Natural Sciences.

[515] Here we might add the various branches of Mathematics, such as Arithmetic, Algebra, Mechanics, &c.

[516] ‘Abdu ’l-Raḥman Jámí († 1492 A.D.).

[517] I am deeply indebted in the following pages to Goldziher's essay entitled _Alte und Neue Poesie im Urtheile der Arabischen Kritiker_ in his _Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie_, Part I, pp. 122-174.

[518] _Cf._ the remark made by Abú ‘Amr b. al-‘Alá about the poet Akhṭal (p. 242 _supra_).

[519] _Diwan des Abu Nowas, Die Weinlieder_, ed. by Ahlwardt, No. 10, vv. 1-5.

[520] Ed. by De Goeje, p. 5, ll. 5-15.

[521] _Cf._ the story told of Abú Tammám by Ibn Khallikán (De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 350 seq.).

[522] See Nöldeke, _Beiträge_, p. 4.

[523] Ibn Khaldún, _Muqaddima_ (Beyrout, 1900), p. 573, l. 21 seq.; _Prolegomena_ of Ibn K., translated by De Slane, vol. iii, p. 380.

[524] See Professor Browne's _Literary History of Persia_, vol. ii, p. 14 sqq.

[525] _Aghání_, xii, 80, l. 3.

[526] Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. i, p. 46 seq., where the reader will find the Arabic text of the verses translated here. Rückert has given a German rendering of the same verses in his _Hamâsa_, vol. i, p. 311. A fuller text of the poem occurs in _Aghání_, xii, 107 seq.

[527] _Díwán_, ed. by Ahlwardt, _Die Weinlieder_, No. 26, v. 4.

[528] Ibn Qutayba, _K. al-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará_, p. 502, l. 13.

[529] For the famous ascetic, Ḥasan of Baṣra, see pp. 225-227. Qatáda was a learned divine, also of Baṣra and contemporary with Ḥasan. He died in 735 A.D.

[530] These verses are quoted by Ibn Qutayba, _op. cit._, p. 507 seq. 'The Scripture' (_al-maṣḥaf_) is of course the Koran.

[531] _Die Weinlieder_, ed. by Ahlwardt, No. 47.

[532] _Ibid._, No. 29, vv. 1-3.

[533] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 169, p. 100; De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 393.

[534] _Cf._ _Díwán_ (ed. of Beyrout, 1886), p. 279, l. 9, where he reproaches one of his former friends who deserted him because, in his own words, "I adopted the garb of a dervish" (_ṣirtu fi ziyyi miskíni_). Others attribute his conversion to disgust with the immorality and profanity of the court-poets amongst whom he lived.

[535] Possibly he alludes to these aspersions in the verse (_ibid._, p. 153, l. 10): "_Men have become corrupted, and if they see any one who is sound in his religion, they call him a heretic_" (_mubtadi‘_).

[536] Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya declares that knowledge is derived from three sources, logical reasoning (_qiyás_), examination (_‘iyár_), and oral tradition (_samá‘_). See his _Díwán_, p. 158, l. 11.

[537] _Cf._ _Mání, seine Lehre und seine Schriften_, by G. Flügel, p. 281, l. 3 sqq. Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya did not take this extreme view (_Díwán_, p. 270, l. 3 seq.).

[538] See Shahrastání, Haarbrücker's translation, Part I, p. 181 sqq. It appears highly improbable that Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya was a Shí‘ite. _Cf._ the verses (_Díwán_, p. 104, l. 13 seq.), where, speaking of the prophets and the holy men of ancient Islam, he says:--

"_Reckon first among them Abú Bakr, the veracious, And exclaim 'O ‘Umar!' in the second place of honour. And reckon the father of Ḥasan after ‘Uthmán, For the merit of them both is recited and celebrated._"

[539] _Aghání_, iii, 128, l. 6 sqq.

[540] _Transactions of the Ninth Congress of Orientalists_, vol. ii. p. 114.

[541] _Díwán_, p. 274, l. 10. _Cf._ the verse (p. 199, penultimate line):--

"_When I gained contentment, I did not cease (thereafter) To be a king, regarding riches as poverty._"

The ascetic "lives the life of a king" (_ibid._, p. 187, l. 5). Contented men are the noblest of all (p. 148, l. 2). So the great Persian mystic, Jalálu ’l-Dín Rúmí, says in reference to the perfect Ṣúfí (_Díván-i Shams-i Tabríz_, No. viii, v. 3 in my edition): _Mard-i khudá sháh buvad zír-i dalq_, "the man of God is a king 'neath dervish-cloak;" and eminent spiritualists are frequently described as "kings of the (mystic) path." I do not deny, however, that this metaphor may have been originally suggested by the story of Buddha.

[542] _Díwán_, p. 25, l. 3 sqq. Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya took credit to himself for introducing 'the language of the market-place' into his poetry (_ibid._ p. 12, l. 3 seq.).

[543] _Díwán_ (Beyrout, 1886), p. 23, l. 13 et seqq.

[544] _Ibid._, p. 51, l. 2.

[545] _Ibid._, p. 132, l. 3.

[546] _Ibid._, p. 46, l. 16.

[547] _Díwán_, p. 260, l. 11 _et seqq._

[548] _Ibid._, p. 295, l. 14 _et seqq._

[549] _Ibid._, p. 287, l. 10 seq.

[550] _Ibid._, p. 119, l. 11.

[551] _Ibid._, p. 259, penultimate line _et seq._

[552] _Ibid._, p. 115, l. 4.

[553] _Díwán_, p. 51, l. 10.

[554] _Ibid._, p. 133, l. 5.

[555] _Ibid._, p. 74, l. 4.

[556] _Ibid._, p. 149, l. 12 seq.

[557] _Ibid._, p. 195, l. 9. _Cf._ p. 243, l. 4 seq.

[558] _Ibid._, p. 274, l. 6.

[559] _Ibid._, p. 262, l. 4.

[560] _Ibid._, p. 346, l. 11. _Cf._ p. 102, l. 11; p. 262, l. 1 seq.; p. 267, l. 7. This verse is taken from Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya's famous didactic poem composed in rhyming couplets, which is said to have contained 4,000 sentences of morality. Several of these have been translated by Von Kremer in his _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, vol. ii, p. 374 sqq.

[561] In one of his poems (_Díwán_, p. 160, l. 11), he says that he has lived ninety years, but if this is not a mere exaggeration, it needs to be corrected. The words for 'seventy' and 'ninety' are easily confused in Arabic writing.

[562] Tha‘álibí, _Yatimatu ’l-Dahr_ (Damascus, 1304 A.H.), vol. i, p. 8 seq.

[563] See Von Kremer's _Culturgeschichte_, vol. ii, p. 381 sqq.; Ahlwardt, _Poesie und Poetik der Araber_, p. 37 sqq.; R. Dvorak, _Abú Firás, ein arabischer Dichter und Held_ (Leyden, 1895).

[564] Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 493. Wáḥidí gives the whole story in his commentary on this verse.

[565] Mutanabbí, it is said, explained to Sayfu ’l-Dawla that by _surra_ (gladden) he meant _surriyya_; whereupon the good-humoured prince presented him with a slave-girl.

[566] Literally, "Do not imagine fat in one whose (apparent) fat is (really) a tumour."

[567] _Díwán_, ed. by Dieterici, pp. 481-484.

[568] The most esteemed commentary is that of Wáḥidí († 1075 A.D.), which has been published by Fr. Dieterici in his edition of Mutanabbí (Berlin, 1858-1861).

[569] _Motenebbi, der grösste arabische Dichter_ (Vienna, 1824).

[570] _Abulfedæ Annales Muslemici_ (Hafniæ, 1789, &c.), vol. ii, p. 774. _Cf._ his notes on Ṭarafa's _Mu‘allaqa_, of which he published an edition in 1742.

[571] _Chrestomathie Arabe_ (2nd edition), vol. iii, p. 27 sqq. _Journal des Savans_, January, 1825, p. 24 sqq.

[572] _Commentatio de Motenabbio_ (Bonn, 1824).

[573] _Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur_ (Weimar, 1898, &c.), vol. i, p. 86.

[574] I have made free use of Dieterici's excellent work entitled _Mutanabbi und Seifuddaula aus der Edelperle des Tsaâlibi_ (Leipzig, 1847), which contains on pp. 49-74 an abstract of Tha‘álibí's criticism in the fifth chapter of the First Part of the _Yatíma_.

[575] Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 182, vv. 3-9, omitting v. 5.

[576] The author of these lines, which are quoted by Ibn Khallikán in his article on Mutanabbí, is Abu ’l-Qásim b. al-Muẓaffar b. ‘Alí al-Ṭabasí.

[577] Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 581, v. 27.

[578] _Ibid._, p. 472, v. 5.

[579] Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 341, v. 8.

[580] Margoliouth's Introduction to the _Letters of Abu ’l-‘Alá_, p. xxii.

[581] _Ibid._, p. xxvii seq.

[582] _Luzúmiyyát_ (Cairo, 1891), vol. i, p. 201.

[583] _I.e._, his predecessors of the modern school. Like Mutanabbí, he ridicules the conventional types (_asálíb_) in which the old poetry is cast _Cf._ Goldziher, _Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie_, Part I, p. 146 seq.

[584] The proper title is _Luzúmu má lá yalzam_, referring to a technical difficulty which the poet unnecessarily imposed on himself with regard to the rhyme.

[585] _Abulfedæ Annales Muslemici_, ed. by Adler (1789-1794), vol. iii, p. 677.

[586] _Literaturgesch. der Araber_, vol. vi, p. 900 sqq.

[587] _Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, vol. cxvii, 6th Abhandlung (Vienna, 1889). Select passages admirably rendered by Von Kremer into German verse will be found in the _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 29, pp. 304-312; vol. 30, pp. 40-52; vol. 31, pp. 471-483; vol. 38, pp. 499-529.

[588] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 38, p. 507; Margoliouth, _op. cit._, p. 131, l. 15 of the Arabic text.

[589] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 29, p. 308.

[590] Margoliouth, _op. cit._, p. 133 of the Arabic text.

[591] This passage occurs in Abu ’l-‘Alá's _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_ (see _infra_), _J.R.A.S._ for 1902, p. 351. _Cf._ the verses translated by Von Kremer in his essay on Abu ’l-‘Alá, p. 23.

[592] For the term 'Ḥaníf' see p. 149 _supra_. Here it is synonymous with 'Muslim.'

[593] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 38, p. 513.

[594] This work, of which only two copies exist in Europe--one at Constantinople and another in my collection--has been described and partially translated in the _J.R.A.S._ for 1900, pp. 637-720, and for 1902, pp. 75-101, 337-362, and 813-847.

[595] Margoliouth, _op. cit._, p. 132, last line of the Arabic text.

[596] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 31, p. 483.

[597] De Gobineau, _Les religions et les philosophies dans l'Asie centrale_, p. 11 seq.

[598] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 31, p. 477.

[599] _Ibid._, vol. 29, p. 311.

[600] _Z.D.M.G._ vol. 38, p. 522.

[601] According to De Goeje, _Mémoires sur les Carmathes du Bahrain_, p. 197, n. 1, these lines refer to a prophecy made by the Carmathians that the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, which took place in 1047 A.D. would herald the final triumph of the Fáṭimids over the ‘Abbásids.

[602] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 38, p. 504.

[603] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 31, p. 474.

[604] _Luzúmiyyát_ (Cairo, 1891), i, 394.

[605] _Ibid._, i, 312.

[606] Von Kremer, _op. cit._, p. 38.

[607] _Safar-náma_, ed. by Schefer, p. 10 seq. = pp. 35-36 of the translation.

[608] _Luzúmiyyát_, ii, 280. The phrase does not mean "I am the child of my age," but "I live in the present," forgetful of the past and careless what the future may bring.

[609] See Von Kremer, _op. cit._, p. 46 sqq.

[610] See the article on Ṭughrá’í in Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 462.

[611] _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 355.

[612] The spirit of fortitude and patience (_ḥamása_) is exhibited by both poets, but in a very different manner. Shanfará describes a man of heroic nature. Ṭughrá’í wraps himself in his virtue and moralises like a Muḥammadan Horace. Ṣafadí, however, says in his commentary on Ṭughrá’í's ode (I translate from a MS. copy in my possession): "It is named _Lámiyyatu ’l-‘Ajam_ by way of comparing it with the _Lámiyyatu ’l-‘Arab_, because it resembles the latter in its wise sentences and maxims."

[613] _I.e._, the native of Abúṣir (Búṣír), a village in Egypt.

[614] The _Burda_, ed. by C. A. Ralfs (Vienna, 1860), verse 140; _La Bordah traduite et commentée par René Basset_ (Paris, 1894), verse 151.

[615] This appears to be a reminiscence of the fact that Muḥammad gave his own mantle as a gift to Ka‘b b. Zuhayr, when that poet recited his famous ode, _Bánat Su‘ád_ (see p. 127 _supra_).

[616] _Maqáma_ (plural, _maqámát_) is properly 'a place of standing'; hence, an assembly where people stand listening to the speaker, and in particular, an assembly for literary discussion. At an early period reports of such conversations and discussions received the name of _maqámát_ (see Brockelmann, _Gesch. der Arab. Litteratur_, vol. i, p. 94). The word in its literary sense is usually translated by 'assembly,' or by the French '_séance_.'

[617] _The Assemblies of al-Ḥarírí_, translated from the Arabic, with an introduction and notes by T. Chenery (1867), vol. i, p. 19. This excellent work contains a fund of information on diverse matters connected with Arabian history and literature. Owing to the author's death it was left unfinished, but a second volume (including _Assemblies_ 27-50) by F. Steingass appeared in 1898.

[618] A full account of his career will be found in the Preface to Houtsma's _Recueil de textes relatifs à l'histoire des Seldjoucides_, vol. ii. p. 11 sqq. _Cf._ Browne's _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, vol. ii, p. 360.

[619] This is a graceful, but probably insincere, tribute to the superior genius of Hamadhání.

[620] The above passage is taken, with some modification, from the version of Ḥarírí published in 1850 by Theodore Preston, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was afterwards Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic (1855-1871).

[621] Moslems had long been familiar with the fables of Bidpai, which were translated from the Pehleví into Arabic by Ibnu ’l-Muqaffa‘ († _circa_ 760 A.D.).

[622] _Al-Fakhrí_, ed. by Derenbourg, p. 18, l. 4 sqq.

[623] A town in Mesopotamia, not far from Edessa. It was taken by the Crusaders in 1101 A.D. (Abu ’l-Fidá, ed. by Reiske, vol. iii, p. 332).

[624] The 48th _Maqáma_ of the series as finally arranged.

[625] Chenery, _op. cit._, p. 23.

[626] This has been done with extraordinary skill by the German poet, Friedrich Rückert (_Die Verwandlungen des Abu Seid von Serug_, 2nd ed. 1837), whose work, however, is not in any sense a translation.

[627] A literal translation of these verses, which occur in the sixth _Assembly_, is given by Chenery, _op. cit._, p. 138.

[628] _Ibid._, p. 163.

[629] Two grammatical treatises by Ḥarírí have come down to us. In one of these, entitled _Durratu ’l-Ghawwáṣ_ ('The Pearl of the Diver') and edited by Thorbecke (Leipzig, 1871), he discusses the solecisms which people of education are wont to commit.

[630] See Chenery, _op. cit._, pp. 83-97.

[631] _The Caliphate, its Rise, Decline, and Fall_, p. 573.

[632] Another example is ‘Umar al-Khayyámí for ‘Umar Khayyám. The spelling Ghazzálí (with a double _z_) was in general use when Ibn Khallikán wrote his Biographical Dictionary in 1256 A.D. (see De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 80), but according to Sam‘ání the name is derived from Ghazála, a village near Ṭús; in which case Ghazálí is the correct form of the _nisba_. I have adopted 'Ghazalí' in deference to Sam‘ání's authority, but those who write 'Ghazzálí' can at least claim that they err in very good company.

[633] Shamsu ’l-Dín al-Dhahabí († 1348 A.D.).

[634] ‘Abdu ’l-Raḥím al-Isnawí († 1370 A.D.), author of a biographical work on the Sháfi‘ite doctors. See Brockelmann, _Gesch. der Arab. Litt._, vol. ii, p. 90.

[635] Abu ’l-Ma‘álí al-Juwayní, a famous theologian of Naysábúr († 1085 A.D.), received this title, which means 'Imám of the Two Sanctuaries,' because he taught for several years at Mecca and Medína.

[636] _I.e._, the camp-court of the Seljúq monarch Maliksháh, son of Alp Arslán.

[637] According to his own account in the _Munqidh_, Ghazálí on leaving Baghdád went first to Damascus, then to Jerusalem, and then to Mecca. The statement that he remained ten years at Damascus is inaccurate.

[638] The MS. has Fakhru ’l-Dín.

[639] Ghazálí's return to public life took place in 1106 A.D.

[640] The correct title of Ibn Ḥazm's work is uncertain. In the Cairo ed. (1321 A.H.) it is called _Kitábu ’l-Fiṣal fi ’l-Milal wa ’l-Ahwá wa ’l-Niḥal_.

[641] See p. 195 _supra_.

[642] Kor. ix, 3. The translation runs ("This is a declaration) _that God is clear of the idolaters, and His Apostle likewise_." With the reading _rasúlihi_ it means that God is clear of the idolaters and also of His Apostle.

[643] Ibn Khallikan, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 663.

[644] See p. 128.

[645] Ibn Khallikán, No. 608; De Slane's translation, vol. iii, p. 31.

[646] See pp. 131-134, _supra_.

[647] Goldziher, _Muhammedanische Studien_, Part I, p. 197.

[648] _Ibid._, p. 195.

[649] Ibn Qutayba, _Kitábu ’l-Ma‘árif_, p. 269.

[650] While Abú ‘Ubayda was notorious for his freethinking proclivities, Aṣma‘í had a strong vein of pietism. See Goldziher, _loc. cit._, p. 199 and _Abh. zur Arab. Philologie_, Part I, p. 136.

[651] Professor Browne has given a _résumé_ of the contents in his _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, vol. i, p. 387 seq.

[652] Ed. by Max Grünert (Leyden, 1900).

[653] Vol. i ed. by C. Brockelmann (Weimar and Strassburg, 1898-1908).

[654] The epithet _jáḥiẓ_ means 'goggle-eyed.'

[655] See p. 267.

[656] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 250.

[657] One of these, the eleventh of the complete work, has been edited by Ahlwardt: _Anonyme Arabische Chronik_ (Greifswald, 1883). It covers part of the reign of the Umayyad Caliph, ‘Abdu ’l-Malik (685-705 A.D.).

[658] The French title is _Les Prairies d'Or_. Brockelmann, in his shorter _Hist. of Arabic Literature_ (Leipzig, 1901), p. 110, states that the correct translation of _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_ is 'Goldwäschen.'

[659] Concerning Ṭabarí and his work the reader should consult De Goeje's Introduction (published in the supplementary volume containing the Glossary) to the Leyden edition, and his excellent article on Ṭabarí and early Arab Historians in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.

[660] Abu ’l-Maḥásin, ed. by Juynboll, vol. i, p. 608.

[661] _Selection from the Annals of Tabarí_, ed. by M. J. de Goeje (Leyden, 1902), p. xi.

[662] De Goeje's Introduction to Ṭabarí, p. xxvii.

[663] Al-Bal‘amí, the Vizier of Manṣúr I, the Sámánid, made in 963 A.D. a Persian epitome of which a French translation by Dubeux and Zotenberg was published in 1867-1874.

[664] _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. i, p. 5 seq.

[665] The _Akhbáru ’l-Zamán_ in thirty volumes (one volume is extant at Vienna) and the _Kitáb al-Awsaṭ_.

[666] _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, p. 9 seq.

[667] It may be noted as a coincidence that Ibn Khaldún calls Mas‘údí _imáman lil-mu’arrikhín_, "an Imám for all the historians," which resembles, though it does not exactly correspond to, "the Father of History."

[668] Mas‘údí gives a summary of the contents of his historical and religious works in the Preface to the _Tanbíh wa-’l-Ishráf_, ed. by De Goeje, p. 2 sqq. A translation of this passage by De Sacy will be found in Barbier de Meynard's edition of the _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, vol. ix, p. 302 sqq.

[669] See _Murúj_, vol. i, p. 201, and vol. iii, p. 268.

[670] _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 372 sqq.

[671] De Sacy renders the title by 'Le Livre de l'Indication et de l'Admonition ou l'Indicateur et le Moniteur'; but see De Goeje's edition of the text (Leyden, 1894), p. xxvii.

[672] The full title is _Kitábu ’l-Kámil fi ’l-Ta’ríkh_, or 'The Perfect Book of Chronicles.' It has been edited by Tornberg in fourteen volumes (Leyden, 1851-1876).

[673] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 289.

[674] An excellent account of the Arab geographers is given by Guy Le Strange in the Introduction to his _Palestine under the Moslems_ (London, 1890). De Goeje has edited the works of Ibn Khurdádbih, Iṣṭakhrí, Ibn Ḥawqal, and Muqaddasí in the _Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum_ (Leyden, 1870, &c.)

[675] De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 9 sqq.

[676] P. 243.

[677] The translators employed by the Banú Músá were paid at the rate of about 500 dínárs a month (_ibid._, p. 43, l. 18 sqq.).

[678] _Ibid._, p. 271; Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. iii, p. 315.

[679] A chapter at least would be required in order to set forth adequately the chief material and intellectual benefits which European civilisation has derived from the Arabs. The reader may consult Von Kremer's _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, vol. ii, chapters 7 and 9; Diercks, _Die Araber im Mittelalter_ (Leipzig, 1882); Sédillot, _Histoire générale des Arabes_; Schack, _Poesie und Kunst der Araber in Spanien und Sicilien_; Munk, _Mélanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe_; De Lacy O'Leary, _Arabic Thought and its Place in History_ (1922); and Campbell, _Arabian Medicine and its Influence on the Middle Ages_ (1926). A volume entitled _The Legacy of the Islamic World_, ed. by Sir T. W. Arnold and Professor A. Guillaume, is in course of publication.

[680] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 440.

[681] _The Chronology of Ancient Nations_ (London, 1879) and Alberuni's _India_ (London, 1888).

[682] P. 384 sqq.

[683] The passages concerning the Ṣábians were edited and translated, with copious annotations, by Chwolsohn in his _Ssabier und Ssabismus_ (St. Petersburg, 1856), vol. ii, p. 1-365, while Flügel made similar use of the Manichæan portion in _Mani, seine Lehre und seine Schriften_ (Leipzig, 1862).

[684] Wellhausen, _Das Arabische Reich_, p. 350 seq.

[685] See Goldziher, _Muhamm. Studien_, Part II, p. 53 sqq.

[686] _Ibid._, p. 70 seq.

[687] _Fragmenta Historicorum Arabicorum_, ed. by De Goeje and De Jong, p. 298.

[688] There are, of course, some partial exceptions to this rule, _e.g._, Mahdí and Hárún al-Rashíd.

[689] See p. 163, note.

[690] Several freethinkers of this period attempted to rival the Koran with their own compositions. See Goldziher, _Muhamm. Studien_, Part II, p. 401 seq.

[691] _Al-Nujúm al-Záhira_, ed. by Juynboll, vol. i, p. 639.

[692] This is the literal translation of _Ikhwánu ’l-Safá_, but according to Arabic idiom 'brother of purity' (_akhu ’l-ṣafá_) simply means 'one who is pure or sincere,' as has been shown by Goldziher, _Muhamm. Studien_, Part I, p. 9, note. The term does not imply any sort of brotherhood.

[693] Ibnu ’l-Qifṭí, _Ta’ ríkhu ’l-Ḥukamá_ (ed. by Lippert), p. 83, l. 17 sqq.

[694] _Notice sur un manuscrit de la secte des Assassins_, by P. Casanova in the _Journal Asiatique_ for 1898, p 151 sqq.

[695] De Goeje, _Mémoire sur les Carmathes_, p. 172.

[696] _Ṣâliḥ b. ‘Abd al-Quddûs und das Zindîḳthum während der Regierung des Chalifen al-Mahdí in Transactions of the Ninth Congress of Orientalists_, vol. ii, p. 105 seq.

[697] Ṭabarí, iii, 522, 1.

[698] _I.e._ the sacred books of the Manichæans, which were often splendidly illuminated. See Von Kremer, _Culturgesch. Streifzüge_, p. 39.

[699] _Cf._ Ṭabarí, iii, 499, 8 sqq.

[700] _Ibid._, iii, 422, 19 sqq.

[701] _Cf._ the saying "_Aẓrafu mina ’l-Zindíq_" (Freytag, _Arabum Proverbia_, vol. i, p. 214).

[702] As Professor Bevan points out, it is based solely on the well-known verse (_Aghání_, iii, 24, l. 11), which has come down to us without the context:--

"_Earth is dark and Fire is bright, And Fire has been worshipped ever since Fire existed._"

[703] These popular preachers (_quṣṣáṣ_) are admirably described by Goldziher, _Muhamm. Studien_, Part II, p. 161 sqq.

[704] The Arabic text of these verses will be found in Goldziher's monograph, p. 122, ll. 6-7.

[705] See a passage from the _Kitábu ’l-Ḥayawán_, cited by Baron V. Rosen in _Zapiski_, vol. vi, p. 337, and rendered into English in my _Translations from Eastern Poetry and Prose_, p. 53. Probably these monks were Manichæans, not Buddhists.

[706] _Zaddíq_ is an Aramaic word meaning 'righteous.' Its etymological equivalent in Arabic is _siddíq_, which has a different meaning, namely, 'veracious.' _Zaddíq_ passed into Persian in the form _Zandík_, which was used by the Persians before Islam, and _Zindíq_ is the Arabicised form of the latter word. For some of these observations I am indebted to Professor Bevan. Further details concerning the derivation and meaning of _Zindíq_ are given in Professor Browne's _Literary Hist. of Persia_ (vol. i, p. 159 sqq.), where the reader will also find a lucid account of the Manichæan doctrines.

[707] Ibnu ’l-Athír, vol. viii, p. 229 seq. (anno 323 A.H. = 934-935 A.D.).

[708] _Ibid._, p. 98.

[709] _Ibid._, p. 230 seq.

[710] See p. 192.

[711] _I.e._, he is saved from Hell but excluded from Paradise.

[712] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 440; De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 228.

[713] The clearest statement of Ash‘arí's doctrine with which I am acquainted is contained in the Creed published by Spitta, _Zur Geschichte Abu ’l-Ḥasan al-Ash‘arí's_ (Leipzig, 1876), p. 133, l. 9 sqq.; German translation, p. 95 sqq. It has been translated into English by D. B. Macdonald in his _Muslim Theology_, p. 293 and foll.

[714] _Op. cit._, p. 7 seq.

[715] Schreiner, _Zur Geschichte des Ash‘aritenthums_ in the _Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Orientalists_ (1889), p. 5 of the _tirage à part_.

[716] _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 31, p. 167.

[717] See Goldziher in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 41, p. 63 seq., whence the following details are derived.

[718] See p. 339 seq.

[719] I have used the Cairo edition of 1309 A.H. A French translation by Barbier de Meynard was published in the _Journal Asiatique_ (January, 1877), pp. 9-93.

[720] These are the Ismá‘ílís or Báṭinís (including the Carmathians and Assassins). See p. 271 sqq.

[721] _A Literary History of Persia_, vol. ii, p. 295 seq.

[722] _The Life of al-Ghazzālī_ in the _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, vol. xx (1899), p. 122 sqq.

[723] _Herrschende Ideen_, p. 67.

[724] _Idee und Grundlinien einer allgemeiner Geschichte der Mystik_, an academic oration delivered on November 22, 1892, and published at Heidelberg in 1893.

[725] The following sketch is founded on my paper, _An Historical Enquiry concerning the Origin and Development of Ṣúfiism_ (_J.R.A.S._, April, 1906, p. 303 sqq.).

[726] This, so far as I know, is the oldest extant definition of Ṣúfiism.

[727] It is impossible not to recognise the influence of Greek philosophy in this conception of Truth as Beauty.

[728] Jámí says (_Nafahátu ’l-Uns_, ed. by Nassau Lees, p. 36): "He is the head of this sect: they all descend from, and are related to, him."

[729] See ‘Aṭṭár's _Tadhkiratu ’l-Awliyá_, ed. by Nicholson, Part I, p. 114; Jámí's _Nafaḥát_, p. 35; Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 291.

[730] _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, vol. ii, p. 401 seq.

[731] The _Influence of Buddhism upon Islam_, by I. Goldziher (Budapest, 1903). As this essay is written in Hungarian, I have not been able to consult it at first hand, but have used the excellent translation by Mr. T. Duka, which appeared in the _J.R.A.S._ for January, 1904, pp. 125-141.

[732] It was recognised by the Ṣúfís themselves that in some points their doctrine was apparently based on Mu‘tazilite principles. See Sha‘rání, _Lawáqiḥu ’l-Anwár_ (Cairo, 1299 A.H.), p. 14, l. 21 sqq.

[733] This definition is by Abu ’l-Ḥusayn al-Núrí († 907-908 A.D.).

[734] See Professor Browne's _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, vol. ii, p. 261 sqq.

[735] The _Díwán of ‘Umar Ibnu ’l-Fáriḍ_, ed. by Rushayyid al-Daḥdáḥ (Marseilles, 1853).

[736] _I.e._, New and Old Cairo.

[737] The _Díwán_, excluding the _Tá’iyyatu ’l-Kubrá_, has been edited by Rushayyid al-Daḥdáḥ (Marseilles, 1853).

[738] _Díwán_, p. 219, l. 14 and p. 213, l. 18.

[739] Ibnu ’l-Fáriḍ, like Mutanabbí, shows a marked fondness for diminutives. As he observes (_Díwán_, p. 552):--

_má qultu ḥubayyibí mina ’l-taḥqíri bal ya‘dhubu ’smu ’l-shakhṣi bi-’l-taṣghíri._

"_Not in contempt I say 'my darling.' No! By 'diminution' names do sweeter grow._"

[740] _Dìwàn_, p. 472 sqq. A French rendering will be found at p. 41 of Grangeret de Lagrange's _Anthologie Arabe_ (Paris, 1828).

[741] The words of God to Moses (Kor. vii, 139).

[742] _Díwán_, p. 257 sqq.

[743] This refers to Kor. vii, 171. God drew forth from the loins of Adam all future generations of men and addressed them, saying, "_Am not I your Lord?_" They answered, "_Yes_," and thus, according to the Ṣúfí interpretation, pledged themselves to love God for evermore.

[744] _Díwán_, p. 142 sqq.

[745] See _A Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, p. 428 sqq. But during the last twenty years a great deal of new light has been thrown upon the character and doctrines of Ḥalláj. See Appendix.

[746] The best-known biography of Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí occurs in Maqqarí's _Nafḥu ’l-Ṭíb_, ed. by Dozy and others, vol. i, pp. 567-583. Much additional information is contained in a lengthy article, which I have extracted from a valuable MS. in my collection, the _Shadharátu ’l-Dhahab_, and published in the _J.R.A.S._ for 1906, pp. 806-824. _Cf._ also Von Kremer's _Herrschende Ideen_, pp. 102-109.

[747] Muḥyi ’l-Dín means 'Reviver of Religion.' In the West he was called Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí, but the Moslems of the East left out the definite article (_al_) in order to distinguish him from the Cadi Abú Bakr Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí of Seville († 1151 A.D.).

[748] _Al-Kibrít al-aḥmar_ (literally, 'the red sulphur').

[749] See Von Kremer, _op. cit._, p. 108 seq.

[750] The above particulars are derived from an abstract of the _Futúḥát_ made by ‘Abdu ’l-Wahháb al-Sha‘rání († 1565 A.D.), of which Fleischer has given a full description in the _Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Leipzig Univ. Library_ (1838), pp. 490-495.

[751] Maqqarí, i, 569, 11.

[752] Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal.

[753] Abú Ḥanífa.

[754] _Fuṣúṣu ’l-Ḥikam_ (Cairo, A.H. 1321), p. 78. The words within brackets belong to the commentary of ‘Abdu ’l-Razzáq al-Káshání which accompanies the text.

[755] Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí uses the term "Idea of ideas" (_Ḥaqíqatu ’l-ḥaqá’iq_) as equivalent to λόγος ἐνδιάθετος, while "the Idea of Muḥammad" (_al-Ḥaqíqatu ’l-Muḥammadiyya_) corresponds to λόγος προφορικός.

[756] The Arabic text of these verses will be found in the collection of Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí's mystical odes, entitled _Tarjumánu ’l-Ashwáq_, which I have edited (Oriental Translation Fund, New Series, vol. xx, p. 19, vv. 13-15).

[757] Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí has been studied by Asin Palacios, Professor of Arabic at Madrid, whose books are written in Spanish, and H. S. Nyberg (_Kleinere Schriften des Ibn al-‘Arabí_, Leiden, 1919). A general view may be obtained from my _Studies in Islamic Mysticism_, pp. 77-142 and pp. 149-161.

[758] See Asin Palacios, _Islam and the Divine Comedy_, London, 1926.

[759] Abridged from Ibnu ’l-‘Idhárí, _al-Bayán al-Mughrib_, ed. by Dozy, vol. ii, p. 61 seq.

[760] Ibn Khallikán, ed. by Wüstenfeld, No. 802; De Slane's translation, vol. iv, p. 29 sqq.

[761] Muqaddasí (ed. by De Goeje), p. 236, cited by Goldziher, _Die Zâhiriten_, p. 114.

[762] Dozy, _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_ (Leyden, 1861), vol. iii, p. 90 sqq.

[763] ‘Abdu ’l-Raḥmán III was the first of his line to assume this title.

[764] Maqqarí, vol. i, p. 259. As Maqqarí's work is our principal authority for the literary history of Moslem Spain, I may conveniently give some account of it in this place. The author, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Tilimsání al-Maqqarí († 1632 A.D.) wrote a biography of Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb, the famous Vizier of Granada, to which he prefixed a long and discursive introduction in eight chapters: (1) Description of Spain; (2) Conquest of Spain by the Arabs; (3) History of the Spanish dynasties; (4) Cordova; (5) Spanish-Arabian scholars who travelled in the East; (6) Orientals who visited Spain; (7) Miscellaneous extracts, anecdotes, poetical citations, &c., bearing on the literary history of Spain; (8) Reconquest of Spain by the Christians and expulsion of the Arabs. The whole work is entitled _Nafḥu ’l-Ṭíb min ghuṣní ’l-Andalusi ’l-raṭíb wa-dhikri wazírihá Lisáni ’l-Dín Ibni ’l-Khaṭíb_. The introduction, which contains a fund of curious and valuable information--"a library in little"--has been edited by Dozy and other European Arabists under the title of _Analectes sur l'Histoire et la Littérature des Arabes d'Espagne_ (Leyden, 1855-1861).

[765] The name of Slaves (_Ṣaqáliba_) was originally applied to prisoners of war, belonging to various northern races, who were sold to the Arabs of Spain, but the term was soon widened so as to include all foreign slaves serving in the harem or the army, without regard to their nationality. Like the Mamelukes and Janissaries, they formed a privileged corps under the patronage of the palace, and since the reign of ‘Abdu ’l-Raḥmán III their number and influence had steadily increased. _Cf._ Dozy, _Hist. des Mus. d'Espagne_, vol. iii, p. 58 sqq.

[766] Dozy, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 103 seq.

[767] Qazwíní, _Átháru ’l-Bilád_, ed. by Wüstenfeld, p. 364, l. 5 sqq.

[768] See Schack, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 46 sqq.

[769] The Arabic original occurs in the 11th chapter of the _Ḥalbatu ’l-Kumayt_, a collection of poems on wine and drinking by Muḥammad b. Ḥasan al-Nawájí († 1455 A.D.), and is also printed in the _Anthologie Arabe_ of Grangeret de Lagrange, p. 202.

[770] _Al-Ḥullat al-Siyará_ of Ibnu ’l-Abbár, ed. by Dozy, p. 34. In the last line instead of "foes" the original has "the sons of ‘Abbás." Other verses addressed by ‘Abdu ’l-Raḥmán to this palm-tree are cited by Maqqarí, vol. ii, p. 37.

[771] Full details concerning Ziryáb will be found in Maqqarí, vol. ii, p. 83 sqq. _Cf._ Dozy, _Hist. des Mus. d'Espagne_, vol. ii, p. 89 sqq.

[772] Maqqarí, _loc. cit._, p. 87, l. 10 sqq.

[773] Dozy, _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_, vol. iii, p. 107 sqq.

[774] See the verses cited by Ibnu ’l-Athír, vol. viii, p. 457.

[775] Ibn Khallikán, No. 697, De Slane's translation, vol. iii, p. 186.

[776] Ibn Khallikán, _loc. cit._

[777] _Loc. cit._, p. 189. For the sake of clearness I have slightly abridged and otherwise remodelled De Slane's translation of this passage.

[778] A somewhat different version of these events is given by Dozy, _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_, vol. iv, p. 189 sqq.

[779] The term _Mulaththamún_, which means literally 'wearers of the _lithám_' (a veil covering the lower part of the face), is applied to the Berber tribes of the Sahara, the so-called Almoravides (_al-Murábiṭún_), who at this time ruled over Northern Africa.

[780] Ibnu ’l-Abbár (Dozy, _Loci de Abbadidis_, vol. ii, p. 63).

[781] _Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne_, vol. iv, p. 287.

[782] _I.e._, 'holder of the two vizierships'--that of the sword and that of the pen. See De Slane's translation of Ibn Khallikán, vol. iii, p. 130, n. 1.

[783] The Arabic text of this poem, which occurs in the _Qalá’idu ’l-‘Iqyán_ of Ibn Kháqán, will be found on pp. 24-25 of Weyers's _Specimen criticum exhibens locos Ibn Khacanis de Ibn Zeidouno_ (Leyden, 31).

[784] Cited by Ibn Khallikán in his article on Ibn Ḥazm (De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 268).

[785] Maqqarí, vol. i, p. 511, l. 21.

[786] Maqqarí, _loc. cit._ p. 515, l. 5 seq.

[787] See p. 341, note 1[640].

[788] The contents of the _Kitábu ’l-Milal wa-’l-Niḥal_ are fully summarised by Dozy in the Leyden Catalogue, vol. iv, pp. 230-237. _Cf._ also _Zur Komposition von Ibn Ḥazm's Milal wa’n-Niḥal_, by Israel Friedlaender in the _Nöldeke-Festschrift_ (Giessen, 1906), vol. i, p. 267 sqq.

[789] So far as I am aware, the report that copies are preserved in the great mosque at Tunis has not been confirmed.

[790] His Arabic name is Ismá‘íl b. Naghdála. See the Introduction to Dozy's ed. of Ibnu ’l-‘Idhárí, p. 84, n. 1.

[791] An interesting notice of Samuel Ha-Levi is given by Dozy in his _Hist. des Mus. d'Espagne_, vol. iv, p. 27 sqq.

[792] _Kámil_ of Ibnu ’l-Athír, ed. by Tornberg, vol. ix, p. 425 sqq. The following narrative (which has been condensed as far as possible) differs in some essential particulars from the accounts given by Ibn Khaldún (_History of the Berbers_, De Slane's translation, vol. ii, p. 64 sqq.) and by Ibn Abí Zar‘ (Tornberg, _Annales Regum Mauritaniæ_, p. 100 sqq. of the Latin version). _Cf._ A. Müller, _Der Islam_, vol. ii, p. 611 sqq.

[793] See note on p. 423.

[794] The province of Tunis.

[795] _Murábiṭ_ is literally 'one who lives in a _ribáṭ_,' _i.e._, a guardhouse or military post on the frontier. Such buildings were often occupied, in addition to the garrison proper, by individuals who, from pious motives, wished to take part in the holy war (_jihád_) against the unbelievers. The word _murábiṭ_, therefore, gradually got an exclusively religious signification, 'devotee' or 'saint,' which appears in its modern form, _marabout_. As applied to the original Almoravides, it still retains a distinctly military flavour.

[796] See Goldziher's article _Materialien zur Kenntniss der Almohadenbewegung in Nordafrika_ (_Z.D.M.G._, vol. 41, p. 30 sqq.).

[797] ‘Abdu ’l-Wáḥid, _History of the Almohades_, ed. by Dozy, p. 135, l. 1 sqq.

[798] The Berbers at this time were Sunnite and anti-Fáṭimid.

[799] Almohade is the Spanish form of _al-Muwaḥḥid_.

[800] Stanley Lane-Poole, _The Mohammadan Dynasties_, p. 46.

[801] Renan, _Averroës et l'Averroïsme_, p. 12 sqq.

[802] See a passage from ‘Abdu ’l-Wáhid's _History of the Almohades_ (p. 201, l. 19 sqq.), which is translated in Goldziher's _Ẓâhiriten_, p. 174.

[803] The Arabic text, with a Latin version by E. Pocock, was published in 1671, and again in 1700, under the title _Philosophus Autodidactus_. An English translation by Simon Ockley appeared in 1708, and has been several times reprinted.

[804] The true form of this name is Absál, as in Jámí's celebrated poem. _Cf._ De Boer, _The History of Philosophy in Islam_, translated by E. R. Jones, p. 144.

[805] Jurjí Zaydán, however, is disposed to regard the story as being not without foundation. See his interesting discussion of the evidence in his _Ta‘ríkhu ’l-Tamaddun al-Islámi_ ('History of Islamic Civilisation'), Part III, pp. 40-46.

[806] The life of Ibnu ’l-Khaṭib has been written by his friend and contemporary, Ibn Khaldún (_Hist. of the Berbers_, translated by De Slane, vol. iv. p. 390 sqq.), and forms the main subject of Maqqarí's _Nafḥu ’l-Ṭíb_ (vols. iii and iv of the Buláq edition).

[807] Schack, _op. cit._, vol. i, p. 312 seq.

[808] Cited in the _Shadharátu ’l-Dhahab_, a MS. in my collection. See _J.R.A.S._ for 1899, p. 911 seq., and for 1906, p. 797.

[809] The Arabic text of the Prolegomena has been published by Quatremère in _Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale_, vols. 16-18, and at Beyrout (1879, 1886, and 1900). A French translation by De Slane appeared in _Not. et Extraits_, vols. 19-21.

[810] _Muqaddima_ (Beyrout ed. of 1900), p. 35, l. 5 sqq. = Prolegomena translated by De Slane, vol. i, p. 71.

[811] _Muqaddima_, p. 37, l. 4 fr. foot = De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 77.

[812] Von Kremer has discussed Ibn Khaldún's ideas more fully than is possible here in an admirably sympathetic article, _Ibn Chaldun und seine Culturgeschichte der islamischen Reiche_, contributed to the _Sitz. der Kais. Akad. der Wissenschaften_, vol. 93 (Vienna, 1879). I have profited by many of his observations, and desire to make the warmest acknowledgment of my debt to him in this as in countless other instances.

[813] _Muqaddima_, Beyrout ed., p. 170 = De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 347 sqq.

[814] _Muqaddima_, p. 175 = De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 356 sqq.

[815] An excellent appreciation of Ibn Khaldún as a scientific historian will be found in Robert Flint's _History of the Philosophy of History_, vol. i, pp. 157-171.

[816] Schack, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 151.

[817] E. J. W. Gibb, _A History of Ottoman Poetry_, vol. ii, p. 5.

[818] The nineteenth century should have been excepted, so far as the influence of modern civilisation has reacted on Arabic literature.

[819] These Ismál‘ílís are the so-called Assassins, the terrible sect organised by Ḥasan b. Ṣabbáḥ (see Professor Browne's _Literary History of Persia_, vol. ii, p. 201 sqq.), and finally exterminated by Húlágú. They had many fortresses, of which Alamút was the most famous, in the Jibál province, near Qazwín.

[820] The reader must be warned that this and the following account of the treacherous dealings of Ibnu ’l-‘Alqamí are entirely contradicted by Shí‘ite historians. For example, the author of _al-Fakhrí_ (ed. by Derenbourg, p. 452) represents the Vizier as a far-seeing patriot who vainly strove to awaken his feeble-minded master to the gravity of the situation.

[821] Concerning the various functions of the Dawídár (literally Inkstand-holder) or Dawádár, as the word is more correctly written, see Quatremère, _Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks_, vol. i, p. 118, n. 2.

[822] The MS. writes Yájúnas.

[823] _Al-kalb_, the Arabic equivalent of the Persian _sag_ (dog), an animal which Moslems regard as unclean.

[824] By Shamsu ’l-Dín al-Dhahabí († 1348 A.D.).

[825] Mameluke (Mamlúk) means 'slave.' The term was applied to the mercenary troops, Turks and Kurds for the most part, who composed the bodyguard of the Ayyúbid princes.

[826] There are two Mameluke dynasties, called respectively Baḥrí (River) Mamelukes and Burjí (Tower) Mamelukes. The former reigned from 1250 to 1390, the latter from 1382 to 1517.

[827] See Lane, _The Modern Egyptians_, ch. xxii.

[828] See Sir T. W. Arnold, _The Caliphate_, p. 146.

[829] Ed. of Buláq (1283 A.H.), pp. 356-366.

[830] _Ibid._, p. 358.

[831] These verses are cited in the _Ḥadíqatu ’l-Afráḥ_ (see Brockelmann's _Gesch. d. Arab. Litt._, ii, 502), Calcutta, 1229 A.H., p. 280. In the final couplet there is an allusion to Kor. iv, 44: "_Verily God will not wrong any one even the weight of an ant_" (mithqála dharratin).

[832] Hartmann, _Das Muwa[vs][vs]aḥ_ (Weimar, 1897), p. 218.

[833] Literally, 'The Shaking of the Skull-caps,' in allusion to the peasants' dance.

[834] See Vollers, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der lebenden arabischen Sprache in Aegypten_, _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 41 (1887), p. 370.

[835] Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 3.

[836] It should be pointed out that the _Wafayát_ is very far from being exhaustive. The total number of articles only amounts to 865. Besides the Caliphs, the Companions of the Prophet, and those of the next generation (_Tábi‘ún_), the author omitted many persons of note because he was unable to discover the date of their death. A useful supplement and continuation of the _Wafayát_ was compiled by al-Kutubí († 1363 A.D.) under the title _Fawátu ’l-Wafayát_.

[837] The Arabic text of the _Wafayát_ has been edited with variants and indices by Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1835-1850). There is an excellent English translation by Baron MacGuckin de Slane in four volumes (1842-1871).

[838] The full title is _al-Mawá‘iẓ wa-’l-l‘tibár fí dhikri ’l-Khiṭaṭ wa-’l-Athár_. It was printed at Buláq in 1270 A.H.

[839] _Al-Sulúk li-ma‘rifati Duwali ’l-Mulúk_, a history of the Ayyúbids and Mamelukes. The portion relating to the latter dynasty is accessible in the excellent French version by Quatremère (_Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks de l'Égypte_, Paris, 1845).

[840] A. R. Guest, _A List of Writers, Books, and other Authorities mentioned by El Maqrízí in his Khiṭaṭ_, _J.R.A.S._ for 1902, p. 106.

[841] The _Fakhrí_ has been edited by Ahlwardt (1860) and Derenbourg (1895). The simplicity of its style and the varied interest of its contents have made it deservedly popular. Leaving the Koran out of account, I do not know any book that is better fitted to serve as an introduction to Arabic literature.

[842] See p. 413, n. 1.

[843] _A Biographical Dictionary of Persons who knew Mohammad_, ed. by Sprenger and others (Calcutta, 1856-1873).

[844] _Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, ed. by Barbier de Meynard, vol. iv. p. 90. The names Shírázád and Dínázád are obviously Persian. Probably the former is a corruption of Chihrázád, meaning 'of noble race,' while Dínázád signifies 'of noble religion.' My readers will easily recognise the familiar Scheherazade and Dinarzade.

[845] Strange as it may seem, this criticism represents the view of nearly all Moslem scholars who have read the 'Arabian Nights.'

[846] Many episodes are related on the authority of Aṣma‘í, Abú ‘Ubayda, and Wahb b. Munabbih.

[847] Those who recite the _Síratu ‘Antar_ are named _‘Anátira_, sing. _‘Antari_. See Lane's _Modern Egyptians_, ch. xxiii.

[848] That it was extant in some shape before 1150 A.D. seems to be beyond doubt. _Cf._ the _Journal Asiatique_ for 1838, p. 383; Wüstenfeld, _Gesch. der Arab. Aerzte_, No. 172.

[849] _Antar, a Bedoueen Romance_, translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton (London, 1820), vol. i, p. xxiii seq. See, however, Flügel's Catalogue of the Kais. Kön. Bibl. at Vienna, vol. ii, p. 6. Further details concerning the 'Romance of ‘Antar' will be found in Thorbecke's _‘Antarah_ (Leipzig, 1867), p. 31 sqq. The whole work has been published at Cairo in thirty-two volumes.

[850] Sha‘rání, _Yawáqít_ (ed. of Cairo, 1277 A.H.), p. 18.

[851] In 1417 A.D. The reader will find a full and most interesting account of Nasímí, who is equally remarkable as a Turkish poet and as a mystic belonging to the sect of the Ḥurúfís, in Mr. E. J. W. Gibb's _History of Ottoman Poetry_, vol. i, pp. 343-368. It is highly improbable that the story related here gives the true ground on which he was condemned: his pantheistic utterances afford a sufficient explanation, and the Turkish biographer, Laṭífí, specifies the verse which cost him his life. I may add that the author of the _Shadharátu ’l-Dhahab_ calls him Nasímu ’l-Dín of Tabríz (he is generally said to be a native of Nasím in the district of Baghdád), and observes that he resided in Aleppo, where his followers were numerous and his heretical doctrines widely disseminated.

[852] The 112th chapter of the Koran. See p. 164.

[853] Founder of the Shádhiliyya Order of Dervishes. He died in 1258 A.D.

[854] A distinguished jurist and scholar who received the honorary title, 'Sultan of the Divines.' He died at Cairo in 1262 A.D.

[855] An eminent canon lawyer († 1370 A.D.).

[856] It was the custom of the Zoroastrians (and, according to Moslem belief, of the Christians and other infidels) to wear a girdle round the waist.

[857] See _Materials for a History of the Wahabys_, by J. L. Burckhardt, published in the second volume of his _Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys_ (London, 1831). Burckhardt was in Arabia while the Turks were engaged in re-conquering the Ḥijáz from the Wahhábís. His graphic and highly interesting narrative has been summarised by Dozy, _Essai sur l'histoire de l'Islamisme_, ch. 13.

[858] Following Burckhardt's example, most European writers call him simply ‘Abdu ’l-Wahháb.

[859] Burckhardt, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 96.

[860] MSS. of Ibn Taymiyya copied by Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahháb are extant (Goldziher in _Z.D.M.G._, vol. 52, p. 156).

[861] This is the place usually called Karbalá or Mashhad Ḥusayn.

[862] _Op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 112.

[863] _Essai sur l'histoire de l'Islamisme_, p. 416.

[864] Burckhardt, _loc. laud._, p. 115.

[865] I cannot enter into details on this subject. A review of modern Arabic literature is given by Brockelmann, _Gesch. der Arab. Litt._, vol. ii, pp. 469-511, and by Huart, _Arabic Literature_, pp. 411-443.

[866] See M. Hartmann, _The Arabic Press of Egypt_ (London, 1899).

[867] Brockelmann, _loc. cit._, p. 476.

[868] Translated into Arabic verse by Sulaymán al-Bistání (Cairo, 1904). See Professor Margoliouth's interesting notice of this work in the _J.R.A.S._ for 1905, p. 417 sqq.

[869] H. A. R. Gibb, _Studies in contemporary Arabic literature_, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, vol. iv, pt. 4, p. 746; cf. also vol. v, pt. 2, p. 311 foll. Mr Gibb has given references to the chief works on the subject, but for the sake of those who do not read Arabic or Russian it may be hoped that he will continue and complete his own survey, to which there is nothing _simile aut secundum_ in English.

APPENDIX

P. xxii, l. 2. Arabic begins to appear in North Arabian inscriptions in the third century A.D. Perhaps the oldest yet discovered is one, of which the probable date is 268 A.D., published by Jaussen and Savignac (_Mission archéologique en l'Arabie_, vol. i, p. 172). Though it is written in Aramaic characters, nearly all the words are Arabic, as may be seen from the transcription given by Professor Horovitz in _Islamic Culture_ (Hyderabad, Deccan), April 1929, vol. iii, No. 2, p. 169, note 2.

P. 4 foll. Concerning the Sabaeans and the South Arabic inscriptions a great deal of valuable information will be found in the article _Saba’_ by J. Tkatsch in the _Encyclopædia of Islam_. The writer points out the special importance of the epigraphic discoveries of E. Glaser, who, in the course of four journeys (1882-94), collected over 2000 inscriptions. See also D. Nielsen, _Handbuch der altarabischen Altertumskunde_, vol. i (Copenhagen and Paris, 1927).

P. 13, note 2. Excerpts from the _Shamsu ’l-‘Ulúm_ relating to South Arabia have been edited by Dr ‘Azímu’ddín Aḥmad (E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series, vol. xxiv).

P. 26 foll. For contemporary and later Christian accounts of the martyrdom of the Christians of Najrán, see the fragmentary _Book of the Himyarites_ (Syriac text and English translation), ed. by A. Moberg in 1924, and cf. Tor Andrae, _Der Ursprung des Islams und das Christentum_ (Uppsala, 1926), pp. 10-13.

P. 31. The collection of Arabic proverbs, entitled _Kitábu ’l-Fákhir_, by Mufaḍḍal b. Salama of Kúfa, is now available in the excellent edition of Mr C. A. Storey (Leyden, 1915).

P. 32, note 1. An edition of the _Aghání_ with critical notes is in course of publication at Cairo.

P. 52, l. 9 foll. The battle mentioned here cannot be the battle of ‘Ayn Ubágh, which took place between Ḥárith, the son of Ḥárith b. Jabala, and Mundhir IV of Ḥíra about 583 A.D. (Guidi, _L'Arabie antéislamique_, p. 27).

P. 127, l. 16. The ode _Bánat Su‘ád_ is rendered into English in my _Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose_, pp. 19-23.

P. 133. As regards the authenticity of the Pre-islamic poems which have come down to us, the observations of one of the greatest authorities on the subject, the late Sir Charles J. Lyall, seem to me to be eminently judicious (Introduction to the _Mufaḍḍalīyāt_, vol. ii, pp. xvi-xxvi). He concludes that "upon the whole, the impression which a close study of these ancient relics gives is that we must take them, generally speaking, as the production of the men whose names they bear." All that can be urged against this view has been said with his usual learning by Professor Margoliouth (_The Origins of Arabic Poetry_, _J.R.A.S._, 1925, p. 417 foll.).

P. 145, l. 2. The oldest extant commentary on the Koran is that of Bukhárí in ch. 65 of the _Ṣaḥíḥ_, ed. Krehl, vol. iii, pp. 193-390.

P. 146, note 2. Recent investigators (Caetani and Lammens) are far more sceptical. Cf. Snouck Hurgronje, _Mohammedanism_, p. 22 foll.

P. 152, note 5. As suggested by Mr Richard Bell (_The Origin of Islam in its Christian environment_, p. 88), the word _rujz_ is in all likelihood identical with the Syriac _rugza_, wrath, so that this verse of the Koran means, "Flee from the wrath to come."

P. 170, l. 2 foll. This is one of the passages I should have liked to omit. Even in its present form, it maintains a standpoint which I have long regarded as mistaken.

P. 184, l. 4 foll. Professor Snouck Hurgronje (_Mohammedanism_, p. 44) asks, "Was Mohammed conscious of the universality of his mission?" and decides that he was not. I now agree that "in the beginning he conceived his work as merely the Arabian part of a universal task"--in which case _dhikrun li ’l-‘álamín_ in the passage quoted will mean "a warning to all the people (of Mecca or Arabia)." But similar expressions in Súras of the Medina period carry, I think, a wider significance. The conception of Islam as a world-religion is implied in Mohammed's later belief--he only came to it gradually--that the Jewish and Christian scriptures are corrupt and that the Koran alone represents the original Faith which had been preached in turn by all the prophets before him. And having arrived at that conviction, he was not the man to leave others to act upon it.

P. 223, l. 9. In an article which appeared in the _Rivista degli studi orientali_, 1916, p. 429 foll., Professor C. A. Nallino has shown that this account of the origin of the name "Mu‘tazilite" is erroneous. The word, as Mas‘údí says (_Murúju ’l-Dhahab_, vol. vi, p. 22, and vol. vii, p. 234), is derived from _i‘tizál_, _i.e._ the doctrine that anyone who commits a capital sin has thereby withdrawn himself (_i‘tazala_) from the true believers and taken a position (described as _fisq_, impiety) midway between them and the infidels. According to the Murjites, such a person was still a true believer, while their opponents, the Wa‘ídites, and also the Khárijites, held him to be an unbeliever.

P. 225, l. 1. The Ḥadíth, "No monkery (_rahbániyya_) in Islam," probably dates from the third century of the Hijra. According to the usual interpretation of Koran, LVII, 27, the _rahbániyya_ practised by Christian ascetics is condemned as an innovation not authorised by divine ordinance; but Professor Massignon (_Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de la mystique musulmane_, p. 123 foll.) shows that by some of the early Moslem commentators and also by the Ṣúfís of the third century A.H. this verse of the Koran was taken as justifying and commending those Christians who devoted themselves to the ascetic life, except in so far as they had neglected to fulfil its obligations.

P. 225, l. 6 from foot. For the life and doctrines of Ḥasan of Baṣra, see Massignon, _op. cit._, p. 152 foll.

P. 228 foll. It can now be stated with certainty that the name "Ṣúfí" originated in Kúfa in the second century A.H. and was at first confined to the mystics of ‘Iráq. Hence the earliest development of Ṣúfiism, properly so called, took place in a hotbed of Shí‘ite and Hellenistic (Christian and Gnostic) ideas.

P. 233, l. 4 from foot. In _Rābi‘a the Mystic_ (Cambridge, 1928) Miss Margaret Smith has given a scholarly and sympathetic account of the life, legend, and teaching of this celebrated woman-saint. The statement that she died and was buried at Jerusalem is incorrect. Moslem writers have confused her with an earlier saint of the same name, Rábi‘a bint Ismá‘íl († 135).

P. 313 foll. The text and translation of 332 extracts from the _Luzúmiyyát_ will be found in ch. ii of my _Studies in Islamic Poetry_, pp. 43-289.

P. 318, l. 12. Since there is no warrant for the antithesis of "knaves" and "fools," these verses are more faithfully rendered (_op. cit._, p. 167):

They all err--Moslems, Christians, Jews, and Magians; Two make Humanity's universal sect: One man intelligent without religion, And one religious without intellect.

P. 318, l. 7 from foot. _Al-Fuṣúl wa ’l-Gháyát_. No copy of this work was known before 1919, when the discovery of the first part of it was announced (_J.R.A.S._, 1919, p. 449).

P. 318, note 2. An edition of the _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_ by Shaykh Ibráhím al-Yáziji was published at Cairo in 1907.

P. 319, l. 6. The epistle of ‘Alí b. Manṣúr al-Ḥalabí (Ibnu ’l-Qáriḥ), to which the _Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán_ is the reply, has been published in _Rasá’ilu ’l-Bulaghá_, ed. Muḥammad Kurd ‘Alí (Cairo, 1913).

P. 332, note 2. For rhymed prose renderings of the 11th and 12th _Maqámas_, see _Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose_, pp. 116-124.

P. 367, l. 7 from foot. New light has recently been thrown upon the character of the Mu‘tazilite movement by the publication of the Mu‘tazilite al-Khayyáṭ's _Kitábu ’l-Intiṣár_ (ed. H. S. Nyberg, Cairo, 1926), a third (ninth) century polemical work directed against the Shí‘ite freethinker Ibnu ’l-Ráwandí (cf. p. 375 _supra_). It is now evident that this "heretical" sect played an active part as champions of Islam, not only in the early controversies which arose between Moslems and Christians in Syria but also against the more dangerous attacks which proceeded in the first hundred years of the ‘Abbásid period from the Manichæans and other "_zanádiqa_" in Persia and especially in ‘Iráq (cf. I. Guidi, _La Lotta tra l'Islam e il Manicheismo_ (Rome, 1927)). In order to meet these adversaries on equal terms, the Mu‘tazilites made themselves acquainted with Greek philosophy and logic, and thus laid the foundations of an Islamic scholasticism. Cf. H. H. Schaeder, _Der Orient und die Griechische Erbe_ in W. Jaeger's _Die Antike_, vol. iv, p. 261 foll.

P. 370, I. 3 foll. From what has been said in the preceding note it follows that this view of the relation between the Mu‘tazilites and the _Ikhwánu ’l-Ṣafá_ requires considerable modification. Although, in contrast to their orthodox opponents, the Mu‘tazilites may be described as "rationalists" and "liberal theologians," their principles were entirely opposed to the anti-Islamic eclecticism of the _Ikhwán_.

P. 375, note 2. Professor Schaeder thinks that Middle Persian _zandík_ has nothing to do with the Aramaic _zaddíq_ (_Z.D.M.G._, vol. 82, Heft 3-4, p. lxxx).

Pp. 383-393. During the last twenty years our knowledge of early Ṣúfiism has increased, chiefly through the profound researches of Professor Massignon, to such an extent as to render the account given in these pages altogether inadequate. The subject being one of great difficulty and unsuitable for detailed exposition in a book of this kind, I must content myself with a few illustrative remarks and references, which will enable the student to obtain further information.

P. 383. Massignon's view is that Ṣúfiism (down to the fourth century A.H.) owed little to foreign influences and was fundamentally Islamic, a product of intensive study of the Koran and of inward meditation on its meaning and essential nature. There is great force in his argument, though I cannot help believing that the development of mysticism, like that of other contemporary branches of Moslem thought, must have been vitally affected by contact with the ancient Hellenistic culture of the Sásánian and Byzantine empires on its native soil. Cf. A. J. Wensinck, _The Book of the Dove_ (Leyden, 1919) and _Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Niniveh_ (Amsterdam, 1923).

P. 384, l. 1. The identity of third-century Ṣúfiism with the doctrines of the Vedanta is maintained by M. Horten (_Indische Strömungen in der Islamischen Mystik_, Heidelberg, 1927-8). Few, however, would admit this. The conversion of Ṣúfiism into a monistic philosophy was the work of Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí (1165-1240 A.D.). See p. 402 foll.

P. 384, l. 5. The so-called "Theology of Aristotle," translated from Syriac into Arabic about 830 A.D., is mainly an abstract of the _Enneads_ of Plotinus. There is an edition with German translation by Dieterici.

P. 385, l. 11. All previous accounts of the development of mystical doctrines in Islam during the first three centuries after the Hijra have been superseded by Massignon's intimate analysis (_Essai_, chs. iv and v, pp. 116-286), which includes biographies of the eminent Ṣúfís of that period and is based upon an amazingly wide knowledge of original and mostly unpublished sources of information. A useful summary of these two chapters is given by Father Joseph Maréchal in his _Studies in the Psychology of the Mystics_, tr. Thorold (1927), pp. 241-9.

P. 386, l. 6 from foot. For Dhu ’l-Nún, see Massignon, _op. cit._, p. 184 foll.

P. 389, l. 12. _The Book of the Holy Hierotheos_ has recently been edited in Syriac for the first time, with English translation, by F. S. Marsh (Text and Translation Society, 1927).

P. 391. For Báyazíd of Bisṭám, see Massignon, _op. cit._, p. 243 foll. The oldest complete Arabic version of his "Ascension" (_Mi‘ráj_)--a spiritual dream-experience--has been edited and translated into English in _Islamica_, vol. ii, fasc. 3, p. 402 foll.

P. 396, l. 8. See my essay on the Odes of Ibnu ’l-Fáriḍ (_Studies in Islamic Mysticism_, pp. 162-266), which comprises translations of the _Khamriyya_ and three-fourths of the _Tá’iyyatu ’l-Kubrá_.

P. 399, note 1. With Ḥalláj, thanks to the monumental work of Massignon (_La Passion d'al-Ḥalláj_, 2 vols., Paris, 1922), we are now better acquainted than with any other Moslem mystic. His doctrine exhibits some remarkable affinities with Christianity and bears no traces of the pantheism attributed to him by later Ṣúfís as well as by Von Kremer and subsequent European writers. Cf. the summary given by Father Joseph Maréchal, _op. cit._, pp. 249-281, and _The Idea of Personality in Ṣúfism_ (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 26-37.

P. 402, l. 9. For Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí's theory of the Perfect Man, see Tor Andrae, _Die Person Muhammeds_, p. 339 foll., and for the same theory as expounded by ‘Abdu ’l-Karím al-Jílí († circ. 1410 A.D.), a follower of Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí, in his famous treatise entitled _al-Insán al-Kámil_, cf. _Studies in Islamic Mysticism_, pp. 77-142.

P. 456, l. 1 foll. Here, though he is out of place in such an academic company, mention should have been made of Ibn Baṭṭúṭa of Tangier († 1377), whose frank and entertaining story of his almost world-wide travels, entitled _Tuḥfatu ’l-Nuẓẓár_, is described by its latest translator, Mr H. A. R. Gibb, as "an authority for the social and cultural history of post-Mongol Islam."

P. 465, last line. For a summary of the doctrines and history of the Wahhábís, see the article _Wahhābīs_ by Professor D. S. Margoliouth in Hastings' _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_.

P. 469. _La littérature arabe au xix^e siècle_, by L. Cheikho (Beyrouth, 1908-10), which deals chiefly with the literature produced by the Christian Arabs of Syria, deserves mention as one of the few works on the subject written in a European language. The influence of Western ideas on Moslem theology may be studied in the _Risálatu ’l-tauḥíd_ of the great Egyptian divine, Muḥammad ‘Abduh (1842-1905), which has been translated into French by B. Michel and Mustapha ‘Abd el Razik (Paris, 1925).

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY EUROPEAN AUTHORS

The following list is intended to give students of Arabic as well as those who cannot read that language the means of obtaining further information concerning the various topics which fall within the scope of a work such as this. Since anything approaching to a complete bibliography is out of the question, I have mentioned only a few of the most important translations from Arabic into English, French, German, and Latin; and I have omitted (1) monographs on particular Arabic writers, whose names, together with the principal European works relating to them, will be found in Brockelmann's great History of Arabic Literature, and (2) a large number of books and articles which appeal to specialists rather than to students. Additional information is supplied by E. G. Browne in his _Literary History of Persia_, vol. i, pp. 481-496, and D. B. Macdonald in his _Development of Muslim Theology, etc._ (London, 1903), pp. 358-367, while the Appendix to H. A. R. Gibb's _Arabic Literature_ (Oxford University Press, 1926) contains a well-chosen list of books of reference and translations. Those who require more detailed references may consult the _Bibliographie des ouvrages arabes ou relatifs aux Arabes publ. dans l'Europe chrétienne de 1810 à 1885_, by V. Chauvin (Liège, 1892-1903), the _Orientalische Bibliographie_, edited by A. Müller, E. Kuhn, and L. Scherman (Berlin, 1887--), the _Handbuch der Islam-Litteratur_, by D. G. Pfannmüller (Berlin and Leipzig, 1923), and the _Catalogue of the Arabic Books in the British Museum_, by A. G. Ellis, 2 vols. (London, 1894-1902) with the _Supplementary Catalogue_, by A. S. Fulton and A. G. Ellis (London, 1926).

As a rule, titles of monographs and works of a specialistic character which have been already given in the footnotes are not repeated in the Bibliography.

I

PHILOLOGY.

1. _Die Semitischen Sprachen_, by Th. Nöldeke (2nd ed. Leipzig, 1899).

An improved and enlarged reprint of the German original of his article, 'Semitic Languages,' in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ (9th edition).

2. _A Grammar of the Arabic Language_, by W. Wright, 3rd ed., revised by W. Robertson Smith and M. J. de Goeje, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1896-98).

The best Arabic grammar for advanced students. Beginners may prefer to use the abridgment by F. du Pre Thornton, _Elementary Arabic: a Grammar_ (Cambridge University Press, 1905).

3. _Arabic-English Lexicon_, by E. W. Lane, 8 parts (London, 1863-93).

This monumental work is unfortunately incomplete. Among other lexica those of Freytag (Arabic and Latin, 4 vols., Halle, 1830-37), A. de Biberstein Kazimirski (Arabic and French, 2 vols., Paris, 1846-60, and 4 vols., Cairo, 1875), and Dozy's _Supplément aux Dictionnaires arabes_, 2 vols. (Leyden, 1881), deserve special notice. Smaller dictionaries, sufficient for ordinary purposes, have been compiled by Belot (_Dictionnaire arabe-français_, Beyrout, 1928), and Wortabet and Porter (_Arabic-English Dictionary_, 3rd ed., Beyrout, 1913).

4. _Abhandlungen zur Arabischen Philologie_, by Ignaz Goldziher,