Arabic Authors | Page 2

rulers in Spain.
CHAPTER II.
LITERARY.
About the Arabic and Chinese languages.--The permanent character of
the former attributed to the Koran.--Division of Arab literature into
three periods: I. The time before Muhammad.--The sage Lokman; the
description of three Lokmans; Arab poetry before the Koran; the seven
suspended poems, known as the Mua'llakat, at Mecca; notions of the
Arabs about poetry; their Kasidas; description of the Kasidas of

Amriolkais, Antara, Labid, Tarafa, Amru, Harath, and Zoheir; the poets
Nabiga, Al-Kama, and Al-Aasha. II. The period from the time of
Muhammad to the fall of the Abbasides.--Muhammad considered as a
poet; the poets who were hostile to him; his panegyrist Kab bin Zoheir;
account of him and his 'Poem of the Mantle,' and the results; Al-Busiri's
'Poem of the Mantle;' names of poets favourable and hostile to
Muhammad; the seven jurisconsults; the four imams; the six fathers of
tradition; the early traditionists; the companions; the alchemists; the
astronomers; the grammarians; the geographers and travellers; the
historians; the tabulators and biographers; the writers about natural
history; the philologists; the philosophers; the physicians; the poets; the
collectors and editors of poems; the essayist Al-Hariri; many translators;
special notice of Ibn Al-Mukaffa; support given to learning and
literature by certain of the Omaiyide, Abbaside, and Spanish Arab
Khalifs; description of Baghdad; reign of Harun-ar-Rashid; the
Barmekides; the Khalif Razi-billah; Hakim II. at Cordova; his
education; his accession to the throne; his collection of books; his
library, and its catalogue; places of learning in the East at this time. III.
Third period, from the fall of Baghdad to the present time.--Certain
historians; Ibn Malik, the grammarian; Ibn Batuta, the traveller; Abul
Feda, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Kesir, Ibn Hajar, Ibn Arabshah--all historians;
Firuzabadi, Taki-uddin of Fez, Al-Makrisi, Sayuti, Ibn Kamal Pasha,
Abu Sa'ud the mufti, Ibrahim of Aleppo, Birgeli, Abul Khair;
celebrated caligraphers, past and present, Haji Khalfa, Muhammad al
Amin of Damascus, Makkari. Decline of Arabic literature: its present
form. About the printing-presses of Arabic works at various places.
CHAPTER III.
ABOUT MUHAMMAD.
A complete summary of the details of his life, from his birth to his
death.--Remarks upon him as a reformer, preacher, and apostle.--The
Hanyfs.--Muhammad's early idea of establishing one religion for the
Jews, Christians, and Arabs.--His long struggle with the Koraish.--His
failure at Mecca.--His success at Madinah.--Adapts his views to the
manners and customs of the Arabs only.--The reason of his many

marriages.--His love of women.--About the Koran.--Not collected and
arranged until after his death.--Comparison of the Koran with the Old
and New Testaments.--Superiority of our Bible.--Description of it by 'Il
Secolo.'--Rev. Mr. Badger's description of the Koran.--Written in the
purest Arabic, and defies competition.--Muhammad and Moses, Jesus
and Buddha.--Remarks about Buddhism and Christianity.--Moses and
Muhammad the founders of two nationalities.--Abraham the father of
the Jewish, Christian, and Muhammadan religions.--Rénan's
description of the gods of the Jews.--Joseph.--The Twelve
Tribes.--Appearance of Moses as a liberator and organizer.--The
reasons of his wanderings in the desert.--What the Jews owed to Moses,
and the Arabs to Muhammad.--The latter as a military
leader.--Resemblance of the warlike expeditions of the Jews and of the
Arabs.--Similar proceedings in the Soudan at the present
time.--Account of the dogmas and precepts of Islam as embodied in the
Koran.--Other points connected with the institutions of Islam.--Faith
and prayer always insisted upon.--Democratic character of the
Muhammadan religion, excellent in theory, but doubtful in
practice.--Muhammad's last address at Mina, telling the Muslims that
they were one brotherhood.--His final remarks.
CHAPTER IV.
TALES AND STORIES.
The Kalilah wa Dimnah.--'Early Ideas.'--'Persian Portraits,'--Origin of
the 'Arabian Nights.'--The Hazar Afsaneh, or Thousand Stories. Date of
the 'Nights.'--Its fables and apologues the oldest part of the work.--Then
certain stories--The latest tales.--Galland's edition.--His
biography.--His successors, sixteen in number, ending with Payne and
Burton.--The complete translations of these two last-named, in thirteen
and sixteen volumes respectively.--Brief analysis of Payne's first nine,
and of Burton's first ten volumes.--Short summary of twelve stories;
viz.: The tale of Aziz and Azizah; the tale of Kamar Al-Zaman and the
Lady Budur; Ala Aldin Abu Al-Shamat; Ali the Persian and the Kurd
sharper; the man of Al-Yaman and his six slave-girls; Abu Al-Husn
and his slave-girl Tawaddud; the rogueries of Dalilah the Crafty and

her daughter Zeynab the Trickstress; the adventures of Quicksilver Ali
of Cairo; Hasan of Busra and the king's daughter of the Jinn; Ali Nur
Al-din and Miriam the girdle-girl; Kamar Al-Zaman and the jeweller's
wife; Ma'aruf the cobbler and his wife Fatimah.--Remarks on Payne's
three extra volumes, entitled 'Tales from the Arabic,' and on Burton's
two first supplemental volumes.--Allusion to Burton's third
supplemental and to Payne's thirteenth volume.--Burton's fourth, fifth,
and sixth supplemental volumes. --Summing-up of the number of
stories contained in the above two editions; from what manuscripts they
were translated, and some final remarks.--The Kathá Sarit Ságara, a
sort of Hindoo 'Arabian Nights'. --Comparison