Arabic Authors | Page 2

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.--R��nan'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 Kath�� Sarit S��gara, a sort of Hindoo 'Arabian Nights'. --Comparison of the two works.--Brief description of the Kath�� and its contents.--Gun��dhya and Somadeva.--Final remarks on the stories found in the Kath��.--Antar, a Bedouin romance.--Its partial translation.--Its supposed author.--Brief description of the work, with some remarks upon it.--Both the