Arabic Authors | Page 9

death in A.D.
1002. He was succeeded by his son, Abd-al-Malik, who ruled
successfully till his death in A.D. 1008, and was followed by his
brother, Abd-ar-Rahman, who was beheaded in A.D. 1009, Hisham II.
having been previously deposed.
A.D. 11. Muhammad II. (Al-Mahdi-billah) 1009-1009 12. Sulaiman
1009-1010 Hisham II. for the second time 1010-1013 Sulaiman for the
second time 1013-1016 (1) Ali bin Hammud, a Berber chief 1016-1018
13. Abd-ar-Rahman IV. 1018-1019 (2) Al Kasim bin Hammud
1019-1023 14. Abd-ar-Rahman V. 1023-1024 15. Muhammad III.
1024-1025 (3) Yabya bin Ali bin Hammud 1025-1027 16. Hisham III.
1027-1031
A complete list of all the Muhammadan rulers in Spain will be found in
Makkari's history of these dynasties, translated by Gayangos.
CHAPTER II.
LITERARY.
The oral communications of the ancient Egyptians, Medes and Persians,
the two classic tongues of Europe, the Sanscrit of the Hindus and the
Hebrew of the Jews, have long since ceased to be living languages. For
the last twelve centuries no Western language has preserved its
grammar, its style, or its literature intact and intelligible to the people
of the present day. But two Eastern tongues have come down from ages
past to our own times, and continue to exist unchanged in books, and,
to a certain extent, also unchanged in language, and these are Chinese
and Arabic. In China, though the dialects differ in the various provinces
of the empire, still the written language has remained the same for
centuries. In Arabia the Arabic language has retained its originality
without very much dialectical alteration.
The unchangeable character of the Arabic language is chiefly to be
attributed to the Koran, which has, from its promulgation to the present
time, been regarded by all Muhammadans as the standard of religion
and of literary composition. Strictly speaking, not only the history, but

also the literature of the Arabs begins with Muhammad. Excepting the
Mua'llakat, and other pre-Islamitic poems collected in the Hamasas of
Abu Tammam and Al-Bohtori, in Ibn Kutaiba and in the Mofaddhaliat,
no literary monuments that preceded his time are in existence. The
Koran became, not only the code of religious and of civil law, but also
the model of the Arabic language, and the standard of diction and
eloquence. Muhammad himself scorned metrical rules; he claimed as
an apostle and lawgiver a title higher than that of soothsayer and poet.
Still, his poetic talent is manifest in numerous passages of the Koran,
well known to those able to read it in the original, and in this respect
the last twenty-five chapters of that book are, perhaps, the most
remarkable.
Although the power of the Arabs has long ago succumbed, their
literature has survived, and their language is still more or less spoken in
all Muhammadan countries. Europe at one time was lightened by the
torch of Arabian learning, and the Middle Ages were stamped with the
genius and character of Arab civilization. The great masters of
philosophy, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics, viz., Al-Kindi,
Al-Farabi, Ibn-Sina, Ibn-Rashid, Ibn Bajah, Razi, Al Battani, Abul
Ma'shar, Al-Farghani, Al-Jaber, have been studied both in the Spanish
universities and in those of the rest of Europe, where their names are
still familiar under the corrupted forms of Alchendius, Alfarabius,
Avicenna, Averroes, Avempace, Rhazes, Albategnius, Albumasar,
Alfraganius, and Geber.
Arabic literature commenced about half a century before Muhammad
with a legion of poets. The seven poems suspended in the temple of
Mecca, and of which more anon, were considered as the chief
productions of that time. The Mussulman era begins with the Hijrah, or
emigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Madinah, which is supposed
to have taken place on the 20th of June, A.D. 622; and the rise, growth,
and decay of Arab power, learning, and literature may be divided into
three periods as follows:
1. The time before Muhammad.
2. From Muhammad and his immediate successors, viz., Abu Bakr,

Omar, Othman, and Ali, through the Omaiyide and Abbaside dynasties,
to the end of the Khalifate of Baghdad, A.D. 1258.
3. From the fall of Baghdad to the present time.
First Period.
Although the proper history of Arabian literature begins from the time
of Muhammad, it is necessary to cast a glance upon the age that
preceded him, in order to obtain a glimpse of pre-Islamitic wisdom.
The sage Lokman, whose name the thirty-first chapter of the Koran
bears, is considered, according to that book, to have been the first man
of his nation who practised and taught wisdom in all his deeds and
words. He was believed to have been a contemporary of David and
Solomon; his sayings and his fables still exist, but there is not much
really known about him, as the following extracts will show:
'Lokman, a philosopher mentioned in the Koran, is said to have been
born about the