Chapter X

FROM THE MONGOL INVASION TO THE PRESENT DAY

Before proceeding to speak of the terrible catastrophe which filled the whole of Western Asia with ruin and desolation, General characteristics of the period. 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

Between the middle of the eleventh century and the end of the fourteenth the nomad tribes dwelling beyond the Oxus The Mongol Invasion. 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.

In 1219 a.d. Chingíz Khan, having consolidated his power in the Far East, turned his face westward and suddenly Chingíz Khan and Húlágú. 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.):—

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 Húlágú before Baghdád (1258 a.d.). the castle of Alamút from the Ismá‘ílís819 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 Dawídár821 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 hound823 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 Sack of Baghdád. 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:—

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. Battle of ‘Ayn Jálút (September, 1260 a.d.). 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 Arabic ceases to be the language of the whole Moslem world. 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.

The dynasty of the Mameluke825 Sultans of Egypt was founded in 1250 a.d. by Aybak, a Turkish slave, who The Mamelukes of Egypt (1250-1517 a.d.). commenced his career in the service of the Ayyúbid, Malik Ṣáliḥ Najmu ’l-Dín. His successors826 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, Sultan Baybars (1260-1277 a.d.). 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 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, The ‘Abbásid Caliphs of 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

The poets of this period are almost unknown in Europe, and until they have been studied with due attention it would be Arabic poetry after the Mongol Invasion. 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 Ṣafiyyu ’l-Dín al-Ḥillí. 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-Wafayát829 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:—

We have already referred to the folk-songs (muwashshaḥ and zajal) which originated in Spain. These simple ballads, Popular poetry. 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-Quḥúf833 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.

Biography and History were cultivated with ardour by the savants of Egypt and Syria. Among the numerous Ibn Khallikán (1211-1282 a.d.). 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:—

"I have not limited my work to the history of any one particular class of persons, as learned men, princes, emirs, viziers, or poets; His Biographical Dictionary. 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

To give an adequate account of the numerous and talented historians of the Mameluke period would require far more Historians of the Mameluke period. 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 Khiṭaṭ838 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, Maqrízí. 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 politics841 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

If we were asked to select a single figure who should exhibit as completely as possible in his own person the literary Jalálu ’l-Dín al-Suyúṭí (1445-1505 a.d.). 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.'

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 Other scholars of the period. († 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.

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 The 'Thousand and One Nights.' 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):—

"The first who composed fables and made books of them and put them by in treasuries and sometimes introduced animals as speaking Persian origin of the 'Thousand and One Nights.' 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 The Hazár Afsán. 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 (kitáb^un ghathth^un 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."

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 Different sources of the collection. 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.

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 The 'Romance of ‘Antar.' 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

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 Orthodoxy and mysticism. 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 recently850:—

"They brought the Imám Abú Bakr al-Nábulusí, notwithstanding his merit and profound learning and rectitude in religion, from the Persecution of heretics. 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-Ikhláṣ852 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-Shádhilí853 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-Salám854 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-Subkí855 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.

Ibn Taymiyya was born at Ḥarrán in 1263 a.d. A few years later his father, fleeing before the Mongols, brought him Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328 a.d.). 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.

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 Sha‘rání † 1565 a.d.). 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 raḥmat^un). 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

Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahháb,858 from whom its name is Arabia. In his youth he visited the principal cities of the Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahháb and his successors. 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 Ḍira‘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, Ḍira‘iyya, by storm. The sect, however, still maintains its power in Central Arabia, and in recent times has acquired political importance.

The Wahhábís were regarded by the Turks as infidels and authors of a new religion. It was natural that they should The Wahhábite Reformation. 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

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 The Sanúsís in Africa.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.

Since Napoleon showed the way by his expedition to Egypt in 1798, the Moslems in that country, as likewise in Syria and North Islam and modern civilisation. 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.

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 dhikr^un 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):

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, Part I (Leyden, 1896). Contains masterly studies on the origins of Arabic Poetry and other matters connected with literary history.

5. Die Rhetorik der Araber, by A. F. Mehren (Copenhagen, 1853).

II

GENERAL WORKS ON ARABIAN HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, ETC.

6. The Encyclopædia of Islam (Leyden, 1913—). A great number of Orientalists have contributed to this invaluable work, of which the first half (A-L) is now completed.

7. Chronique de Ṭabarí, traduite sur la version persane de ... Bel‘amí, by H. Zotenberg, 4 vols. (Paris, 1867-74).

8. The Murúju ’l-Dhahab of Mas‘údí (Maçoudi: Les Prairies d'Or), Arabic text with French translation by Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille, 9 vols., (Paris, 1861-77). The works of Ṭabarí and Mas‘údí are the most ancient and celebrated Universal Histories in the Arabic language.

9. Abulfedæ Annales Muslemici arabice et latine, by J. J. Reiske, 5 vols. (Hafniæ, 1789-94).

10. Der Islam im Morgen- und Abendland, by August Müller, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1885-87).

11. Histoire des Arabes, by C. Huart, 2 vols. (Paris, 1912).

12. A Short History of the Saracens, by Syed Ameer Ali (London, 1921).

13. Essai sur l'histoire de l'Islamisme, by R. Dozy, translated from the Dutch by Victor Chauvin (Leyden and Paris, 1879).

14. The Preaching of Islam, a History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith, by T. W. Arnold (2nd ed., London, 1913).

15. Sketches from Eastern History, by Th. Nöldeke, translated by J. S. Black (London, 1892).

16. The Mohammadan Dynasties, by Stanley Lane-Poole (London, 1894). Indispensable to the student of Moslem history.

17. Genealogische Tabellen der Arabischen Stämme und Familien mit historischen und geographischen Bemerkungen in einem alphabetischen Register, by F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1852-53).

18. Ibn Khallikán's Biographical Dictionary, translated from the Arabic by Baron MacGuckin de Slane, 4 vols. (Oriental Translation Fund, 1842-71). One of the most characteristic, instructive, and interesting books in Arabic literature.

19. Géographie d'Aboulféda, traduite de l'arabe, by Reinaud and Guyard, 2 vols. (Paris, 1848-83).

20. Travels in Arabia Deserta, by C. M. Doughty, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1888). Gives a true and vivid picture of Bedouin life and manners.

21. Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to al-Madinah and Meccah, by Sir R. F. Burton, 2 vols. (London, 1898).

22. The Penetration of Arabia: a record of the development of Western knowledge concerning the Arabian Peninsula, by D. G. Hogarth (London, 1905).

23. Ḥájjí Khalífa, Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopædicum, Arabic text and Latin translation, by G. Flügel, 7 vols. (Leipzig and London, 1835-58).

24. Die Geschichtschreiber der Araber und ihre Werke (aus dem xxviii. und xxix. Bande der Abhand. d. Königl. Ges. d. Wiss. zu Göttingen), by F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1882).

25. Litteraturgeschichte der Araber bis zum Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts der Hidschret, by J. von Hammer-Purgstall, 7 vols. (Vienna, 1850-56). A work of immense extent, but unscientific and extremely inaccurate.

26. Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, by Carl Brockelmann, 2 vols. (Weimar, 1898-1902). Invaluable for bibliography and biography.

27. A Literary History of Persia, by E. G. Browne, vol. i from the earliest times to Firdawsí (London, 1902), and vol. ii down to the Mongol Invasion (London, 1906). The first volume in particular of this well-known work contains much information concerning the literary history of the Arabs.

28. A History of Arabic Literature, by Clement Huart (London, 1903). The student will find this manual useful for purposes of reference.

29. Arabic Literature: an Introduction, by H. A. R. Gibb (London, 1926). A trustworthy outline of the subject.

30. Arabum Proverbia, Arabic text with Latin translation, by G. W. Freytag, 3 vols. (Bonn, 1838-43).

31. Arabic Proverbs, by J. L. Burckhardt (2nd ed., London, 1875).

III

PRE-ISLAMIC HISTORY, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION.

32. Essai sur l'histoire des Arabes avant l'Islamisme, by A. P. Caussin de Perceval, 3 vols. (Paris, 1847-48). Affords an excellent survey of Pre-islamic legend and tradition.

33. Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, translated from the Annals of Ṭabarí, by Th. Nöldeke (Leyden, 1879). The ample commentary accompanying the translation is valuable and important in the highest degree.

34. Fünf Mo‘allaqát übersetzt und erklärt, by Th. Nöldeke (Vienna, 1899-1901). The omitted Mu‘allaqas are those of Imru’u ’l-Qays and Tarafa.

35. The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia, translated from the original Arabic by Lady Anne Blunt and done into English verse by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (London, 1903).

36. Hamâsa oder die ältesten arabischen Volkslieder übersetzt und erläutert, by Friedrich Rückert, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1846). Masterly verse-translations of the old Arabian poetry.

37. Translations of ancient Arabian poetry, chiefly Pre-islamic, with an introduction and notes, by C. J. Lyall (London, 1885).

38. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber, by Th. Nöldeke (Hannover, 1864).

39. Studien in arabischen Dichtern, Heft iii, Altarabisches Beduinenleben nach den Quellen geschildert, by G. Jacob (Berlin, 1897).

40. Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, by W. Robertson Smith (2nd ed., London, 1903).

41. Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, First Series, by W. Robertson Smith, 3rd ed., revised by S. A. Cook (London, 1927).

42. Reste Arabischen Heidentums, by J. Wellhausen (2nd ed., Berlin, 1897).

IV

MUḤAMMAD AND THE KORAN.

43. Das Leben Mohammed's, translated from the Arabic biography of Ibn Hishám by G. Weil, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1864).

44. Muhammed in Medina, by J. Wellhausen (Berlin, 1882). An abridged translation of Wáqidí's work on Muḥammad's Campaigns.

45. Das Leben und die Lehre des Moḥammad, by A. Sprenger, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1861-65).

46. Life of Mahomet, by Sir W. Muir, ed. by T. H. Weir (Edinburgh, 1923).

47. Das Leben Muhammed's nach den Quellen populär dargestellt, by Th. Nöldeke (Hannover, 1863).

48. The Spirit of Islam, by Syed Ameer Ali (London, 1922).

49. Mohammed, by H. Grimme, 2 vols. (Münster, 1892-95).

50. Die weltgeschichtliche Bedeutung Arabiens: Mohammed, by H. Grimme (Munich, 1904).

51. Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, by D. S. Margoliouth in 'Heroes of the Nations' Series (London and New York, 1905).

52. Mohammed and Islam, by A. A. Bevan in The Cambridge Mediæval History, vol. ii, ch. 10 (Cambridge, 1913).

53. Die Person Muhammeds in Lehre und Glauben seiner Gemeinde, by Tor Andrae (Uppsala, 1918).

54. The origin of Islam in its Christian environment, by R. Bell (London, 1926).

55. Annali dell' Islām, by Leone Caetani, Principe di Teano, vol. i (Milan, 1905). Besides a very full and readable historical introduction this magnificent work contains a detailed account of Muḥammad's life during the first six years after the Hijra (622-628 a.d.).

56. The Koran, translated into English with notes and a preliminary discourse, by G. Sale (London, 1734). Sale's translation, which has been frequently reprinted, is still serviceable. Mention may also be made of the English versions by J. M. Rodwell (London and Hertford, 1861) and by E. H. Palmer (the best from a literary point of view) in vols. vi and ix of 'The Sacred Books of the East' (Oxford, 1880); reprinted in The World's Classics, vol. 328.

57. Geschichte des Qorâns, by Th. Nöldeke, 2nd ed., revised by F. Schwally (Leipzig, 1909-19). Cf. Nöldeke's essay, 'The Koran,' in Sketches from Eastern History, pp. 21-59, or his article in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.).

58. The Teaching of the Qur’ān, by H. W. Stanton (London, 1920).

V

THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPHATE.

59. The Caliphate, by T. W. Arnold (Oxford, 1924).

60. Geschichte der Chalifen, by G. Weil, 3 vols. (Mannheim, 1846-51). Completed by the same author's Geschichte des Abbasiden-Chalifats in Egypten, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1860-62).

61. Annals of the Early Caliphate, by Sir W. Muir (London, 1883).

62. The Caliphate, its rise, decline, and fall, by Sir W. Muir (2nd ed., London, 1924).

63. The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the last thirty years of Roman dominion, by A. J. Butler (London, 1902).

64. Das Arabische Reich und sein Sturz, by J. Wellhausen (Berlin, 1902). An excellent history of the Umayyad dynasty based on the Annals of Tabarí.

65. The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, by H. F. Amedroz and D. S. Margoliouth, 7 vols. (Oxford, 1920-1). Arabic texts and translations valuable for the history of the fourth century a.h.

66. The life and times of ‘Alí b. ‘Ísá, the Good Vizier, by H. Bowen (Cambridge, 1928).

67. Geschichte der Fatimiden-Chalifen, nach arabischen Quellen, by F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1881).

VI

THE HISTORY OF MOSLEM CIVILISATION.

68. Prolégomènes d'Ibn Khaldoun, a French translation of the Muqaddima or Introduction prefixed by Ibn Khaldún to his Universal History, by Baron MacGuckin de Slane, 3 vols. (in Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale, vols. xix-xxi, Paris, 1863-68).

69. Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen, by A. von Kremer, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1875-77).

70. Culturgeschichtliche Streifzüge auf dem Gebiete des Islams, by A. von Kremer (Leipzig, 1873). This work has been translated into English by S. Khuda Bukhsh in his Contributions to the History of Islamic Civilization (Calcutta, 1905; 2nd ed., 1929).

71. Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Islams, by A. von Kremer (Leipzig, 1868). A celebrated and most illuminating book.

72. La civilisation des Arabes, by G. Le Bon (Paris, 1884).

73. Muhammedanische Studien, by Ignaz Goldziher (Halle, 1888-90). This book, which has frequently been cited in the foregoing pages, should be read by every serious student of Moslem civilisation.

74. Islamstudien, vol. i, by C. H. Becker (Leipzig, 1924).

75. Umayyads and ‘Abbásids, being the Fourth Part of Jurji Zaydán's History of Islamic Civilisation, translated by D. S. Margoliouth (E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, vol. iv, 1907).

76. Die Renaissance des Islams, by A. Mez (Heidelberg, 1922).

77. Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate, by G. le Strange (Oxford, 1900).

78. A Baghdad Chronicle, by R. Levy (Cambridge, 1929).

79. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, by G. le Strange (Cambridge, 1905).

80. Palestine under the Moslems, by G. le Strange (London, 1890).

81. Painting in Islam, by T. W. Arnold (Oxford, 1928).

82. Moslem Architecture, by G. T. Rivoira, translated by G. M. Rushforth (Oxford, 1919).

83. Arabian Society in the Middle Ages, by E. W. Lane, edited by Stanley Lane-Poole (London, 1883).

84. Die Araber im Mittelalter und ihr Einfluss auf die Cultur Europa's, by G. Diercks (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1882).

85. An account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, by E. W. Lane (5th ed., London, 1871).

VII

MUḤAMMADAN RELIGION, THEOLOGY, JURISPRUDENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND MYSTICISM.

86. Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence, and Constitutional Theory, by Duncan B. Macdonald (London, 1903). The best general sketch of the subject.

87. Asch-Schahrastâni's Religionspartheien und Philosophen-Schulen, translated by T. Haarbrücker (Halle, 1850-51).

88. The Traditions of Islam, by A. Guillaume (Oxford, 1924). See also No. 73, Pt. ii.

89. Les traditions islamiques trad. de l'arabe, by O. Houdas and W. Marçais (Paris, 1903-14). A translation of the celebrated collection of Traditions by Bukhárí.

90. A Handbook of early Muhammadan Tradition, by A. J. Wensinck (Leyden, 1927).

91. Mohammedanism, by C. Snouck Hurgronje (American lectures on the history of religions, 1916).

92. Vorlesungen über den Islam, by I. Goldziher (Heidelberg, 1910; 2nd ed., 1925).

93. The Early Development of Mohammedanism, by D. S. Margoliouth (London, 1914; re-issued, 1927).

94. L'Islam, croyances et institutions, by H. Lammens (Beyrout, 1926); translation by E. Denison Ross (London, 1929).

95. The Islamic Faith, by T. W. Arnold (Benn's Sixpenny Library, No. 42).

96. The History of Philosophy in Islam, by T. J. de Boer, translated by E. R. Jones (London, 1903).

97. Die Mutaziliten oder die Freidenker im Islam, by H. Steiner (Leipzig, 1865).

98. Die Philosophie der Araber im X. Jahrhundert n. Chr. aus den Schriften der lautern Brüder herausgegeben, by F. Dieterici (Berlin and Leipzig, 1861-79).

99. Averroes et l'Averroisme, by E. Renan (Paris, 1861).

100. Mélanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe, by S. Munk (Paris, 1859).

101. Fragments, relatifs à la doctrine des Ismaélîs, by S. Guyard (Paris, 1874).

102. Exposé de la Religion des Druzes, by Silvestre de Sacy, 2 vols. (Paris, 1838).

103. The Mystics of Islam, by R. A. Nicholson (London, 1914).

104. The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam, by D. B. Macdonald (Chicago, 1909).

105. Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de la mystique musulmane, by L. Massignon (Paris, 1922).

106. La Passion d'al-Halláj, by L. Massignon, 2 vols. (Paris, 1922).

107. Al-Ḳuschairîs Darstellung des Ṣûfîtums, by Richard Hartmann (Berlin, 1914).

108. Kleinere Schriften des Ibn al-‘Arabī, by H. S. Nyberg (Leiden, 1919).

109. Studies in Islamic Mysticism, by R. A. Nicholson (Cambridge, 1921).

110. The Idea of Personality in Ṣúfism, by R. A. Nicholson (Cambridge, 1923).

111. The Dervishes or Oriental Spiritualism, by John P. Brown, ed. by H. A. Rose (London, 1927).

112. Les Confréries religieuses musulmanes, by O. Depont and X. Coppolani (Algiers, 1897).

VIII

THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF THE MOORS.

113. Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne jusqu'à la conquête de l'Andalusie par les Almoravides (711-1110 a.d.), by R. Dozy, 4 vols. (Leyden, 1861). Translated into English under the title Spanish Islam by F. G. Stokes (London, 1913).

114. History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, by S. P. Scott, 3 vols. (New York, 1904).

115. The Moriscos of Spain, their conversion and expulsion, by H. C. Lea (Philadelphia, 1901).

116. History of the Mohammedan dynasties of Spain, translated from the Nafḥ al-Ṭíb of Maqqarí by Pascual de Gayangos, 2 vols. (London, Oriental Translation Fund, 1840-43).

117. The History of the Almohades, by ‘Abdu ’l-Wáḥid al-Marrákoshí, translated by E. Fagnan (Algiers, 1893).

118. Recherches sur l'histoire et la littérature de l'Espagne pendant le moyen âge, by R. Dozy, 2 vols. (3rd ed., Leyden, 1881).

119. Poesie und Kunst der Araber in Spanien und Sicilien, by A. F. von Schack, 2 vols. (2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1877).

120. Moorish remains in Spain, by A. F. Calvert (London, 1905).

121. Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia, by M. Amari (Firenze, 1854-72). A revised edition is in course of publication.

IX

THE HISTORY OF THE ARABS FROM THE MONGOL INVASION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT DAY.

122. Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks de l'Égypte, écrite en arabe par Taki-eddin Ahmed Makrizi, traduite en français ... par M. Quatremère, 2 vols. (Oriental Translation Fund, 1845).

123. The Mameluke or Slave dynasty of Egypt, by Sir W. Muir (London, 1896).

124. Histoire de Bagdad depuis la domination des Khans mongols jusqu'au massacre des Mamlouks, by C. Huart (Paris, 1901).

125. History of the Egyptian revolution from the period of the Mamelukes to the death of Mohammed Ali, by A. A. Paton, 2 vols. (London, 1870).

126. The Shaikhs of Morocco in the XVI^th century, by T. H. Weir (Edinburgh, 1904).

127. The Arabic Press of Egypt, by M. Hartmann (London, 1899).

128. Neuarabische Volkspoesie gesammelt und uebersetzt, by Enno Littmann (Berlin, 1902).

FOOTNOTES:

>INDEX

In the following Index it has been found necessary to omit the accents indicating the long vowels, and the dots which are used in the text to distinguish letters of similar pronunciation. On the other hand, the definite article al has been prefixed throughout to those Arabic names which it properly precedes; it is sometimes written in full, but is generally denoted by a hyphen, e.g. -‘Abbas for al-‘Abbas. Names of books, as well as Oriental words and technical terms explained in the text, are printed in italics. Where a number of references occur under one heading, the more important are, as a rule, shown by means of thicker type.

A

Aaron, 215, 273

‘Abbad, 421

‘Abbadid dynasty, the, 414, 421-424, 431

-‘Abbas, 146, 249, 250, 251

-‘Abbas b. -Ahnaf (poet), 261

‘Abbasa, 261

‘Abbasid history, two periods of, 257

‘Abbasid propaganda, the, 249-251

‘Abbasids, the, xxviii, xxix, xxx, 65, 181, 182, 193, 194, 220, 249-253, 254-284, 287-291, 365-367, 373

‘Abdullah, father of the Prophet, xxvii, 146, 148, 250

‘Abdullah, brother of Durayd b. -Simma, 83

‘Abdullah, the Amir (Spanish Umayyad), 411

‘Abdullah b. -‘Abbas, 145, 237, 249

‘Abdullah b. Hamdan, 269

‘Abdullah b. Ibad, 211

‘Abdullah b. Mas‘ud, 352

‘Abdullah b. Maymun al-Qaddah, 271-274, 363

‘Abdullah. b. Muhammad b. Adham, 423

‘Abdullah b. -Mu‘tazz. See Ibnu ’l-Mu‘tazz

‘Abdullah b. Saba, 215, 216

‘Abdullah b. Tahir, 129

‘Abdullah b. Ubayy, 172

‘Abdullah b. Yasin al-Kuzuli, 430

Abdullah b. -Zubayr, 198, 199, 200, 202

‘Abdu ’l-‘Aziz (Marinid), 436

‘Abdu ’l-‘Aziz, brother of ‘Abdu ’l-Malik, 200

‘Abdu ’l-‘Aziz, son of Muhammad b. Sa‘ud, 466

‘Abdu ’l-Ghani al-Nabulusi, 402

‘Abdu ’l-Hamid, 267

‘Abdu ’l-Malik (Umayyad Caliph), 200-202, 206, 209, 224, 240, 242, 244, 247, 349, 407

‘Abd Manaf, 146

‘Abdu, ’l-Mu’min (Almohade), 432

‘Abdu ’l-Muttalib, 66-68, 146, 148, 154, 250

‘Abdu ’l-Qadir al-Baghdadi, 131

‘Abdu ’l-Qadir al-Jili, 393

‘Abd al-Qays (tribe), 94

‘Abdu ’l-Rahman I, the Umayyad, 253, 264, 405-407, 417, 418

‘Abdu ’l-Rahman II (Spanish Umayyad), 409, 418

‘Abdu ’l-Rahman III (Spanish Umayyad), 411-412, 420, 425

‘Abdu ’l-Rahman V (Spanish Umayyad), 426

‘Abdu ’l-Rahman b. ‘Awf, 186

‘Abdu ’l-Razzaq-Kashani, 402

‘Abd Shams, 146

‘Abd Shams Saba, 14

‘Abdu ’l-‘Uzza, 159

‘Abdu ’l-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabite sect. See Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab.

‘Abdu ’l-Wahhab al-Sha‘rani. See -Sha‘rani

‘Abdu ’l-Wahid of Morocco (historian), 431, 433

‘Abid b. -Abras (poet), 39, 44, 86, 101

‘Abid b. Sharya, 13, 19, 247

‘Abida b. Hilal, 239

‘Abir, xviii

‘Abla, 115

-Ablaq, (name of a castle), 84

Ablutions, the ceremonial, incumbent on Moslems, 149

-Abna, 29

Abraha, 6, 15, 28, 65-8 Abraham, xviii, 22, 62, 63, 66, 149, 150, 165, 172, 177

Abraham, the religion of, 62, 149, 177

‘Abs (tribe), xix, 61, 88, 114-117

Absal, 433

Abu ’l-‘Abbas (Marinid), 436

Abu ’l-‘Abbas Ahmad al-Marsi, 327

Abu ’l-‘Abbas al-Nami (poet), 270

Abu ’l-‘Abbas-Saffah, 182, 253. See -Saffah

Abu ‘Abdallah Ibnu ’l-Ahmar (Nasrid), 437

Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, 338

Abu Ahmad al-Mihrajani, 370

Abu ’l-‘Ala al-Ma‘arri, 166, 167, 206, 271, 289, 291, 296, 308, 313-324, 375, 448

Abu ‘Ali al-Qali, 131, 420

Abu ‘Ali b. Sina, 265. See Ibn Sina

Abu ‘Amir, the Monk, 170

Abu ‘Amr b. al-‘Ala, 242, 285, 343 Abu ’l-Aswad al-Du’ili, 342, 343

Abu ’l-‘Atahiya (poet), 261, 291, 296-303, 308, 312, 324, 374

Abu Ayman (title), 14

Abu Bakr (Caliph), xxvii, 142, 153, 175, 180, 183, 185, 210, 214, 215, 257, 268, 297

Abu Bakr b. Abi ’l-Azhar, 344

Abu Bakr Ibnu ’l-‘Arabi of Seville, 399

Abu Bakr b. Mu‘awiya, 420

Abu Bakr al-Nabulusi, 460

Abu Bakr al-Razi (physician), 265. See -Razi

Abu Bakr b. ‘Umar, 430

Abu ’l-Darda, 225

Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, 337

Abu ’l-Faraj of Isfanan, 32, 123, 131, 270, 347, 419. See Kitabu ’l-Aghani

Abu ’l-Faraj al-Babbagha (poet), 270

Abu ’l-Fida (historian), 308, 316, 331, 454

Abu Firas al-Hamdani (poet), 270, 304

Abu Ghubshan, 65

Abu Hanifa, 222, 284, 402, 408

Abu ’l-Hasan ‘Ali b. Harun al-Zanjani, 370

Abu ’l-Hasan al-Ash‘ari, 284. See -Ash‘ari

Abu Hashim, the Imam, 220, 251

Abu Hashim, the Sufi, 229

Abu Hudhayl -‘Allaf, 369

Abu ’l-Husayn al-Nuri, 392

Abu ‘Imran al-Fasi, 429

Abu Ishaq al-Farisi. See -Istakhri

Abu Ja‘far -Mansur, 258. See -Mansur, the Caliph

Abu Jahl, 158

Abu Karib, the Tubba‘, 12, 19. See As‘ad Kamil

Abu Lahab, 159, 160

Abu ’l-Mahasin b. Taghribirdi (historian), 257, 262, 267, 268, 350, 369, 454

Abu Marwan Ghaylán, 224

Abu Ma‘shar, 361

Abu Mihjan (poet), 127

Abu Mikhnaf, 210

Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari, 192, 377

Abu Muslim, 220, 251-252, 375

Abu Nasr al-Isma‘ili, 339

Abu Nasr al-Sarraj, 393

Abu Nu‘aym al-Isfahani, 338

Abu Nuwas (poet), 261, 277, 286, 290, 291, 292-296, 303, 308, 345, 375

Abu Qabus, kunya of -Nu’man III, 45

Abu ’l-Qasim Ahmad. See -Mustansir

Abu ’l-Qasim Muhammad, the Cadi, 421

Abu ’l-Qasim b. -Muzaffar, 312

Abu ’l-Qasim al-Zahrawi, 420

Abu Qays b. Abi Anas, 170

Abu Qurra, 221

Abu Sa’id b. Abi ’l-Khayr, 391, 394

Abu Salama, 257

Abu Salih Mansur b. Ishaq (Samanid), 265

Abu ’l-Salt b. Abi Rabi’a, 69

Abu Shaduf, 450

Abu Shamir the Younger, 50

Abu Shamir, kunya of -Harith b. ’Amr Muharriq, 50

Abu Shuja’ Buwayh, 266

Abu Sufyan, 124, 175, 195

Abu Sulayman al-Darani, 384, 386, 388

Abu Sulayman Muhammad b. Ma‘shar al-Bayusti, 370

Abu Talib, uncle of the Prophet, 146, 148, 154, 157, 183, 250

Abu Talib al-Makki, 338, 393

Abu Tammam, author of the Hamasa, 79, 129-130, 288, 316, 324, 331. See -Hamasa

Abu ’Ubayda (philologist), 94, 242, 261, 280, 343, 344, 345, 459

Abu ‘Ubayda b. al-Jarrah, 51

Abu ’l-Walid al-Baji, 428

Abu Yazid al-Bistami, 391. See Bayazid of Bistam

Abu Yusuf, the Cadi, 283

Abu Zayd of Saruj, 330, 331, 332, 335

Abu Zayd Muhammad al-Qurashi, 130

Abusir, 326

Abyssinia, 53, 155, 156

Abyssinians, the, xxi; in -Yemen, 5, 6, 26-29; invade the Hijaz, 66-68

Academy of Junde-shapur, the, 358

Academy of Sabur, the, 267, 314

‘Ad (people), 1, 2, 3

adab, 283, 346

Adabu ’l-Katib, 346

Adam, xxvi, 62, 63, 244, 398

‘Adana (river), 15

‘Adawi dervishes, the, 393

Adharbayjan, 17

‘Adi (tribe), 233

‘Adi b. ‘Amr, 94

‘Adi al-Hakkari, 393

‘Adi b. Marina, 244

‘Adi b. Nasr, 35

‘Adi b. Zayd, 40, 45-48, 49, 138, 244

‘Adiya, 85

Adler, 316

‘Adnán, xviii, xix, xx, 64

‘Adudu ’l-Dawla (Buwayhid), 266, 307

ælius Gallus, 9

æthiopic language, the, xvi, xxi

Afghanistan, 268, 275

Africa, xv, xvi Africa, North, 53, 203, 253, 271, 274, 405, 419, 423, 424, 429, 430, 434, 437, 439, 442, 443, 468

Afshin, 375

-Afwah al-Awdi (poet), 83

-Aghani. See Kitabu ’l-Agfhani

Aghlabid dynasty, the, 264, 274, 441

Aghmat, 424

-Ahlaf, at -Hira, 38

Ahlu ’l-Kitab, 341

Ahlu ’l-Taswiya, 280. See Shu‘ubites, the

Ahlu ’l-tawhid wa-’l-‘adl, a name given to the Mu‘tazilites, 224

Ahlwardt, W., 76, 101, 125, 128,133, 136, 286, 293, 294, 304, 349, 454

Ahmad (Buwayhid), 266

Ahmad, brother of Ghazali, 339

Ahmad, father of Ibn Hazm, 426

Ahmad b. Hanbal, 284, 369, 376, 402

Ahmad al-Nahhas, 102

Ahmad b. Tulun, 354

Ahmar of Thamud, 3

Ahnum, 19

Ahqafu ’l-Raml (desert), 1

Ahsanu ’l-Taqasim fi ma‘rifati ’l-Aqalim, 357

ahwal, mystical term, 231, 391

-Ahwas (poet), 237

-Ahwaz, 271, 293

A‘isha, 151, 183

‘Aja ’ibu ’l-Maqdur, 454

-‘Ajam (the non-Arabs), 277. See -Mawali

-‘Ajjaj (poet), 138

-Ajurrumiyya, 456

Akbar (Mogul Emperor), xxx

Akhbaru ’l-Zaman, 353

-Akhtal (poet), 221, 238, 239-242, 285

akhu ’l-safa, 370

Akilu ’l-Murar (surname), 42

-A‘lam (philologist), 128

Alamut, 445

‘Ala’u ’l-Din Muhammad Khwarizmshah, 444

Albategnius, 361

Albucasis, 420

Albumaser, 361

Alchemists, the, 361, 387

Alchemy, works on, translated into Arabic, 358

Aleppo, 269, 270, 275, 291, 303, 305, 313, 360, 415, 446, 451, 460, 461

Alexander the Great, 17, 276, 358, 457

Alexandria, 340

Alexandrian Library, the, 435

Alf Layla wa-Layla, 456, 459. See Thousand Nights and a Night and Arabian Nights

-Alfiyya, 456

Alfraganus, 361

Algeria, 430

Algiers, 468

Alhambra, the, 435

‘Ali (Buwayhid), 266

‘Ali, grandson of ‘Umar Ibnu ’l-Farid, 394

‘Ali b. Abi Talib, the Prophet's son-in-law, xxvii, xxviii, 105, 153, 181, 183, 190-193, 194, 196, 205, 207-211, 213-218, 220-222, 243, 249, 250, 251, 264, 267, 273, 274, 342, 343, 349, 377, 432, 442

‘Ali b. Abi Talib, public cursing of, 205

‘Ali b. -Mansur, Shaykh, 319

‘Ali b. Musa b. Ja‘far al-Rida, 262, 385

‘Alids, the, 258, 259, 337. See ‘Ali b. Abi Talib and Shi‘ites, the

Allah, 62, 134, 135, 164, 231, 392

Allah, the Muhammadan conception of, 225, 231

Almaqa, 18

Almeria, 421

Almohades, the, 217, 429, 431-434 Almoravides, the, 423, 429-431

Alp Arslan (Seljuq), 275, 276, 340, 379

Alphabet, the South Arabic, 6, 8, 12

Alphonso VI of Castile, 422, 423, 431

‘Alqama b. ‘Abada (poet), 121, 125, 128

‘Alqama b. Dhi Jadan (poet), 12

Alvaro, Bishop of Cordova, 414

Amaj, 22

-Amali, 420. See Kitabu ’l-Amali

-Amaliq (Amalekites), 2, 3, 63

‘Amidu ’l-Mulk al-Kunduri, 379

-Amin, the Caliph, 255, 262, 293, 343

Amina, mother of the Prophet, 146

‘Amir b. Sa‘sa‘a (tribe), 119

‘Amir b. Uhaymir, 87

Amiru ’l-Mu‘minin (Commander of the Faithful), 185

Amiru ’l-Umara (title), 264

‘Amr, the Tubba‘ 25, 26

‘Amr b. ‘Adi b. Nasr, 35, 36, 37, 40

‘Amr b. Amir (tribe), 94

‘Amr b. ‘Amir Ma’ al-Sama al-Muzayqiya, 15, 16, 49

‘Amr b. -‘As, 192

‘Amr b. -Harith (Ghassanid), 50, 54, 122

‘Amr b. Hind (Lakhmite), 44, 107, 108, 109, 112

‘Amr b. Kulthum (poet), 44, 82, 102, 109-113, 128, 269

‘Amr b. Luhayy, 63, 64

‘Amr b. Ma‘dikarib, 82

‘Amr b. Mas‘ud, 43

‘Amr b. ‘Ubayd, 223, 374

‘Amr b. Zarib, 35

Amul, 350

Anas, 88

‘anatira, 459

‘Anaza (tribe), xix -Anbar, 38

-Anbari (philologist), 128

-Anbat, xxv. See Nabatæans, the

Ancient Sciences, the, 282

-Andarin, 111

Angels, the Recording, 161

Angora, 104

-Ansar (the Helpers), 171, 241

‘Antar, the Romance of, 34, 459

‘Antara (poet), 76, 109, 114-116, 128, 459

‘antari, 459

Anthologies of Arabic poetry, 128-130, 289, 325, 343, 347, 348, 417

Anthropomorphism, 369, 376, 379, 432

Antioch, 43

Anushirwan (Sasanian king). See Nushirwan

Anushirwan b. Khalid, 329

Aphrodite, 43

-‘Aqida, by ‘Izzu ’l-Din b. ‘Abd al-Salam, 461

‘Aqil, 35

Arab horses, the training of, 226

Arab singers in the first century a.h., 236

a‘rabi (Bedouin), 210

Arabia, in the ‘Abbasid period, 276

Arabia Felix, xvii, 4. See -Yemen

Arabian History, three periods of, xxvi Arabian Nights, the, 238, 256, 261, 292, 421, 456-459

Arabic language, the, xvi, xvii, xxi-xxv, 6, 77, 201, 203, 239, 265, 277-280, 336, 342, 344

Arabic literature, largely the work of non-Arabs, xxx, xxxi, 276-278

Arabic Press, the, 469

Arabic writing, 201; oldest specimens of, xxi, xxii

Arabs, the Ishmaelite, xviii

Arabs of Khurasan, the, thoroughly Persianised, 250

Arabs, the Northern. See Arabs, the Ishmaelite

Arabs, the Northern and Southern, racial enmity between, xx, 199, 200, 252, 405, 406

Arabs, the Southern, xvii, xviii, xx, 4. See Arabs, the Yemenite

Arabs, the Yemenite, xvii, xviii, xx, 38, 55, 199, 252, 405, 406. See Sabæans, the; Himyarites, the

Arabs, the Yoqtanid, xviii. See Arabs, the Yemenite

Aramæans, the, xv, xxv

Aramaic language, the, xvi, xxv, 279, 375

-Araqim, 113, 114

Arbela, 451

Ardashir Babakan, founder of the Sasanian dynasty, 34, 38

Ἀρέθας τοῦ Γαβάλα, 51

Arhakim, 11

‘arif (gnostic), 386

‘Arifu ’l-Zanadiqa, 373

Aristocracy of Islam, the, 188, 190

Aristotle, 358, 359, 360

-‘Arji (poet), 237

Armenia, xv, 352

Arnaud, Th., 9, 15, 17

Arnold. F. A., 105, 107, 109, 111, 113, 114

Arnold, T. W., 184, 223, 224, 360, 448

Arsacids, the, 21, 38

Aryat, 27, 28

-‘Asa (name of a mare), 36

‘asabiyya, 440

Asad (tribe), xix, 104

Asad Kamil, the Tubba‘, 12, 19-23, 25, 26, 137

Asad b. Musa, 247

Asal, 433

asalib, 289, 315

Ascalon, 456

Ascension of the Prophet, the, 169, 403

Asd (tribe), 19

-A‘sha (poet), 16, 101, 121, 123-125, 128, 138, 139

-Ash‘ari (Abu ’l-Hasan), 284, 376-379, 431

Ash‘arites, the, 379, 380, 460

Ash‘aru ’l-Hudhaliyyin, 128

-Ashram (surname of Abraha), 28

Asia, xv, 275, 352, 414

Asia, Central, 255

Asia Minor, 269, 399, 434, 446

Asia, Western, xvi, xxix, 358, 442, 444, 446

Asin Palacios, 404

aslama, 153

-Asma‘i (philologist), 261, 343, 344, 345, 459

Assassins, the, 272, 371, 372, 381, 445

Assyrian language, the, xvi Assyrians, the, xv

Astrologers and Astronomers, 361

Astronomy, 276, 283

Aswad b. -Mundhir, 47

-Athar al-Baqiya, 361

Atharu ’l-Bilad, 416

Athens, 240, 358

‘Athtar, ‘Athtor (Sabæan divinity), 11, 18

Atlal, 286

‘Attar (Persian mystic). See Faridu’ddin ‘Attar

‘Atwada, 28

Aurelian, 34

Aurora, 412

Avempace. See Ibn Bajja

Avenzoar, 434

Averroes. See Ibn Rushd

Avicenna. See Ibn Sina

awa’il (origins), 247

‘Awarifu ’l-Ma‘arif, 230, 338

-‘Awfi, 370

awliya (saints), 393

Awrangzib (Mogul Emperor), xxx

Aws (tribe), 170

Aws b. Hajar (poet), 131

Awwam Dhú ‘Iran Alu, 11

a‘yan thabita, 402

ayat (verse of the Koran, sign, miracle), 166

Ayatu ’l-Kursi (the Throne-verse), 176

Aybak, 447

-Ayham b. -Harith (Ghassanid), 50

‘Ayn Jalut, battle of, 446

‘Ayn Ubagh, battle of, 52

ayyamu ’l-‘Arab, 55, 356

Ayyubid dynasty, the, 275, 447, 453

Azd (tribe), 79, 374

-Azhar, the mosque, 395

Azraqites (-Azariqa), the, 208, 239

B

Baalbec, 111

Bab al-Mandab, 5

Babak, 258, 375

Babur (Mogul Emperor), xxix, 444

Babylon, xxv, 38

Babylonia, 34, 38, 138, 253, 255, 307. See -‘Iraq

Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions, the, xvi, xxv