Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/422

402 official returns to consist of about 39,000 Moslems and 4000 non-Moslems. The curious Hamath inscriptions first men tioned by Burckhardt have lately attracted much attention. Four stones exist covered with ideographic designs in a character as yet quite unknown. The latest researches of Mr George Smith, however, indicate that the inscriptions are probably of Hittite origin, and other relics of that once powerful nation resembling the Hamath stones have been discovered farther east.

1em  HAMANN, (1730–1788), a distin guished writer on philosophical and theological subjects, was born at Konigsberg in Prussia in 1730. His parents were of humble rank and small means. The education he received was comprehensive bat unsystematic, and the want of definiteuess in this early training doubtless tended to aggravate the peculiar instability of character which troubled Hamann s after life. In 1746 he began theological studies, but speedily deserted them and turned his attention to law. That too was taken up in a desultory fashion and quickly relinquished. Hamann seems at this time to have thought that any strenuous devotion to &quot;bread-and-butter&quot; studies was lowering, and accordingly gave himself entirely to read ing, criticism, and philological inquiries. Such studies, how ever, were pursued without any definite aim or systematic arrangement, and consequently were productive of nothing. In 1752, constrained to secure some position in the world, he accepted a tutorship in a family resident in Livonia, but only retained it a few months. A similar situation in Courlaad he also resigned after about a year. In both cases apparently the rupture might be traced to the curious and unsatisfactory character of Hamann himself. After leaving hh S3cond post he was received into the house of a merchant at Riga named Berens, who contracted a great friendship for him and selected him as his companion for a tour through Dantzic, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, and London. Hamann, however, was quite unfitted for business, and, when left in London, gave himself up entirely to his fancies, and was quicklyreduced to astate of extreme poverty and want. It was at this period of his life, when his inner troubbs of spirit harmonized with the unhappy external conditions of his lot, that he began an earnast and prolonged study of the Bible ; and from this time dates the tone of extreme pietism which is characteristic of his writings, and which undoubtedly alienated many of his friends. He returned to Riga, and was well received by the Berens family, in whose house he resided for some time. A quarrel, the precise nature of which is not very clear though the occasion is evident, led to an entire separation from these friends. In 1759 Hamann returned to Konigsberg, and lived for several years with his father, fill ing occasional posts in Konigsberg and Mitau. In 1767 he obtained a situation as translator in the excise office, and ten years later a post as storekeeper in a mercantile house. During this period of comparative rest Hamann was able to indulge in the long correspondence with learned friends v/hich seems to have been his greatest pleasure. In 1784 the failure of some commercial speculations greatly reduced his means, and about the same time he was dismissed with a small pension from his situation. The kindness of friends, how ever, supplied provision for his children, and enabled him to carry out the long-cherished wish of visiting some of his philosophical allies. He spent some time with Jacobi at Fempelfort and with Buchholz at Walbergen. At the latter place he was seized with illness, and died on the 21st June 1788.

1em 1em  HAMÂSAH (more correctly ), the name of a famous Arabian anthology compiled by Habib ibu Aus et- Tai, surnamed Abu Temmatn (corruptly, ). The collection is so-called from the title of its first book, con taining poems descriptive of constancy and valour in battle, patient endurance of calamity, steadfastness in seeking vengeance, manfulness under reproach and temptation, all which qualities make up the attribute called by the Arabs hamaseh (briefly paraphrased by Et-Tebrizi as esh-shiddeh fi-l-amr}. It consists of ten books or parts, containing in all 884 poems or fragments of poems, and named respect ively (1) El-Ifamdseh, 261 pieces; (2) El-MarcWu, &quot;Dirges,&quot; 1G9 pieces ; (3) El-Adal, &quot; Manners,&quot; 54 pieces ; (4) EiirNestb, &quot;The Beauty and Love of Women,&quot; 139 pieces; (5) El-Hija, Satires,&quot; 80 pieces; (6) El-Adyuf iva-l-Metlih, Hospitality and Panegyric,&quot; 143 pieces; (7) Es-Si/at, Miscellaneous Descriptions,&quot; 3 pieces; (8) Es-Seyr iva-n-Nods, &quot;Journeying and Drowsiness,&quot; 9 pieces ; (9) El-Mulah, &quot; Pleasantries,&quot; 38 pieces ; and (10) Medhemmet-en-nisd, &quot;Dispraise of Women,&quot; 18 pieces. Of these books the first is by far the longest, both in the number and extent of its poems, and the first two together make up more than half the bulk of the work. The poems are for the most part fragments selected from longer com positions, though a considerable number are probably entire. They are taken from the works of Arab poets of all periods 