Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/512

480 portant science amongst a people whose every rule of religion and of life depended upon the accurate interpreta- tion of some word or passage of the Koran, or some saying of the prophet. The rival school of Kufa was the only one that approached it in fame or glory, and in all the numerous disputes that took place between the two academies Bussorah is generally allowed to have had the advantage. His name Hariri signifies silk-merchant, and was probably derived from his father’s occupation, as, in spite of tle assertion of his biographers to that effect, he appears not to have ever enzaged in trade, but to have devoted himself exclusively to literary pursuits. His great object was to investigate the niceties of the Arabic language, and he composed several treatises on the subject, amongst which the best known are Mothat el ‘Trab (Beauties of Desinential Syntax) and Durrat el Ghawwdés (The Diver’s Pearl), in which he criticizes certain common faults of language in vogue amongst the educated. Portious of both these works have been pub- lished by De Sacy in his Chrestomathie, and the Durrat el Ghawwds has been edited by H. Thorbecke (Leipsic, 1871). But his great work is the Jakdmdt, or “ Assemblies,” in which a series of anecdotes of a very slight character in the career of an imaginary learned vagabond afford the oppor- tunity for the display of vast philologiral and literary learning. The plan was not original, having been already invented and used by Badi‘ az Zaman el Hamadani, who died about. The composition of MHariri’s own Makdémét is attributed to the following circumstance. Being one day in the mosque of the Beni Haram, in the quarter of Bussorah in which he resided, he noticed an old man enter, shabby and worn with travel, who in answer to the questions of the persons present gave his namie as Abu Zeid, and said that he came from Sertj, a city near Edessa, which had recently been devastated by the crusaders. The old man related the incidents of the destruction of his native city and his own domestic losses and exile in so eloquent a strain as to excite general admira- tion and compassion. On reaching his home Hariri wrote out the incident in the form of a makdémeh or assembly, in the style of El Hamadani’s work, and it now forms the 48th of his book. When subsequently elaborating the idea he modelled the successive chapters on the same theme; a simple-minded Arab gentleman, El Harith ibn el Hammam, on his travels constantly meets with a vagabond old impro- visatore, Abu Zeid, who, under different characters and disguises, always succeeds in eliciting the sympathy and alms of his audience and the approbation of El Harith him- self. Abu Zeid is always poor, ill-dressed, and crafty, but cloquent in the extreme, and his fraudulently-obtained gains are always spent in some forbidden enjoyment ; yet there is ever a good side to his character, and he is not without an exhibition of true feeling, especially when he alludes to the circumstances of his expulsion from his home, and the loss of his daughter, who had been made captive by the marauding Franks. The improvised speeches of Abu Zeid are masterpieces of Arabic learning, every sentence being made to introduce some allusion to Arab history, poetry, or tradition, or the discussion and elucidation of some difficult point of rhetoric or grammar. Itis this that gives the value to the book and makes it with its commentary a complete encyclopzedia of classical Arabic literature and philology. It is written in rhymed and rhythmical prose, such as is used in the Koran itself, interspersed with verses of poetry of which the merit is more often in the language than the thoucht.

1em  HARLEQUIN. See.  HARLEY. See.  HARLINGEN, or, in Frisian Harns, an important trading town and seaport in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, is situated 17 miles W. of Leeuwarden with which it has been connected by rail since 1863. Besides its dilapidated fortifications, and the town-house, which was erected between 1730 and 1733 and is adorned with a statue of the historian Simon Stijl, the only noteworthy buildings are the Great or New church, the West church, which was formerly part of the castle, the Roman Catholic church, and the Jewish synagogue. The school of navigation and school of design may also be mentioned. Harlingen is the seat of the Frisian Navigation Company, aud it has regular steam communication, not only with Amsterdam and Nieuwe Diep, but also with London and Hull. Besides an inner harbour protected from the high tides by powerful sluices, it has an outer harbour of modern construction for the accommodation of large vessels. One of the chief depart- ments of its trade is the export to England of Frisian pro- duce—corn, cattle, butter, cheese, and flax. Wharves, saw-mills, anchor forges, rope-yards, and a cauvas factory represent the auxiliary industries of the place. In the middle of the last century, Harlingen had 7000 inhebitants, which increased in the course of the next hundred years to about 8000. In 1860, before the new harbour works, they numbered 9800, and in 1878 they were 10,800.

1em  HARMODIUS, a beautiful Athenian of the tribe Gephyrei, was the intimate friend of <Aristogiton, a citizen of the middle rank. Hipparchus, younger brother of the tyrant Hippias, was also a lover of Harmodius. He tried to attract Harmodius to himself, and failing in the attempt, revenged himself by putting a public atiront on his sister at a solemn festival. Thereupon the two friends conspired with a few others to murder both the tyrants during the armed procession at the Panathenaic festival. But in a sudden alarm they prematurely at- tacked and slew Hipparchus alone. Harmcdiuswascut down on the spot by the guards, and Aristogiton was soon captured and tortured to death. When Hippias was expelled, Harmodius and Aristogiton became the most popular of Athenian heroes; their statues were set up in the agora, their descendants were exempted from public burdens, and their names were celebrated in popular songs and scolia as the deliverers of fair Athens. Thucydides (vi. 5+) alludes to the falseness of the popular belief about them, and gives the story in detail.  HARMONTA, wife of Cadmus. The Theban legends (see ) have been so modified and systematized by poets and logographers that we must look to Samothrace with its old religious rites for an explanation of the myth. There Harmonia is said to have been the daughter of Zeus and Electra, while her brother Iasion was the founder of