Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/623

Rh LITERATURE.] MOHAMMEDANISM 595 as is shown by the voluminous treatise of Sibawaihi, known under the name of Kitdb, 1 or the Book par excellence. In lexicography, the Arabs were at first content to ex- Lexico- plain the rarer words of the Koran, of the traditions, and P! 1 } - of the ancient poems ; and to collect lists of terms applying to the same object, as the camel, the horse, the sword, etc. Thus small collections were formed, which served afterwards for the composition of dictionaries. The first dictionary properly so called, composed in Arabic, appears to have been the Kitdb al-Ain of Khalil b. Ahmed al-Farahidf, a contemporary of Harun al-Ilashid. After him came Jauhari, whose Sahdk may still be consulted with profit. The cele brated Zamakhshari composed a dictionary of metaphors under the title of Asds al-Baldgha. Lastly, Tha alibf, in the llth century of our era, drew up his Fikh al-Logha, 2 a work specially devoted to synonyms. The accessory branches of philology gave occasion to some important works. The ancient poems and proverbs were collected and commented on. Thus Abu Tammam formed his Antho logy, called HAMASA (q.v.), and Maidani his collection of proverbs (Kitdb amthdl al-Arab}? The study of poetry, Poetry with special regard to its rhythm, led Khalil b. Ahmed, aml ro already mentioned as a grammarian and lexicographer, to &quot;&quot; the conception of prosody. He wrote the first treatise on that science, which served as a model to all subsequent writers on metre. 4 Pure literature remained confined to poetry. It was not that the Arabs were without any conception of the romance, the tale, or the novel. The adventures of Antar, the romances of Dhii 1-Himma and of Salf al-Yazan, the Thousand and one Nights, and various collections of stories and novels, such as the Faraj bada l-Shidda and the compilation of Bika i, well known by the extracts which Kosegarten has given in his Chres- tomathy ; all these show clearly that the Arabs were not devoid of imagination, at least if, as we believe, these tales and romances were not pure and simple imitations from the Persian. It must be acknowledged, however, that these few productions do not, any more than the Makdmdt of Hamadhdnf and of Hariri, constitute a very important literature. The drama, the epic, the romance of character, were absolutely unknown to the Arabs. Poetry, on the other hand, an endowment of the ancient Arabs, continued to live and flourish as long as the Eastern Caliphate lasted. We may count poets by the hundred, eminent in every department of that art : in descriptive, erotic, martial, and philosophic poetry ; in odes, in satires, etc. The great collection entitled Kitdb al-Ayhdni, 5 compiled by Isfahan!, contains a choice of the finest poems, accompanied by very instructive notices of the poets, and of the circumstances under which they composed such and such pieces. Besides this, many Diwdns, or complete editions of the works of poets, have come down to us. They bear the celebrated names of Ndbigha, of Antara, of Tarafa, of Zohair, of Alkama, of Amraalkais, of Shanfara, of Labfd, in the pre- Islamic period (see MO ALLAKAT) ; of Jarir, Akhtal, and Farazdak, 6 in the Omayyad period ; and of Abu No was, 7 Abu l- Atahiya, Moslim, 8 MOTANABBI (q.v.), and Abu t- Ala, 9 in the period of the Abbasids. And this list con tains only the most illustrious names. 1 The first part of which has just been published by H. Derenbourg (Paris, 1882). 2 Published by Roshaid Dahdah. 3 Translated by Freytag (Bonn, 1838-43), with the Arabic text of the proverbs. 4 See Freytag, Arabische Verskunst. 8 Published at Biilak, A.H. 1285 (20 vols ) See also Kosegarten, Ali Ispahanensis liber cantilenarum, torn. i. Greifswald, 1840. 6 See Caussin de Perceval in the Journal asiatique, 2d ser. , vols. xiii. xiv. 7 See Ahlwardt, Die Weingedichte des Abu Nuioas (Greifswald, 1861), and, for a Cairo edition, Z. D. M. Q., xxi. t&amp;gt;74. 8 Edited by De Goeje. 9 See Rieu, De Abul-Alce vita et carminibus, and Kremer iu Z D. M. G., xxix., xxx., xxxi.