Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/456

312 312 THE SPANISH ARABS. PART wild, imaginative poetry, scarcely capable of trans- — ' — fusion into a foreign tongue, is made known to us only through the medium of bald prose translation ; while their scientific treatises have been done into Latin with an inaccuracy, which, to make use of a pun of Casiri's, merits the name of perversions rather than versions of the originals. ^^ How obvi- ously inadequate, then, are our means of forming any just estimate of their literary merits ! It is un- fortunate for them, moreover, that the Turks, the only nation, which, from an identity of religion and government with the Arabs, as well as from its political consequence, would seem to represent them on the theatre of modern Europe, should be a 52 " Quas perversiones potius, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, torn. i. quam versiones merito dixeris." p. 266. Notices of Casiri, Con. ije, and t'ardoiine. Notwithstanding the history of the Arabs is so intimately con- nected with that of the Spaniards, that it may be justly said to form the reverse side of it, and not- withstanding the amplitude of au- thentic documents in the Arabic tongue to be found in the pub- lic libraries, the Castilian writers, even the most eminent, until tiie latter half of the last century, with an insensibility which can be imputed to nothing else but a spirit of religious bigotry, have been content to derive their nar- ratives exclusively from national authorities. A fire, which occur- red in the Escurial in 1671, having consumed more than three quarters of the magnificent collection of eastern manuscripts which it con- tained, the Spanish government, taking some shame to itself, as it would appear, for its past supine- ness, caused a copious catalogue of the surviving volumes, to the number of 1850, to be compiled by the learned Casiri ; and the result w-as his celebrated work, " Biblio- theca Arabico-Hispana Escuria- lensis," which appeared in the years 1760-70, and which would reflect credit from the splendor of its typographical execution on any press of the present day. This work, although censured by some later orientalists as hasty and su- perficial, must ever be liiplily val- ued as alfording the only complete index to the rich repertory of Ara- bian manuscripts in the Escu- rial, and for the ample evidence