Chapter 22

"In it he conceives two islands, the one inhabited and the other not. On the inhabited island we have conventional people livingThe story of Ḥayy b. Yaqẓán.conventional lives, and restrained by a conventional religion of rewards and punishments. Two men there, Salámán and Asál,804have raised themselves to a higher level of self-rule. Salámán adapts himself externally to the popular religion and rules the people; Asál, seeking to perfect himself still further in solitude, goes to the other island. But there he finds a man, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓán, who has lived alone from infancy and has gradually, by the innate and uncorrupted powers of the mind, developed himself to the highest philosophic level and reached the Vision of the Divine. He has passed through all the stages of knowledge until the universe lies clear before him, and now he finds that his philosophy thus reached, without prophet or revelation, and the purified religion of Asál are one and the same. The story told by Asál of the people of the other island sitting in darkness stirs his soul, and he goes forth to them as a missionary. But he soon learns that the method of Muḥammad was the true onefor the great masses, and that only by sensuous allegory and concrete things could they be reached and held. He retires to his island again to live the solitary life."

Of the writers who flourished under the Berber dynasties few are sufficiently important to deserve mention in a work ofLiterature under the Almoravides and Almohades (1100-1250a.d.).this kind. The philosophers, however, stand in a class by themselves. Ibn Bájja (Avempace), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Ṭufayl, and Músá b. Maymún (Maimonides) made their influence felt far beyond the borders of Spain: they belong, in a sense, to Europe. We have noticed elsewhere the great mystic, Muḥyi ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-‘Arabí († 1240a.d.); his fellow-townsman, Ibn Sab‘ín († 1269a.d.), a thinker of the same type, wrote letters on philosophical subjects to Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Valuable works on the literary history of Spain were composed by Ibn Kháqán († 1134a.d.), Ibn Bassám († 1147a.d.), and Ibn Bashkuwál († 1183a.d.). The geographer Idrísí († 1154a.d.) was born at Ceuta, studied at Cordova, and found a patron in the Sicilian monarch, Roger II; Ibn Jubayr published an interesting account of his pilgrimage from Granada to Mecca and of his journey back to Granada during the years 1183-1185a.d.; Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), who became a Vizier under the Almoravides, was the first of a whole family of eminent physicians; and Ibnu ’l-Bayṭár of Malaga († 1248a.d.), after visiting Egypt, Greece, and Asia Minor in order to extend his knowledge of botany, compiled a Materia Medica, which he dedicated to the Sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kámil.

We have now taken a rapid survey of the Moslem empire in Spain from its rise in the eighth century of our era downReconquest of Spain by Ferdinand III.to the last days of the Almohades, which saw the Christian arms everywhere triumphant. By 1230a.d.the Almohades had been driven out of the peninsula, although they continued to rule Africa for aboutforty years after this date. Amidst the general wreck one spot remained where the Moors could find shelter. This was Granada. Here, in 1232a.d., Muḥammad Ibnu ’l-Aḥmar assumed the proud title of 'Conqueror by Grace of God' (Ghálib billáh) and founded the Naṣrid dynasty, which held the Christians at bay during two centuries and a half.The Naṣrids of Granada (1232-1492a.d.).That the little Moslem kingdom survived so long was not due to its own strength, but rather to its almost impregnable situation and to the dissensions of the victors. The latest bloom of Arabic culture in Europe renewed, if it did not equal, the glorious memories of Cordova and Seville. In this period arose the world-renowned Alhambra,i.e., 'the Red Palace' (al-Ḥamrá) of the Naṣrid kings, and many other superb monuments of which the ruins are still visible. We must not, however, be led away into a digression even upon such a fascinating subject as Moorish architecture. Our information concerning literary matters is scantier than it might have been, on account of the vandalism practised by the Christians when they took Granada. It is no dubious legend (like the reputed burning of the Alexandrian Library by order of the Caliph ‘Umar),805but a well-ascertained fact that the ruthless Archbishop Ximenez made a bonfire of all the Arabic manuscripts on which he could lay his hands. He wished to annihilate the record of seven centuries of Muḥammadan culture in a single day.

The names of Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb and Ibn Khaldún represent the highest literary accomplishment and historical comprehension of which this age was capable. The latter, indeed, has no parallel among Oriental historians.

Lisánu ’l-Dín Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb806played a great figure in thepolitics of his time, and his career affords a conspicuous example of the intimate way in which Moslem poetry and literature are connected with public life. "The Arabs did not share the opinion widely spread nowadays, that poetical talent flourishes best in seclusion from the tumult of the world, or that it dims the clearness of vision which is required for the conduct of public affairs. On the contrary, their princes entrusted the chief offices of State to poets, and poetry often served as a means to obtain more brilliant results than diplomatic notes could have procured."807A youngIbnu ’l-Khaṭíb (1313-1374a.d.).man like Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb, who had mastered the entire field of belles-lettres, who improvised odes and rhyming epistles with incomparable elegance and facility, was marked out to be the favourite of kings. He became Vizier at the Naṣrid court, a position which he held, with one brief interval of disgrace, until 1371a.d., when the intrigues of his enemies forced him to flee from Granada. He sought refuge at Fez, and was honourably received by the reigning Sultan, ‘Abdu ’l-‘Azíz; but on the accession of Abu ’l-‘Abbás in 1374a.d.the exiled minister was incarcerated and brought to trial on the charge of heresy (zandaqa). While the inquisition was proceeding a fanatical mob broke into the gaol and murdered him. Maqqarí relates that Ibnu ’l-Khaṭib suffered from insomnia, and that most of his works were composed during the night, for which reason he got the nickname ofDhu ’l-‘Umrayn, or 'The man of two lives.'808He was a prolific writer in various branches of literature, but, like so many of his countrymen, he excelled in History. His monographs on the sovereigns and savants of Granada (one of which includes an autobiography) supply interesting details concerning this obscure period.

Some apology may be thought necessary for placing Ibn Khaldún, the greatest historical thinker of Islam, in theIbn Khaldún (1332-1406a.d.present chapter, as though he were a Spaniard either by birth or residence. He descended, it is true, from a family, the Banú Khaldún, which had long been settled in Spain, first at Carmona and afterwards at Seville; but they migrated to Africa about the middle of the thirteenth century, and Ibn Khaldún was born at Tunis. Nearly the whole of his life, moreover, was passed in Africa—a circumstance due rather to accident than to predilection; for in 1362a.d.he entered the service of the Sultan of Granada, Abú ‘Abdalláh Ibnu ’l-Aḥmar, and would probably have made that city his home had not the jealousy of his former friend, the Vizier Ibnu ’l-Khaṭíb, decided him to leave Spain behind. We cannot give any account of the agitated and eventful career which he ended, as Cadi of Cairo, in 1406a.d.Ibn Khaldún lived with statesmen and kings: he was an ambassador to the court of Pedro of Castile, and an honoured guest of the mighty Tamerlane. The results of his ripe experience are marvellously displayed in the Prolegomena (Muqaddima), which forms the first volume of a huge general history entitled theKitábu ’l-‘Ibar('Book of Examples').809He himself has stated his idea of the historian's function in the following words:—

"Know that the true purpose of history is to make us acquainted with human society,i.e., with the civilisation of the world, and withIbn Khaldún as a philosophical historian.its natural phenomena, such as savage life, the softening of manners, attachment to the family and the tribe, the various kinds of superiority which one people gains over another, the kingdoms and diverse dynasties which arise in this way, the different trades and laborious occupations towhich men devote themselves in order to earn their livelihood, the sciences and arts; in fine, all the manifold conditions which naturally occur in the development of civilisation."810

Ibn Khaldún argues that History, thus conceived, is subject to universal laws, and in these laws he finds the only sure criterion of historical truth.

"The rule for distinguishing what is true from what is false in history is based on its possibility or impossibility: that is toHis canons of historical criticism.say, we must examine human society (civilisation) and discriminate between the characteristics which are essential and inherent in its nature and those which are accidental and need not be taken into account, recognising further those which cannot possibly belong to it. If we do this we have a rule for separating historical truth from error by means of a demonstrative method that admits of no doubt.... It is a genuine touchstone whereby historians may verify whatever they relate."811

Here, indeed, the writer claims too much, and it must be allowed that he occasionally applied his principles in a pedantic fashion, and was led by purelya prioriconsiderations to conclusions which are not always so warrantable as he believed. This is a very trifling matter in comparison with the value and originality of the principles themselves. Ibn Khaldún asserts, with justice, that he has discovered a new method of writing history. No Moslem had ever taken a view at once so comprehensive and so philosophical; none had attempted to trace the deeply hidden causes of events, to expose the moral and spiritual forces at work beneath the surface, or to divine the immutable laws of national progress and decay. Ibn Khaldún owed little to his predecessors, although he mentions some of them with respect. He stood far above his age, and his own countrymen have admired rather than followed him. His intellectual descendants are the greatmediæval and modern historians of Europe—Machiavelli and Vico and Gibbon.

It is worth while to sketch briefly the peculiar theory of historical development which Ibn Khaldún puts forward inIbn Kaldún's theory of historical evolution.his Prolegomena—a theory founded on the study of actual conditions and events either past or passing before his eyes.812He was struck, in the first place, with the physical fact that in almost every part of the Muḥammadan Empire great wastes of sand or stony plateaux, arid and incapable of tillage, wedge themselves between fertile domains of cultivated land. The former were inhabited from time immemorial by nomad tribes, the latter by an agricultural or industrial population; and we have seen, in the case of Arabia, that cities like Mecca and Ḥíra carried on a lively intercourse with the Bedouins and exerted a civilising influence upon them. In Africa the same contrast was strongly marked. It is no wonder, therefore, that Ibn Khaldún divided the whole of mankind into two classes—Nomads and Citizens. The nomadic life naturally precedes and produces the other. Its characteristics are simplicity and purity of manners, warlike spirit, and, above all, a loyal devotion to the interests of the family and the tribe. As the nomads become more civilised they settle down, form states, and make conquests. They have now reached their highest development. Corrupted by luxury, and losing the virtues which raised them to power, they are soon swept away by a ruder people. Such, in bare outline, is the course of history as Ibn Khaldún regards it; but we must try to give our readers some further account of the philosophical ideasunderlying his conception. He discerns, in the life of tribes and nations alike, two dominant forces which mould their destiny. The primitive and cardinal force he calls‘aṣabiyya, thebindingelement in society, the feeling which unites members of the same family, tribe, nation, or empire, and which in its widest acceptation is equivalent to the modern term, Patriotism. It springs up and especially flourishes among nomad peoples, where the instinct of self-preservation awakens a keen sense of kinship and drives men to make common cause with each other. This‘aṣabiyyais the vital energy of States: by it they rise and grow; as it weakens they decline; and its decay is the signal for their fall. The second of the forces referred to is Religion. Ibn Khaldún hardly ascribes to religion so much influence as we might have expected from a Moslem. He recognises, however, that it may be the only means of producing that solidarity without which no State can exist. Thus in the twenty-seventh chapter of hisMuqaddimahe lays down the proposition that "the Arabs are incapable of founding an empire unless they are imbued with religious enthusiasm by a prophet or a saint."

In History he sees an endless cycle of progress and retrogression, analogous to the phenomena of human life. Kingdoms are born, attain maturity, and die within a definite period which rarely exceeds three generations,i.e., 120 years.813During this time they pass through five stages of development and decay.814It is noteworthy that Ibn Khaldún admits the moral superiority of the Nomads. For him civilisation necessarily involves corruption and degeneracy. If he did not believe in the gradual advance of mankind towards some higher goal, his pessimism was justified by the lessons of experience and by the mournful plight of the Muḥammadan world, to which his view was restricted.815

In 1492a.d.the last stronghold of the European Arabs opened its gates to Ferdinand and Isabella, and "the CrossThe fall of Granada (1492a.d.).supplanted the Crescent on the towers of Granada." The victors showed a barbarous fanaticism that was the more abominable as it violated their solemn pledges to respect the religion and property of the Moslems, and as it utterly reversed the tolerant and liberal treatment which the Christians of Spain had enjoyed under Muḥammadan rule. Compelled to choose between apostasy and exile, many preferred the latter alternative. Those who remained were subjected to a terrible persecution, until in 1609a.d., by order of Philip III, the Moors were banisheden massefrom Spanish soil.

Spain was not the sole point whence Moslem culture spread itself over the Christian lands. Sicily was conquered by theThe Arabs in Sicily.Aghlabids of Tunis early in the ninth century, and although the island fell into the hands of the Normans in 1071a.d., the court of Palermo retained a semi-Oriental character. Here in the reign of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250a.d.) might be seen "astrologers from Baghdád with long beards and waving robes, Jews who received princely salaries as translators of Arabic works, Saracen dancers and dancing-girls, and Moors who blew silver trumpets on festal occasions."816Both Frederick himself and his son Manfred were enthusiastic Arabophiles, and scandalised Christendom by their assumption of 'heathen' manners as well as by the attention which they devoted to Moslem philosophy and science. Under their auspices Arabic learning was communicated to the neighbouring towns of Lower Italy.

Beforeproceeding 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 1517a.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 1492a.d., in Morocco, where the Sharífs (descendants of ‘Alí b. Abí Ṭálib) assumed the sovereignty in 1544a.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 andcompilation. 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."817Until 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 endof the fourteenth the nomad tribes dwelling beyond the OxusThe 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 1219a.d.Chingíz Khan, having consolidated his power in the Far East, turned his face westward and suddenlyChingíz 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, 1256a.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 followingnarrative from a manuscript in my possession of theTa’ríkh al-Khamísby Diyárbakrí († 1574a.d.):—

In the year 654 (a.h.= 1256a.d.) the stubborn tyrant, Húlágú, the destroyer of the nations (Mubídu ’l-Umam), set forth and tookHúlágú before Baghdád (1258a.d.).the castle of Alamút from the Ismá‘ílís819and 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.820And 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 Dawídár821marched out of the city and met Húlágú's vanguard, which was commanded by Bájú.822The 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 hound823went 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 ofhis 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 TartarsSack 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 theDuwalu ’l-Islám.824... And on this wise did the Caliphate pass from Baghdád. As the poet sings:—

"Khalati ’l-manábiru wa-’l-asirralu minhumúwa-‘alayhimú hatta ’l-mamáti salámú.""The pulpits and the thrones are empty of them;I bid them, till the hour of death, farewell!"

"Khalati ’l-manábiru wa-’l-asirralu minhumúwa-‘alayhimú hatta ’l-mamáti salámú."

"The pulpits and the thrones are empty of them;I bid them, till the hour of death, farewell!"

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, 658a.h., a decisive battle was fought at ‘Ayn Jálút (Goliath's Spring), west of the Jordan.Battle of ‘Ayn Jálút (September, 1260a.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 (1295-1304a.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 mediævalworld, 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 theArabic 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 Mameluke825Sultans of Egypt was founded in 1250a.d.by Aybak, a Turkish slave, whoThe Mamelukes of Egypt (1250-1517a.d.).commenced his career in the service of the Ayyúbid, Malik Ṣáliḥ Najmu ’l-Dín. His successors826held 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 (1260-1277a.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 intostory-tellers to this day.827The 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 beArabic 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 thesequalities 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 theṢafiyyu ’l-Dín al-Ḥillí.Euphrates, in 1278a.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'sFawátu ’l-Wafayát829he combined subtlety of fancy with remarkable ease and sweetness of versification. Many of his pieces, however, arejeux 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.830The following specimen of his work is too brief to do him justice:—

"How can I have patience, and thou, mine eye's delight,All the livelong year not one moment in my sight?And with what can I rejoice my heart, when thou that art a joyUnto every human heart, from me hast taken flight?I swear by Him who made thy form the envy of the sun(So graciously He clad thee with lovely beams of light):The day when I behold thy beauty doth appear to meAs tho' it gleamed on Time's dull brow a constellation bright.O thou scorner of my passion, for whose sake I count as naughtAll the woe that I endure, all the injury and despite,Come, regard the ways of God! for never He at life's last gaspSuffereth the weight to perish even of one mite!"831

We have already referred to the folk-songs (muwashshaḥandzajal) 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 thezajalandmuwashshaḥwe may add thedúbayt, themawáliyyá, thekánwakán, and theḥimáq, 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.832It 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 theHazzu ’l-Quḥúf833by Shirbíní, who wrote in 1687a.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.834For this purpose he introduces a typical Fellah named Abú Shádúf, whose rôle corresponds to that of Piers the Plowman in Longland'sVision. 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 numerousIbn Khallikán (1211-1282a.d.).compositions of this kind we can have no hesitation in awarding the place of honour to theWafayátu ’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.259seq.), and was born at Arbela in 1211a.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 theWafayátIbn 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.836The 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'sJohnson.837

To give an adequate account of the numerous and talented historians of the Mameluke period would require far moreHistorians 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 (1382-1398a.d.), we have already spoken at some length. This extraordinary genius discovered principles and methods which might have beenexpected 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 (1364-1442a.d.). A native of Cairo, he devoted himself to Egyptian history and antiquities, on which subject he composed several standard works, such as theKhiṭaṭ838and theSulúk.839Although 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."840Other well-known works belonging to thisepoch are theFakhríof Ibnu ’l-Ṭiqṭaqá, a delightful manual of Muḥammadan politics841which was written at Mosul in 1302a.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 theNujúm 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 literaryJalálu ’l-Dín al-Suyúṭí (1445-1505a.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 1445a.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 theSúratu ’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 diedfour 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 theItqánon Koranic exegesis; theTafsíru ’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; theMuzhir(Mizhar), a treatise on philology; theḤusnu ’l-Muḥáḍara, a history of Old and New Cairo; and theTa’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 theNiháyatu ’l-Arab, and Ibnu ’l-Wardí(† 1349). Ṣafadí († 1363) compiled a gigantic biographical dictionary, theWáfí bi ’l-Wafayát, in twenty-six volumes, and the learned traditionist, Ibn Ḥajar of AscalonOther scholars of the period.(† 1449), has left a large number of writings, among which it will be sufficient to name theIṣába fí tamyíz al-Ṣaḥába, or Lives of the Companions of the Prophet.843We 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 theAlfiyya, a versified grammar by Ibn Málik of Jaen († 1273); theÁjurrúmiyyaon the rudiments of grammar, an exceedingly popular compendium by Ṣanhájí († 1323); and two famous Arabic dictionaries, theLisánu ’l-‘Arabby Jamálu ’l-Dín Ibn Mukarram († 1311), and theQámúsby Fírúzábádí († 1414). Nor, although he was a Turk, should we leave unnoticed the great bibliographer Ḥájjí Khalífa († 1658), whoseKashfu ’l-Ẓunúncontains 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 theAlf 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 († 956a.d.) mentionsan old Persian book, theHazár Afsána('Thousand Tales') which "is generally called the Thousand and One Nights; it is the story of the King and his Vizier, and of theThe 'Thousand and One Nights.'Vizier's daughter and her slave-girl: Shírázád and Dínázád."844The author of theFihrist, writing in 988a.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):—

Back to Index Next