xlviii p r e l i m i n a r y
valuable add-on to the text. Thefe interpolations are, in fad, nothing
rnore than explanatory^ remarks, inferted in the body of the work, inftead
o f being fubjoined m the form of notes.-Had the tranflator conceived
im e at liberty to ufe his own unlimited difcretion in the manner
of his performance, he could perhaps have adopted this mode as
being more agreeable to the literary falhions of his own country, in all
except original compofitions. But this is a plan feldom adopted by Oriental
writers | and the tranllator had a particular duty prefcribed to him,
w ich (except m feme very particular cafes) he confidered himfelf
bound implicitly to fulfil; for it was his bufinefs to give the Per Ran
ver ion o f the H E D J T A an Englifh drefs both in order and in fubjlance,
fince otherwife it would have been impoffible to preferve the exaft uniformity
neceffary to authenticate the Englfh text in cafes of future reference
or appeal.
. H a v in g hazarded thus much in junification of the general plan
I Wl11. be proper to point out fuch particulars in the tranflation
reader I |P | t0 eXpIai"’ f°r the information of the European
I .JT 1S ,known that in everY language there are certain peculiarities
of udiom which do not admit of a very intelligible literal tranflation into
any.other.— In every fcaence alfo (and more, perhaps, in legal difquifi-
tions than in any other) there are certain peculiarities'of phrafeology concordant
with the ideas, moral, religious, or political, o f thofe who ufe
them, and alfo certain allufions, connected with thofe ideas, or referring to
t em, which require fome illuftration in order to their being fully under
flood by perfons not familiarized to the fame habits of thinkino- ,or to
fimilar modes of expreffion. °
T he firft of thefe which flrikes the reader (and which occurs verv
frequently) is | a favourable cortflruaion" (of the law, or th cca fe,) as
oppofed to - analogy.- T h e original term ifihfan, which the tranf-
a or as rendered “ a favourable conjlr uHion f literally means benevolence
;
lence-, and the expreffion referred to, as it flandsin the original,-fignifies
“ on the ground o f benevolence, ”— that is, by a mode of arguing, in
its conclufion more favourable, either to the individual or the community
at large, than could be adduced by reafoning according to the ftridter
principles of analogy and-legal cafuiftry. It is obfervable, in the courfe
of the work, that this fpecies o f reafoning is frequently adopted by H a -
n e e f a , or bis difciples, in oppofition to the rigid tenets of the Shafeite
fehool. And this difference proceeds from the more liberal complexion
of that dodtor s practical divinity, which diftinguiflies him from the heads;
o f the other orthodox feds, as has been already ftated.
In a work of this nature, an exadt uniformity in the tranflation of'
technical terms and phrafes is not only advifable, but, in general, indif-
penfably requifite. It has, however, fometimes unavoidably happened
that a term is differently rendered in diffèrent places,— not indeed with
refpeft to.the fenfe, but with regard to the Englifh term ufed to exprefs
it m. Thus Mazoon, (for inftance,) which is commonly rendered « //-
“ ce/fed ü a v e f is alfo; in fome places, tranflated “ privileged üave,” a
phrafe which equally well expreffes the fenfe of the original term.—
Wherever this occurs, a reference is (for the fake o f uniformity) made
in the Index, to that term which the tranflator intends fhould be confil '
dered as the technical "one.,
WiTmre fpea to any remaining- peculiarities, technical or idiomatical,
not noticed in this place, as they are all fully defined in one part or other
I H | an explanation of them is eafily obtained by confulting the
info1* M 1 ^ Wifhed that’ in a Perf°™ance defigned for the ufe and-
haveTe Y European readers, correfpondent Englifh expreffions could
muftd R M m ■ ° rr a the H technical terms contained in it. Ip MS— M lt0 meet frequently with words which a reader
_ earned in the Arabic language -finds it difficult to pronounce, and for
he meaning of which he is under a-neceffity o f referring to the Index-,
and