language, as frequented by the Arabs from the country all around,
not only on a religious account, but alfo for the compofing of their
differences, from whofe difcourfe and verfes, they took whatever
words or phrafes they judged more pure and elegant; by which means,
the beauties of the whole tongue became transfufed into this dialed:.
The Arabians are full of the commendations of their language, and
not altogether without reafon; for it claims the preference o f moft
others in many refpeds, as being very harmonious and expreffive, and
withal fo copious, that they fay, np man, without infpiration, can be
perfed mafter of it, in its utmoft extent! and yet they tell us, at the
fame time, that the greateft part of it has. been loft; which will
not be thought ftrange, i f we conlidcr, how- late the art of writing
was pradifed among them. For tho’ it was. known to Job % their
countryman, and alfo to the Hatnyarites (who ufed a perplexed cli Strader
called al Mofnad, wherein the letters were not diftindly fe-
parate, and which was neither publickly taught, nor fuffered to betffed
without permiflion firft obtained) many centuries before Mohammed,
as appears from fome ancient monuments, faid to be remaining in
their charader; yet the other Arabs, and thofe of Mecca in particular,
were, for many ages, perfedly ignorant of it, unlefs fuch of
them as were Jews, or Chrifiians 4: M°rdmer Ebn Morra of Anbar,
a city of Irak, who lived not many years, before. Mohammed, was the
inventor of the Arabic jcharader,! which- Kendian is k id
to have learned from thofe. of Anbar, and to have introduced at
Mecca but a little while before the inftitutipn of Mohaminedijm.
Thefe letters of Mordmer were different fropi the Mamyarjf ic ■, and
tho’ they were very rude, being either the fame with, or very much
like theCufici, which charader is ftill found in inferiptions, and
fome ancient books, yet they were thofe which, the Arabs uled-for
many years, the Korda itfelf being at firft 'Written therein! for the
beautiful charader they now ufe, was. firft formed from, theGufic,by
EbnMoklah, WazirJorVifir) to the Khalifs al Moktader, al Kaher, and
alRddi, who lived about 300 years after Mohammed, and. was. brought
to great perfection, by, AM. Ebn. Batpdjby, whojourilhed in the following
century, and whofe name, is yet famous among them,, on that ac-
count; yet, it is faid, the perfou whp compleated it, and Ireduped it
1 Job xix. 23', 24. * See Prideaux's life of Mabmet, p. 29, 30. 3 A fpecimen of the Cufic
charafter may be feen in Sr. J. Chardin's travels, vol.IIL p. 119. 4 Ebn Khalic.an, Yet others attribute
the honour o f the invention of this ehara&er to Ebn Mbkjah'a brother, Abdallah alHafant
and the perfe&ing of if to Ebn Amid al Kateb, after it had been reduced to near the prefent form
by Abi'albamU. Y. D’Herbel. Bib], Orient, p. 590. 108, & 194.
to
to its. prefent form, was Yakut al Mojldfmi, Secretary to al Mofiafem,
the laft of the Khaltfs of the family o f AbbaS, for1 which reafon,
he was furnamed al Khattat, or the fcrlbe.
The accompliftiments the Arabs valued themfelves chiefly on,
were, i. Eloquence, and a perfed {kill in their own tongue ; 2. Ex-
pertnefs in the ufe o f arms, and horfemanfhip ; and, 3. Hofpitality '.
The firft they exercifed themfelves in, by compofing of orations, and
poems. Their orations were of two foffs, metrical-, or profaic, the
one being compared to pearls ftrung, and thé' other to loofe ones.
They endeavour’d to excel in both, and whoever Was able, in an af-
fembly, to perfuade the people to a gfeat enterprize, or diftuade them
from a dangerous one, or gave them other wholefome advice, was
honoured with the title of Khateb, or orator, which is now given to
the Mohammedan preachers. They purfued a method very different
from that of the Greek and Roman orators ; their fentences being
like loofe gems, without connedion, fo that this fort of compofition
ftruck the audience chiefly by the fulnefs o f the periods, the elegance
of the expreffion, and the acutenefs of the proverbial fayings; and
fo perfuaded were they of their excelling in this way, that they would
not allow any nation to underftand the art of fpeaking in public, except
(themfelves, and the Perjians; which laft were reckoned much
inferiour in that refped to the Arabians1. Poetry Was in fo great
efteem among them, that it was a great accomplifhment, and a proof
of ingenuous extradion, to be able to exprefs one’s felf in verfe
with eafe and elegance, on any extraordinary occurrence, and
even in their common difcourfe, they made frequent applications o f
celebrated paffages of their famous poets. In their poems were preferred
the diftindion of defeents, the rights of tribes, the memory
of great adions, and the propriety of their language; for which rea-
fons an excellent poet refleded an honour on his tribe, fo that as
foon as any one began to be admired for his performances o f this
kind in a tribe, the other tribes fent publickly to congratulate them
on the occafion, and themfelves made- entertainments, at which the
women aflifted, dreft in their nuptial ornaments, finging to the found
of timbrels the happinefs of their tribe, who had now one to proted
their honour, to preferve their genealogies and the purity of their
language, and to tranfmit their adions to pofterity 3; for this was all
performed by their poems, to which they were folely obliged for
their knowledge and inftrudions, moral and oeconomical, and to which
SpttP°Ê o ° rat' ante Carmcn |N B O p. 10. 1 Poc. Spec. 161. 3 Ebn Rafliik, apud Poe.
e 2 they