46 45 X. DUCTION SCIENCES. That the Arabians had tales of wonderful heroes, CHAP. we know from D'Herbelot's short notice of one that has been placed in the eighth century. But the pub- INTROlication of the extravagant history of the Arab negro OF THE slave and poet, Antar, has laid before the English ARABIAN world a lengthened display of romantic tales, attached to one extraordinary character; which being The composed in the time of Haroun Al Raschid and his Fables. two successors, or in the eighth century and part of the next, precedes all the romans and fictitious histories that now exist from either Bretons or AngloNormans in Europe.48 47 substance of the species.' Alhagiag ibn Thalmus, reasoned, de mistione propositionis de inesse et necessariæ.' Abuhalkasim Mahmath Ben Kasan composed a treatise on the manner of discriminating the demonstrations, Propter Quid, and the demonstration, Quid. He is termed a philosophus declamator.' Another was Abuhabad ad Hadrahman Benjohar, whose work was on the negative, the necessary, the possible and the middle term. All these have been translated into Latin and printed. To us who have long outlived the day, when the subjects, the terms, the style of reasoning, and the mode of diction of these gentlemen were popular; nothing can be more obscure, fatiguing, and unuseful now, than all the logical works of this indefatigable, ingenious and emulous school. Time has conferred an obligation upon us, in covering them with her veil, but it is an act of justice to their talents, to preserve their historical memory. They were all serviceable in their day, and each contributed something to the vast accumulation of improvement, which our present age of light and knowlege has inherited and is increasing. 45 D'Herbelot's account is, Batthal, in Arabic, means a bold and valiant man, who seeks adventures like the knights errant of the ancient romances. Dhehebi writes, that in the year 121 of the Hegira, (A. D. 731), a warrior fell, surnamed Al Batthal, of whose warlike deeds many wonders are related. In the book intitled, Seirat al Mogiahedin,' or the Lives of the bravest Warriors, there is an abridgment of this hero's life: it is in the French king's library, N° 1079.' Herb. Bib. 193. 46 It was in 1819 that Antar, a Bedoueen romance, translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton, esquire, oriental secretary to the British embassy at Constantinople,' was published in one volume, which has been since extended into four. 47 The introduction states, that it was first put together by Osmay, one of the eminent scholars who adorned the court of Haroun Al Raschid, and of his two learned successors, Al Amyn and Al Mamoun, and continues still to be the principal source whence the story tellers of the coffee-houses in Egypt, Syria and Arabia, draw their most interesting tales.' p. 2. 48 I observe in D'Herbelot, that our Richard I. was called by the Ara Arabian BOOK ENGLAND. As Antar's adventures must have had great celeVI. brity, the Arabians, therefore, may claim to be our LITERARY precursors in the roman, as well as in alchemy and HISTORYOF metaphysics; for as we cannot doubt that these tales would make their way into Spain before the ninth century opened, or at least before it closed, and as our students in Mohametan Spain could hardly remain ignorant of such popular literature, we cannot deny the possibility, that the Arab romans may have contributed to excite the Anglo-Norman and Breton clergy to the composition of the fictitious heroes and heroic history, which have confessedly proceeded from them. Antar is of importance even on some interesting historical subjects." It has been surmised, that the Arabian Nights Entertainment may have proceeded from the old Pehlvi stock, and from that have been translated into Arabic.50 bian writers, Malek Antikar,' and' King of the Franks.' p. 114. Antikar may have been their transformation of the word Angleterre-or, was this name applied to him from any supposed resemblance between his actions and character and those of their popular Antar? 49 Thus it authenticates the Hebrew account of the Arabs from Ishmael, for it begins, Ishmael, son of Abraham, was the father of Adnan ;' p. 1, and deduces 20,000 horsemen from Adnan, before they migrated from the valley of Mecca; and it makes Adnan one of the two great Arab tribes, p. 58. It states the veneration in which Abraham was held, p. 11-20, making the Caaba his traditional mansion, and describing pilgrimages to his shrine before Mohamed, 11-38. On a disaster they threw down their tents and pavilions, and thus they continued seven days and nights;' p. 8.-just as the friends who came to Job sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great.' Job, c. 2. v. 13. 50 This is the supposition of Mr. Langles, which the editor of Antar thinks to be probable, from their rich and gorgeous descriptions of the works of art and nature-their enchanted palaces-their genii and magicians their sultans and viziers, and all the attendant magnificence of a court, and the want of individual character in their leading personages. Introd. p. 5. Mr. Von Hanmer, in the Paris As. Soc. Journal, Ap. 1827, has stated from Masoudi's history, that these tales are of Indian, or rather PERSIAN origin, and the real name of the lady is not Scheherazade, or city born, but Schirzade, lion born, or milk born. The passage in Masoudi, is this, 'The style of these traditions, is the same as that of .X. DUCTION OF THE It is not improbable. The land of the fairies; the CHAP. region of the genies, and the king of these imaginary domains, Gian Ben Gian, which interest our youth INTROso much in the Arabian Nights Entertainments, are purely Persian; and so much so, that the first part of ARABIAN Firdousi's epic, Shah Nameh, introduces them to our attention. But the conception of the Eastern genii seems referible to a still older source-to the ancient Chaldeans.52 51 The Spanish Arabs had translated what we call the fables of Pilpay from its Indian original into their language.53 As it was the logical disquisitions of the Arabians which most interested and influenced our schoolmen the books which have reached us, translated fron the Persian, Indian, and Greek, and which have been composed after the manner of that of Hezar Efsan; which is rendered in Arabic by Elf Kharafa, or the thousand fables; for the Arabic word Kharafa, answers to the Persian word Efsan. This book is called the Thousand and One Nights; it is the history of a king, his vizier, the vizier's daughter, and her nurse, these two last are called Schirzad and Dinarzad. Massoudi distinguishes the stories of Sindbad, and Chimas, and Guilkand, as in books distinct from them, and says, that it was under Al Mamun, such stories began to be translated into the Arabic. I am induced to think that our Arabian Nights is an ancient Persian collection of old eastern stories, with additions from Arabia and Greece. Part of Sindbad is manifestly derived from Homer's Odyssey. 51 His account is, that when Ahriman and the demons were driven from heaven, they were banished with the Peries or Faries to Gennistan, where they were governed by Gian Ben Gian, the imaginary sovereign of this visionary country. 52 The Lynges' were one of the chief orders of the celestial beings under the Deity, according to the Chaldean philosphers. See Stanley Hist. Phil. p. 1037, and the Chaldaic Oracles, p. 1071. They fancied also material daimons, who could transform themselves into animals, birds and women, p. 1043. On the derivation of the word Genii, I would observe, that in Arabic, Aginyah now means what we call Genii: and Janistan, Fairy-land, or the Stan, the region of the Jani or Genii. In the same language Jannal is Paradise and Heaven. Jan and Jani, in Persian express the soul and life. Jann, in Persian, now signifies the Devil, and Jinn, in Arabic, is also applied to denote a demon. 53 In the Escurial is a MS. of a translation of this into Spanish, intitled, Calila y Dina, which mentions, that it was made from the Arabic so early as 1251, by the command of king Ferdinand's son, Alphonso. Ferusac, Bull. Univ. 1826, No 6. p. 435. SCIENCES. VI. BOOK and the scholastic age, it may be useful to the historical student to give him a specimen of one of them, by a few passages from LITERARY AL GAZEL'S LOGICA. "The science of LOGIC gives the rule by which we may discern whether the definition and the syllogism be faulty or not, in order that true knowlege may be distinguished from what is not true. Thus it is, as it were, the weight and measure of all the sciences. "All utility is vile in comparison of eternal felicity, which is the felicity of another life. But this felicity depends upon the perfection of the soul, and this consists of two things; its purity and its adornment. The purity of the soul lies in its being purified from what is sordid, and in being preserved from base phantasies. Its adornment rests in having the certainty of truth depicted on it, so that divine truths may be revealed to it. "A mirror is not perfect unless a beautiful form can appear in it, so that this may be visible without deformity or alteration. But this cannot be, unless it be absolutely clear from all stain and rust, and then when what is beautiful is presented to it, this will appear in all its comeliness. "The mind is such a mirror. The forms of all being may be depicted in it when it is cleared and purified from all degrading habits; but it cannot discriminate justly between what is vicious and what is virtuous, except by knowlege: for, to have the forms of all things painted on it, is nothing else than to have the knowlege of all things within it. But there is no way of coming to true knowlege but by logic. The utility of logic is therefore the apprehension of knowlege, and the use of knowlege is the acquisition of everlasting felicity; but if this felicity cannot be had without the perfection of the soul, and if this can be attained only by its purity and its due adornment, then the perfect logic is a science of the greatest utility. "As the builder of a house first requires the preparation of tiles, wood and clay, that he may afterwards, from these, construct his house so knowlege will arise according to the form and nature of the thing known. Therefore the inquirer after the knowlege of the whole will first desire to apprehend the knowlege of its parts. For this reason we must first speak of words, and explain how they signify intellect. We will then treat of intellects and their divisions; we will proceed to the enunciation of the composite, that is, of the predicate; the subject and its СНАР. issue; and lastly, of the establishment of the proof by two enunciations. For, we shall speak of the proof in two ways:— 1. The matter.-d. The form." X. INTRO DUCTION Al Gazel then proceeds to treat on WORDS; on which he OF THE remarks that nouns never express time; but the verb denotes both ARABIAN the intention and the time. His substantia he divided into that which is body, and into that which is not body. He introduced the preceding by distinguishing two proprieties of knowlege; perception and belief. "Perception, to which he applies the term imaginatio, is the apprehension of the things signified by the words used to understand and to certify them, as the apprehension of the meaning of such a name; of a dog, a tree, a spirit, an angel, &c. "Belief is the reception of an asserted truth; as that the world has had a beginning; obedience will be rewarded, &c. It is necessary that two perceptions should precede all belief; for whoever has not understood the signification of the word "the world" by itself, and of the words " has had a beginning," by themselves, will not understand the assertion to be believed, viz. that the world has had a beginning. "But this word "the world," would mean nothing to him if his perception of it was "the burld," nor "beginning," if that was pronounced "meginning." He could not believe any thing from hearing that "the burld had a meginning," nor could he grant that to be so. Thus, by having the correct knowlege of both the previous perceptions, we attain the knowlege of the thing that was unknown to us, which the assertion expresses. "It is therefore manifest from this instance, that all knowlege which is the subject of an investigation, cannot be investigated unless by the aid of some preceding knowlege. This fact will not lead us into infinity; because we shall be led by this to the primary things; to those which are "stabilia;" fixed in the very nature of intellect anterior to all inquisition and meditation. "This is what we propose to do in our treatise on logic. It is manifest that the unknown can become known to us only by what is known. Whatever is not known must be made known by the aid of some known thing; but every unknown thing has some proper truth peculiar and congruous to itself, which becomes the means of our attaining the other, and of representing it to the intellect." Ꭰ Ꭰ 4 SCIENCES. |