The seven poems suspended in the Temple at Mecca PDF
Preview The seven poems suspended in the Temple at Mecca
LIBRARY UNIVERSiri' OF I1 CALIFORNIA^ Digitized bytine InternetArciiive in 2008witii funding from IVIicrosoftCorporation littp://www.archive.org/details/alsabalmuallaqatOOjohnrich : xj<mJ\ L.-->Lfl.JLjt.^J! THE 'skven Poems, SUSPENDED IN THE TEMPLE AT MECCA. TRANSLATED .FROM THE ARABIC BY CAPT. F.^E. JOHNSON, Royal Artillery, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BX SHAIKH FAIZULLABHAI, B.A., Fellow ofthe University ofBoinhay, Head Master, Anjuman-i-Isldm Schools, Authorof"TheZloslcin Present." All Rights reserved. JSombay PRINTED AT THE EDUCATION SOCIETY'S STEAM PRESS, BYCULLA. 18D3. Price Rupees Seven Annas Eight. luzac d Co., {Opposite the BrnUh .y/i/tfcv I X / / p PREFACE. A^- liiE accompanying translation is intended to be notliing more than an aid to the student, and for this reason it has been made as literal as possible. Notes and explanations have been added in all cases where the sense is obscure, and it is hoped that by their aid beginners even will experience little or no difficulty in reading the original. All different readings, anddifferentinterpretations which have good authority and have come to hand, have been included in the notes. Lines which have been found in some copies and not in others are marked with asterisks for the sake ofdistinction. My best thanks are due to Shaik FaizuUahbliai, Esq., B.A., of Bombay, a really first-class Arabic scholar, for the trouble he took in revising the proof sheets. During revision he considerably enlarged the notes, &c., so as to bring the work within thegrasp ofall. F. E. J. Kirkee, 29th January 1893. •^Q -r> NTRODUCTION. Amongsttlio aucient nations,asHistoryshows,there are few who have so large a treasure of sublime poetry and so abun- dant astock ofuseful literaturetoboastof, as the old nation of Arabia. The Arabs have always beep remarkable for the great pride theyhave taken intheexcellenceoftheirlanguage, the perfection oftheir literature, thesublimity oftheir poetry, thepurity oftheir race, andthe integrity of theirmoralcharac- ter. Pure justice, free from bias or prejudice, fully admits that they have reason to feel this pride, and accords them a very high placeamong the civilized andliterarynationsofthe ancient world. These facts are well borne out by evidence derived from thehistory ofthe progress ofliterature, especially during the 4th, 5th and Cth centuries ofthe Christian era. During the period alluded to, the literary genius was almost entirely monopolised by the Aryans, represented then by the Indians andthe Persiansinthe East, and bytheRomans in the West. The Indianliterature was, however, confined only to a limited number ofShastris and Brahmins, and was inaccessible totheother castes, or the numerically much stronger public. The Persians had long cultivated and enriched their literature with a good deal of learning, borrowed from the Greeks and the Indians. Among the Semi'tics, the Syrians possessed a Hebrew literatureofasuperior character,whichwasnot, how- ever, cultivated to a very vastextent,and wasconfined onlyto afew Rabbis. Theseliteraieurs, moreover, had risen to their greatestheight and were now only hanging on the verge of decline, and were more or less givingway to theRomans,who, atthetimewespeakof,held theirownagainstallthenationsof the world, both in thepolitical as wellas in the literary realm. VI INTllODUCnON. Their literary supremacywas, however, the resultof aloug working ofthe schools,establishedbyCicero^ Virgil,andLivy, onthe linesofthelearningthey hadinheritedfromthatdefunct Grecian world which had Jong given way to the sway of the triumphant Roman arms. The Roman Poetry, Oratory and Rhetoric weremerelyoffshoots engrafted on those of Homer, Demonsthenes and Aristotle. Muchcreditis certainly due to the Romans for the great iuaproveraent they made on the teachings of their mother-school, whichelevatedthemtoa high pitchofliteraryfame,audplacedthematthetopofthecategory of the civilized aud refined nations of thetime. But their achievements, though very noble andexcellentin themselves, were mei^ely parasitic, aud had little originality to boast of. About thistimewefind a new nationrushing uponthescene, and steadily progressing withlong strides to the front ofthe literary world, neither by means of any learning, borrowed from other nations, nor by any setexamples to guide them, but solely by dint ofthe growth of their own natural faculties. This was the Arabian nation, which, living obscurely in a solitary peninsula, was cut offfrom the chiefseats oflearning and debarred by its own seclusion from all the advantages of a close contact with the civilized nations of the day, who regai'ded it merely as a degraded and barbarous nation. Not- withstanding its startingwith such local and social disadvan- tages, this nation, which was destined by God to rise to a great importance later on, and to succeed the Romans in presidingoverthedestiniesofagreat partoftheworld, bravely stemming the tideofadverse circumstances, deserves all pi-aise for the high state of culture, civilization and advancement which its people attained by means of self-development of those superior literary faculties with which ithad pleased God to endow them. Although the Arabic language was as old as any of the noble languages ofthe world, yet its literary fame was kept
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