The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oriental Literature, by Anonymous

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Title: Oriental Literature The Literature of Arabia

Author: Anonymous

Release Date: November 18, 2003 [EBook #10121]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIENTAL LITERATURE ***

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ORIENTAL LITERATURE

THE LITERATURE OF ARABIA

With Critical and Biographical Sketches by

Epiphanius Wilson, A.M.

1900

CONTENTS

THE ROMANCE OF ANTAR

Introduction
The Early Fortunes of Antar
Khaled and Djaida
The Absians and Fazareans

ARABIAN POETRY

Introduction
SELECTIONS.—
  An Elegy
  The Tomb of Mano
  Tomb of Sayid
  On the Death of His Mistress
  On Avarice
  The Battle of Sabla
  Verses to My Enemies
  On His Friends
  On Temper
  The Song of Maisuna
  To My Father
  On Fatalism
  To the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid
  Lines to Harun and Yahia
  The Ruin of Barmecides
  To Taher Ben Hosien
  The Adieu
  To My Mistress
  To a Female Cup-bearer
  Mashdud on the Monks of Khabbet
  Rakeek to His Female Companions
  Dialogue by Rais
  To a Lady Weeping
  On a Valetudinarian
  On a Miser
  To Cassim Obio Allah
  A Friend's Birthday
  To a Cat
  An Epigram upon Ebn Naphta-Wah
  Fire
  To a Lady Blushing
  On the Vicissitudes of Life
  To a Dove
  On a Thunder Storm
  To My Favorite Mistress
  Crucifixion of Ebn Bakiah
  Caprices of Fortune
  On Life
  Extempore Verses
  On the Death of a Son
  To Leila
  On Moderation in our Pleasures
  The Vale of Bozâa
  To Adversity
  On the Incompatibility of Pride and True Glory
  The Death of Nedham Almolk
  Lines to a Lover
  Verses to My Daughters
  Serenade to My Sleeping Mistress
  The Inconsistent
  The Capture of Jerusalem
  To a Lady
  An Epigram
  On a Little Man with a Very Large Beard
  Lamiat Alajem
  To Youth
  On Love
  A Remonstrance with a Drunkard
  Verses
  On Procrastination
  The Early Death of Abou Alhassan Aly
  The Interview

ARABIAN NIGHTS

THE SEVEN VOYAGES OF SINDBAD
  First Voyage
  Second Voyage
  Third Voyage
  Fourth Voyage
  Fifth Voyage
  Sixth Voyage
  Seventh and Last Voyage
ALADDIN'S WONDERFUL LAMP

THE ROMANCE OF ANTAR

[Translation by Étienne Delécluse and Epiphanius Wilson]

INTRODUCTION

The romantic figure of Antar, or Antarah, takes the same place in Arabian literature as that of Achilles among the Greeks. The Cid in Spain, Orlando in Italy, and Arthur in England, are similar examples of national ideals put forth by poets and romance writers as embodiments of a certain half-mythic age of chivalry, when personal valor, prudence, generosity, and high feeling gave the warrior an admitted preeminence among his fellows. The literature of Arabia is indeed rich in novels and tales. The "Thousand and One Nights" is of world-wide reputation, but the "Romance of Antar" is much less artificial, more expressive of high moral principles, and certainly superior in literary style to the fantastic recitals of the coffee house and bazaar, in which Sindbad and Morgiana figure. A true picture of Bedouin society, in the centuries before Mohammed had conquered the Arabian peninsula, is given us in the charming episodes of Antar. We see the encampments of the tribe, the camels yielding milk and flesh for food, the women friends and councillors of their husbands, the boys inured to arms from early days, the careful breeding of horses, the songs of poet and minstrel stirring all hearts, the mail-clad lines of warriors with lance and sword, the supreme power of the King—often dealing out justice with stern, sudden, and inflexible ferocity. Among these surroundings Antar appears, a dazzling and irresistible warrior and a poet of wonderful power. The Arab classics, in years long before Mohammed had taken the Kaaba and made it the talisman of his creed, were hung in the little shrine where the black volcanic stone was kept. They were known as Maallakat, or Suspended Books, which had the same meaning among Arabian literati as the term classic bore among the Italian scholars of the Renaissance. Numbered with these books of the Kaaba were the poems of Antar, who was thus the Taliessin of Arabian chivalry.

It is indeed necessary to recollect that in reading the episodes of Antar we have been taken back to the heroic age in the Arabian peninsula. War is considered the noblest occupation of a man, and Khaled despises the love of a noble maiden "from pride in his passion for war." Antar has his famous horse as the Cid had his Babicca, and his irresistible sword as Arthur his Excalibur. The wealth of chiefs and kings consists in horses and camels; there is no mention of money or jewelry. When a wager is made the stakes are a hundred camels. The commercial spirit of the Arabian Nights is wanting in this spirited romance of chivalry. The Arabs had sunk to a race of mere traders when Aladdin became possessed of his lamp, and the trickery, greed, and avarice of peddlers and merchants are exhibited in incident after incident of the "Thousand and One Nights." War is despised or feared, courage less to be relied upon than astute knavery, and one of the facts that strikes us is the general frivolity, dishonesty, and cruelty which prevail through the tales of Bagdad. The opposite is the case with Antar. Natural passion has full play, but nobility of character is taken seriously, and generosity and sensibility of heart are portrayed with truthfulness and naiveté. Of course the whole romance is a collection of many romantic stories: it has no epic unity. It will remind the reader of the "Morte d'Arthur" of Sir Thomas Malory, rather than of the "Iliad." We have chosen the most striking of these episodes as best calculated to serve as genuine specimens of Arabian literature. They will transport the modern reader into a new world—which is yet the old, long vanished world of pastoral simplicity and warlike enthusiasm, in primitive Arabia. But the novelty lies in the plot of the tales. Djaida and Khaled, Antar and Ibla, and the race between Shidoub and the great racers Dahir and Ghabra, bring before our eyes with singular freshness the character of a civilization, a domestic life, a political system, which were not wanting in refinement, purity, and justice. The conception of such a dramatic personage as Antar would be original in the highest degree, if it were not based upon historic fact. Antar is a more real personage than Arthur, and quite as real and historic as the Cid. Yet his adventures remind us very much of