Part 3 (1/2)
Before leaving this subject it may be mentioned that Makkari, in his great encyclopaedia of Spain, enumerates fifteen astronomers of Andalusia, all more or less known in their time. Also that Bedei-ul-Astrolabi and Ibn Abdul-Rayman distinguished themselves as makers of astronomical instruments, and inventors of new ones. While Arzachal was the greatest representative of Arab astronomy in the West, Umar Khayam, the astronomer, mathematician, freethinker, and poet, was its greatest representative in the East, in Persia, where he died A.D.
1123.
A great deal in Arabic literature has been written about grammar, and, until its principles were finally laid down and established, it was always a source of continual controversy between different professors and different schools. Abul Aswad ad-Duwali has been called the father of Arabic grammar. It is said that the Khalif Ali laid down for him this principle: the parts of speech are three, the noun, the verb, and the particle, and told him to form a complete treatise upon it. This was accordingly done; and other works on the subject were also produced, but none of them are apparently now extant. Muhammad bin Ishak has stated that he saw one of them, ent.i.tled 'Discourse on the Governing and the Governed Parts of Speech;' and the author of the 'Fihrist' also alludes to this work. Abul-Aswad died at Busra in A.D.
688, aged eighty-five, but some years later his two successors in this branch of literature (viz., Al-Khalil and Sibawaih) far surpa.s.sed him in every way.
Al-Khalil bin Ahmad, born A.D. 718, was one of the great masters in the science of grammar, and the discoverer of the rules of prosody, which art owes to him its creation. He laid the foundation of the language by his book 'Al-Ain' (so called from the letter with which it begins), and by the aid he afforded thereby to Sibawaih, whose master he was, in the composition of his celebrated grammatical work known by the name of 'The Book.' In the work called 'Al-Ain,' Khalil first arranged the stock of Arabic words, dealing with the organ of speech and the production of sounds, and then dividing the words into cla.s.ses, the roots of which consisted of one, two, three, four, or five letters. It is still a matter of dispute whether the book 'Al-Ain' was wholly composed by Khalil himself, or completed in course of time by his pupils. A copy of this celebrated lexicon and work on philology is in the Escurial Library. Khalil also wrote a treatise on prosody, and other works on grammar, and a book on musical intonation.
He died A.D. 786, at Busra. 'Poverty,' he said, 'consists not in the want of money, but of soul; and riches are in the mind, not in the purse.'
Sibawaih, the pupil of Khalil, has been called the father of Arabic lexicography, and the lawgiver of Arabic grammar. Ibn Khallikan says that he was a learned grammarian, and surpa.s.sed in this science every person of former and later times. As for his 'Kitab,' or 'Book,'
composed by him on that subject, it has never had its equal. The great philologist and grammarian, Al-Jahiz, said of the book of Sibawaih, that none like it had ever been written on grammar, and that all writers on this subject who had succeeded him had borrowed from it.
When Al-Kisai was tutor to the prince Al-Amin, son of Harun-ar-Ras.h.i.+d, Sibawaih came to Baghdad, and the two great grammarians (Sibawaih, the chief of the school of Busra, and Al-Kisai, chief of the school of Kufa) had a long dispute about a certain expression of Arabic speech, and an Arab of the desert was called in to arbitrate between them. The man first decided in favour of Sibawaih, but when the question was put in another form, the Bedouin a.s.serted that Kisai was right. As Sibawaih considered that he had been unjustly treated in the matter, he left Baghdad for good. The year of his death has been given differently by various authors, the earliest date being A.D. 787, and the latest A.D. 809.
The most celebrated grammarians of the third century of the Hijrah (A.D. 816-913) were Al-Mubarrad, who died A.D. 898, and Thalab, who died A.D. 903. They were also great antagonists to each other.
Al-Mubarrad, the author of thirty works, was the chief of the school of Busra, and Thalab of that of Kufa, both founded during the preceding century by Sibawaih and Kisai. Thalab was the first collector of books in Islam, and those left by him were very valuable.
Mention must also be made of Al-Farra, the grammarian, and distinguished by his knowledge of grammar, philology, and various branches of literature. He died A.D. 822, at the age of sixty-three, and preceded both Mubarrad and Thalab, the latter of whom used to say: 'Were it not for Al-Farra, pure Arabic would no longer exist; it was he who disengaged it from the ordinary language and fixed it by writing.' At the request of the Khalif Al-Mamun he drew up in two years a most elaborate work, which contained the principles of grammar, and all the pure Arabic expressions which he had heard. It was ent.i.tled 'Al-Hudud' (the Limits or Chapters), and directly it was finished he commenced another in connection with the Koran, which is spoken of as a most wonderful production. He wrote besides several other works on grammar, and acted as tutor to the two sons of the Khalif Mamun.
Though many other grammarians could be named, such as Al-Akhfash al Ausat, Abu Amr as Shaibani, Abu Bakr al Anbari, etc., none can be considered so celebrated as the persons above mentioned, who are regarded as the founders of the principles on which Arabic grammar has been established.
In the middle of the third century of the Hijrah (A.D. 816-913), the Arabs first began to distinguish themselves as travellers and geographers. When Muslim Homeir was, in A.D. 845, ransomed from his captivity among the Byzantines and returned to his country, he wrote a book with the t.i.tle of 'Admonitions on the Countries, Kings and Offices of the Greeks.' Forty years afterwards Jaafar bin Ahmed al Mervezi produced the first geographical work under the t.i.tle of 'Highways and Countries,' which was followed by those of Ibn Foslan, Ibn Khordabeh, Jeihani, Al-Istakhri, Ibn Haukul, Al-Beruni, Al-Bekri and Idrisi. The great historian, Masudi, was also a writer of travels and an amba.s.sador. Ibn Foslan was sent by the Khalif Muktadir (A.D.
908-932) to the King of the Bulgarians. Abu Dolaf, who accompanied an amba.s.sador from China to the frontiers of that country, made, on his return, a report which Yakut afterwards embodied in his voluminous geographical Dictionary.
A few details will be given about the six chief geographers and travellers of this period, viz., Ibn Khordabeh, Al-Istakhri, Ibn Haukul, Al-Beruni, Al-Bekri and Idrisi.
As regards the first-named, it would appear that he has been the object of considerable controversies among the Orientalists of Europe.
After employment in the post and intelligence departments in the provinces, he subsequently came to the court of the Khalif Motamid (A.D. 870-892), and became one of his privy councillors. He is the author of several works on various subjects, but his 'Geography,' says Sir H.M. Elliot, is the only work we possess of this author, and of this there is only one copy in Europe, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He died about A.D. 912.
Al-Istakhri, who flourished about the year A.D. 951, obtained his name from Istakhar (_i.e._, Persepolis), where he was born. He was a traveller whose geographical work has been translated into German by Mordtmann. When Istakhari was in the Indus Valley he met another celebrated traveller, Ibn Haukul, whose book Sir William Ouseley translated in A.D. 1800 into English, under the t.i.tle of 'The Oriental Geography of Ibn Haukul.' Haukul, who died A.D. 976, had travelled for nearly twenty-eight years in the countries of Islam with the works of Ibn Khordabeh and Jeihani in his hands, and his work, which bears the generally approved t.i.tle of 'Highways and Countries,' is based on the book of Istakhri.
But the greatest geographer and naturalist of this period is Abu Raihan Al-Beruni (born about A.D. 971), who accompanied Mahmud the Ghaznavide on his invasions to India. He was to Mahmud of Ghazni what Aristotle was to Alexander, with the difference, however, that he actually accompanied the conqueror on his Indian campaigns. He travelled into different countries and to and from India for the s.p.a.ce of forty years, and during that time was much occupied with astronomy and astronomical observations, as well as geography. His works are said to have exceeded a camel-load, but the most valuable of all of them is his description of India. It gives an account of the religion of India, its philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, law and astrology about a.d. 1030, and has been edited by Edward Sachau, Professor in the Royal University of Berlin.
An English edition, containing a preface, the translation of the Arabic text, notes and indices, has also been published. Al-Beruni died at Ghurna A.D. 1038. He used to correspond with Avicenna, who was his contemporary, and who gives in his works the answers to the questions addressed to him by this famous geographer, astronomer, geometrician, historian, scholar, and logician.
Some years later Abu O'beid Abd-Allah Al-Bekri distinguished himself as one of the greatest geographers, with whose labours Quatremere and Dozy and Gayangos have made us better acquainted. He was, by birth, from Andalusia, whence also many others travelled to the East, either for instruction or for trade or as pilgrims, and of whom about a couple of dozen are mentioned by Makkari. Some of these gave descriptions and topographies, to which cla.s.s of literature also the poetical laudations of celebrated towns belong. Not only Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Fez, Morocco and Khairwan were praised or satirized, but also Cordova, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Toledo, Valencia and Zohra were described in Arabic poems. Al-Bekri died in A.D. 1094-1095, and was followed by Idrisi, the author of a work on Arabian geography of some celebrity, and which has been translated into Latin. He died A.D.
1164.
Of historians in Arab literature there are many, but only the most celebrated will be noted. Muhammad bin Ishak, who died about A.D. 767, produced the best and most trustworthy biography of the prophet Muhammad. His work was published under the patronage of the Abbaside princes, and was, in fact, composed for the Khalif Al-Mansur (A.D.
754-775). It was used as the chief source of information by Ibn Hisham, the next historian of note, in his life of the Prophet, which work has been edited by Dr. Wustenfeld, and translated into German by Dr. Weil, and into English by Mr. E. Rehatsek, whose ma.n.u.script, however, has not yet been printed. Ibn Hisham, who died in A.D. 828, was the father of Arabic genealogy, and Abu-el-Siyadi, who died in A.D. 857, is next to him.
But the real father of Arabian history was Al-Wackidi, a good and trustworthy historian, thirty-two of whose works are known, all relating to the conquests of the Arabs, and other such subjects. He died A.D. 822. With him generally has been a.s.sociated his secretary, Muhammad bin Saad, a man of unimpeachable integrity, and of the highest talents, merit, and eminence. He has left us some most interesting works, full of valuable information relating to those times. He died at Baghdad A.D. 844.
Al-Madaini, who died A.D. 839, was the author of two hundred and fifty historical works, of which, however, nothing has yet been discovered, except their t.i.tles as given in the 'Fihrist.'
Pa.s.sing over many other historians, two more only will be mentioned, viz., Abu Jafir at-Tabari and Al-Masudi.
Tabari (whose annals are now being edited by a company of European Orientalists) was born A.D. 838, at Amol, in the province of Tabaristan. He travelled a great deal, and composed many works on history, poetry, grammar and lexicography. His work on jurisprudence extends to several volumes, and his historical works stamp him as one of the most reliable of Arab historians, while his numerous other works also bear witness to the variety and accuracy of his acquirements. He died at Baghdad A.D. 923, and has been called by Gibbon the Livy of the Arabians.
Al-Masudi, a contemporary of the great historian Tabari, died thirty-four years after him, in A.D. 957. His great work, 'Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems,' with the Arabic text above and a French translation below, has been published in nine volumes (1861-1877) by Barbier de Meynard, in connection with Pavet de Courteille, at the expense of the French Government. Dr. A. Sprenger (who translated one volume of the work into English for the Oriental Translation Fund, London, 1841) calls the author of it the Herodotus of Arabian history, because he had, like his Greek prototype, undertaken extensive travels, and had like him made the description of countries and nations his chief occupation. The t.i.tles of ten of his works are known to us, but the princ.i.p.al one is that named above, in the composition of which he used eighty-five historical, geographical, and philological works, as he himself informs us in the first chapter of his history. The work itself contains one hundred and thirty-two chapters.