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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 Bozaa
  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 Etienne Delecluse 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