37 



dually led them to thofe literary attainments for which they were after- 

 wards renowned. I fpeak of their academy, formed on the fame plan 

 with that before which I have the honor to appear, having for its objeft 

 the national glory and diffufion of knowledge, with honorary rewards to 

 ftimulate the genius of the candidates. Neither did it flop here. We 

 learn from Sir William Jones, that they tranfcribed the fuccefsful pieces 

 in charafters of gold, and then hung them up in the temple of Mecca, 

 proclaiming them at once facred and immortal ; the proudeft compliment 

 they could beftow! Thefe pieces were diftinguiflied ever after by the 

 name of Moalhaket, or Sufpended; and fometimes, like the Pythatrorean 

 verfes, by that of Moadhabet, or golden. Though fevcral muftea and 

 colleges had doubtlefs exifted before, it is the oldefl: inflitution of the 

 fort on record, being 1200 years fince its firft eftablifhment, having pre- 

 ceded their own Hegira, and even the boafted period of their Koran. 

 From a rhiming conteft that we read of between Mahomet and the cele- 

 brated Lebid, the two mofl diftinguiflied poets of their day, and their 

 verfes on that occafion having been fufpended, it is- highly probable that 

 both of them were members of this famous academy. 



If the Perfians, as Sir William Jones has obferved,* borrowed their 

 poetical meafures of the Arabians, we muft not be furprifed to find the 



rhime 



* The rematk of this great orientalift feems very juft : for at the end of nine years, 

 Mahomet found himfelf ftrong enough to extend his conquefts into Perfia, beginning with 

 Syria, then under Heraclius. And indeed the great Bochart, in which he has been followed 

 by others, particularly by father Alexander, expreffes a ftrong doubt that the Perfian is an 

 original language, See Pheleg. Lib. I. Cap. 15. 



The oldeft Perfian poems that Sir William Jones had feen, were thofe of Ferdufi in 

 the tenth and eleventh centuries, an epic poem of whofe confifled of " Cxty thoufand 

 couplets in rlnme, all polifhed with the fpirit of Dryden, and the fweetnefs of Pope, a 

 glorious monument of eaftern genius and learning ; which if ever it fliould be generally 

 underftood in its original language, will conteft the merit of invention with Homer himfelf, 

 whatever may be thought of its fubjea, (the old Hiftory of Perfia) or the arrangement of 

 its incidents. An extraft from this poem will exhibit a fpecimen of the Perfian tongue, 

 Tery little adulterated by a mixture with the Arabic, and in all probability approaching 

 nearly to the dialed ufed in Perfia, in the time of Mahomet, who admired it for its fifinefs, 



and 



