276 THE KORAN. 



writing and embellishments was formerly the prop- 

 erty of Soliman the Great, and is preserved in the 

 Museum Kircherianum at Rome. 



Of the literary merits of the Koran the Arabs 

 speak in terms of rapture. The most esteemed 

 doctors of the mosque pronounced its style to be 

 inimitable, — more miraculous than the act of raising 

 the dead. Whatever may be its defects as a work of 

 genius or merit, it is universally allowed to be written 

 with great elegance and purity of language. Some- 

 times, in imitation of the prophetic and Scripture 

 phraseology, it rises above the ordinary strain, and 

 magnificently paints the Almighty seated on his 

 throne of clouds and darkness, and dispensing laws 

 to the universe. Though written in prose, it is mea- 

 sured into chapters and verses like the Songs of 

 Moses or the Psalms of David. The sentences have 

 the soft cadence of poesy, and generally conclude in 

 a long-continued chime, which often interrupts the 

 sense and creates unnecessary repetition. But to an 

 Arab, whose ear is delighted with the music of 

 sounds, and whose ignorance is incapable of com- 

 paring the productions of human genius this metrical 

 charm was its principal commendation ; and was in 

 fact so devoutly esteemed, that they adopted it in 

 their most elaborate compositions. 



All European translators have felt and acknow- 

 ledged the difficulty of transfusing into their versions 

 a lively image of those verbal and ideal charms 

 peculiar to the original. The translation of Andrew 

 du Ryer, a Frenchman, published for the first time 

 at Paris in 1647, long maintained the highest credit; 

 but it is very dull, tame, and tiresome ; and in his 

 frigid prose we look in vain for the glowing and 

 figurative expressions of the Eastern muse. Some 

 years afterward (in 1698) appeared at Padua the 

 Latin edition of Father Lewis Maracci, the confessor 

 of Pope Innocent XL, and professor of Arabic in 

 the Collccre of Wisdom at Rome It was the result 



