SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 3:J9 



talents. Tlie people of Jof sing among the tents of 

 the Aenezes foratritlingreniuncralion; and in towns 

 there are regnlar professors of the art, who attend 

 at the coflee-houses and lend their aid on festive 

 occasions. A common entertainment among the 

 Bedouins is the reciting of tales after the manner 

 of the Arabian Nights. 



Notwithstanding the natural abilities of this peo- 

 ple, the arts and sciences are neither cultivated nor 

 encouraged. The literary splendours of the caliph- 

 ate liave long been quenched. Except Abulfeda, in 

 whom the sun of Arabian learning appears to have 

 set, no historian, philosopher, or writer of any ce- 

 lebrity, has risen to dissipate the gloom with which 

 the Tartars in the thirteenth century overspread the 

 East under the banners of Zingis Khan. In almost 

 every mosque there is a school, having a founda- 

 tion for the support of teachers and the instruc- 

 tion of poor scholars in the common elements of 

 reading, writing, and arithmetic. In large towns 

 there are academies, colleges, and other seminaries 

 of education, in which astronomy, astrology, medi- 

 cine, and some other sciences are taught ; but, from 

 ^he want of books and competent masters, extremely 

 little progress is made. The principal employment 

 among men of letters is the interpretation of the 

 Koran and the study of ancient Mohammedan his- 

 tory. All the Bedouins throughout Arabia are en- 

 tirely ignorant of letters. The Wahabee chief took 

 pains to instruct them, by establishing schools in 

 every village of Nejed, and obliging parents to su- 

 perintend the education of their children. Deraiah 

 w^as made an attractive seat for learned ulemas, by 

 collecting valuable libraries from all parts of the 

 country ; but, in spite of every effort, these warlike 

 tribes still remain, as might be expected, a most 

 illiterate race. Among a people so superstitious as 

 the Arabs no science is so much cultivated as astrol- 

 ogy, which is held in high repute. Though tho 



