98 LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



the restraints of religion yielded more and more to 

 the progress of the arts. Some of the Eastern 

 caliphs caused their images to be stamped on their 

 coins. In Spain, Abdalrahman 111. ventured to place 

 the statue of his favourite mistress over the magnifi- 

 cent palace which he had erected for her reception. 

 The Alhambra had its sculptured lions, its orna- 

 mented tiles, and historical paintings. 



In one branch of the fine arts, that of calligraphy 

 or ornamental writing, the Saracens particularly ex- 

 celled. The extensive manufacture of translations 

 brought this necessary accomplishment to a very 

 high degree of perfection. Afrihi ibn Adi, a Jacob- 

 ite Christian, who flourished at Bagdad under the 

 caliphs Mostakfi and Almoti, and was much em- 

 ployed in transcribing books of literature, wrote so 

 fine a hand as to resemble tj^ography ; and with 

 such expedition, that in the course of a day and a 

 night he could finish 200 pages. His contemporary 

 Ahdab, surnamed Al Mozawer, or the Falsifier, was 

 the most ingenious forger and imitator of penman- 

 ship that any country ever produced. He could 

 counterfeit any hand ; and with such dexterity, that 

 even the person whose autograph was imitated could 

 not distinguish the copy from the original. Ado- 

 dowlah, the vizier of Almoti and Altai, turned this 

 singular faculty to his own advantage, by causing 

 him to write letters calculated to sow jealousy and 

 dissension between such of the neighbouring princes 

 as he wished to subdue ; and this fictitious corres- 

 pondence often produced the desired effect. To the 

 Chinese and Persians, the Arabs were indebted for 

 their method of imparting a remarkable purity and 

 neatness to their paper. They employed inks of 

 extraordinary lustre, and studied to adorn their 

 manuscripts with beautiful and vivid colours, so as 

 to render them more pleasing to the eye. 



Music was an art to which the Arabs were ar- 

 dently attached. But the rude and natural strains in 



