LITERATURE OP THE ARABS. 81 



Arabs, continued, after the restoration of learning, 

 to be cultivated with enthusiasm ; and such was 

 the fertility of their genius, that they are said to 

 have produced more works in this department than 

 all other nations united. Owing to the distractions 

 of the caliphate, the Arabian Muses seem to have 

 been silent till the reign of the Abbassides. It 

 was in the courts of Haroun and Almamoun, and 

 more especially under the Ommiades of Spain, that 

 poetry arrived at its highest pitch of splendour. At 

 this era flourished that bright assemblage of bards, 

 chivalrous lovers, and romantic princesses, whom 

 the Oriental writers compare to Anacreon, Pindar, 

 and Sappho. Among their most eminent improv- 

 ers of versification, were Motanabbi of Cufa, styled 

 the Prince of Poets, and Khalil ibn Ahmed, who 

 first subjected it to regular rules. 



Several of the latter caliphs of Bagdad cultivated 

 this elegant art with the greatest ardour ; as did the 

 sultans of Mosul, Aleppo, Seville, and Cordova. 

 Even ladies entered the lists as votaries of the muse. 

 Valadata, daughter of the Caliph of Cordova, en- 

 dowed with equal beauty and genius, was consider- 

 ed as the Arabian Sappho. Aysha, another princess 

 at the same court, was scarcely less distinguished ; 

 her orations and poems were frequently read in the 

 royal academy of that city with the greatest ap- 

 plause. Labana, also a native of that learned capi- 

 tal, not only excelled as a poetess, but was deeply 

 skilled in philosophy and arithmetic, and held an 

 office not often enjoyed by females, that of private 

 secretary to the Caliph Hakem. Seville could boast 

 of Safia, whose poetry and beautiful penmanship 

 were the subject of equal admiration ; of Algasa- 



