LITERATURE OP THE ARABS. 



exceedingly puzzled on account of a stanza which 

 had occurred to his mind, and of which he did not 

 know the author. Hamad not only told him the 

 name of the poet, but repeated the entire composi 

 tion from which the verse was taken. 



History, so much neglected by the ancient Arabs, 

 was cultivated with great assiduity by the Mos- 

 lems ; and there is extant an immense number of 

 works in this department, comprising annals, chro- 

 nicles, and memoirs ; besides descriptions of parti- 

 cular kingdoms, provinces, and towns. A cata- 

 logue of the authors' names would fill a volume ; 

 and we can only notice a few of the more celebrat- 

 ed. The works of Abulfarage, a Christian physician 

 of Malatia, in Lesser Armenia, who flourished in 

 the thirteenth century, and of Abulfeda, a writer 

 of high repute both in the East and the West, we 

 have already noticed. Ibn Katib, another eminent 

 historian of the fourteenth century, was descended of 

 a noble family, and vizier to Mohammed, caliph of 

 Granada. He was deeply versed in every branch 

 of science, but chiefly remarkable for the extent and 

 accuracy of his historical knowledge. He wrote 

 treatises on forty-one different subjects, some of them 

 consisting of many volumes ; and there is scarcely 

 a topic in elegant or scientific literature that he left 

 untouched. His Chronology of the Caliphs and 

 Kings of Spain and Africa has the lofty appella- 

 tion of the " Silken Vest embroidered with the 

 Needle." A treatise on the Choice of Sentences he 

 designates " Pure Gold." His Lives of Eminent 

 Spanish Arabs, celebrated for their learning and piety, 

 are perhaps not inaptly termed " Fragrant Plants ;" 

 but it might puzzle a modern reader to discover th 



