114 LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



tared to place the statue of his favourite mistress 

 over the magnificent palace which he had erected for 

 her reception. The Alhambra had its sculptured 

 lions, its ornamented tiles, and historical paintings. 

 In one branch of the fine arts, that of calligra- 

 phy or ornamental writing, the Saracens parti- 

 cularly excelled. The extensive manufacture of 

 translations brought this necessary accomplishment 

 to a very high degree of perfection. Afrihi ibn Adi, a 

 Jacobite 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 typography ; and with 

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

 night he could finish 200 pages. His contempo- 

 rary Ahdab, surnamed Al Mozawer or the Falsifier, 

 was the most ingenious forger and imitator of pen- 

 manship 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 

 correspondence often produced the desired effect. 

 To the Chinese and Persians, the Arabs were in- 

 debted 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- 



