380 Origin and progress of writing down historical facts. [No. 5. 



Mo/^amrnad and his friends on the best method of calling the faith- 

 ful to prayers, also in the choice of their sabbath and in other 

 practices. 



Most of the older companions of Mohammad were either entirely 

 illiterate or had no great taste for writing books, and even most of 

 those who were learned in law and religion, followed the views of 

 'Omar and condemned writing. In proportion as the Moslims felt 

 that they were the lords of the Jews and Christians, they affected to 

 despise their institutions and took pride in keeping up their own. 



Some of them only condemned the practice of preserving and 

 propagating knowledge by writing, whilst others went a step further 

 and even disdained to take notes for assisting memory. 



There were nevertheless some men even among the theologists 

 and traditionists, who from the earliest time wrote down the inform- 

 ation which they wished to preserve. The most important among 

 these are 'Abd Allah b. 'Amr, Anas b. Malik and Ibn Abbas, who 

 were companions of the prophet, and preserved more records of him 

 than any one else. The Aadythes of 'Abd Allah and Ibn 'Abbas 

 were preserved by their families in writing ; regarding the latter, 

 para. 89 is particularly important. (See besides the preceding pas- 

 sages, also p. 212 supra). 



Prom several of the preceding paras, it appears that at the court 

 of the Omayyides, Aadythes were taken down and though in some 

 instances they were again expunged at the desire of the informants, 

 it is to be supposed, to judge from these very instances (which 

 alone excited interest, because they were extraordinary), that in 

 most cases they were preserved. The Omayyides also attended to 

 the introduction of other sciences into the Arabic language. It 

 is said in the Fihrist *jy-* &* &&, lH ^^ d&J fi*M\ ^^°l 

 \jby£ j <x*x^J| vJtf Khalid, died in A. H. 82, and we may therefore 

 suppose that these translations were made about the middle of the 

 first century. 



Soon after the middle of the first century — say about A. H. 60, 

 when the older companions had died away, and men who had been 

 brought up in large and flourishing towns took their place, the ques- 

 tion — whether it was lawful to write down Aadythes was much agitat- 

 ed, and it appears that the feadytkes recorded in paras. 1 to 4 and 37 



