Historical Poern c Seer ah? 



91 



Among the numerous compositions which the Moors in 

 Ceylon and the South of India possess in the Tamil language, 

 none perhaps holds a much higher rank in their estimation 

 than the Seerah, and it is not undeserving the distinction. Its 

 subject is the history of Mohammed, and its author is alleged 

 to have been the celebrated Moorish Poet Omar, who lived 

 at the Court of the Raja of Etteapuram in the early part of 

 last century, and wrote it under the patronage of AbuKassim, 

 a wealthy merchant of Porto Novo. In style it is a clever 

 attempt at imitation of the Naishadam and other popular epic 

 poems of the Tamils; but unfortunately it is interlarded with so 

 many Arabic words, that it is scarcely intelligible to a Tamil 

 scholar without the assistance of a Mohammedan expounder. 

 In the Ceylon Gazetteer mention was made by me of this poem, 

 in treating of the literature of the Moors; but the limits which 

 I had prescribed to myself in that work did not permit me to 

 enter into any details ; and these have, I believe, remained 

 hitherto unknown to all but the Moors: I have therefore 

 thought it desirable to draw up the present analysis for in- 

 sertion in the Journal of the Society. 



The Seerah comprises three books, of which the first is 

 called Biladat Kanda ; the second Nubuvat Kanda; and the 

 third Hijarat Kanda. 



I. — The Biladat Kanda is divided into the following twenty- 

 four chapters. 



The first chapter, consisting of twenty stanzas, opens with 

 an invocation of the Deity, eulogizes Mohammed and the other 

 prophets and saints, and concludes with an apology for at- 

 tempting to write the poem itself. 



The second chapter, consisting of fifty-six stanzas, gives a 

 fanciful description of Arabia, especially of the rains which 

 descend upon its mountains, and the streams which flow from 

 them, diffusing fertility and riches through the land. 



The third chapter, consisting of twenty-two stanzas, con- 

 tains an encomium on Mecca, which is said to occupy as 

 important a position in the universe as the pupil does in the 

 eye, and to surpass every other city both in riches and mag- 

 nificence. 



