164 LANG 
•h’ont point change da tout, foit a 1’egard des termes, foit 
a. I’egard du tour: rien n’y eft ni nouveau ni vieux, nulle 
bonne fagon de parler n’a cede d’etre en credit. L’Alco- 
ran, par exemple, ell aujourdhui, cotnrne il y a mille an- 
nees, le modele de plus pure, plus courte, et plus elo- 
quente didion.” It is not to our purpofe to tranfcribe 
the remaining part of the author’s reflections upon this 
fubjed : from the above it plainly appears that he con¬ 
cludes, that the Arabian tongue has fuffered no change 
ftnce the publication of the Koran ; and at the fame time 
infinuates, that it had continued invariable in its original 
purity through all ages, from the days of Kobtan to the 
appearance of that book. 
The Arabic authors boaft moll unconfcionably of the 
richnefs and variety of their language. No human under- 
ftanding, fay they, is capacious enough to comprehend all 
its trealures. Infpiration alone can qualify one for ex- 
bauding its fources. Ebn Chalawalb, a mod renowned 
grammarian of theirs, has fpenta whole volume upon the 
various names of the lion, which amount to five hundred; 
another on the names of the ferpent, which make up 
two hundred. Mohammed al Firancabodius affirms, that 
lie wrote a book on the ufefulnefs and different denomi¬ 
nations of honey, in which he enumerates eighty of them ; 
and, after all. he afl'ures us that he was Hill far from hav¬ 
ing exhaufted his fubjed. To excel in a language fo 
amazingly copious, was certainly a proof of uncommon 
capacity, and confidered as no mean talent even among 
the Koreifhites. Hence Mahomet, when lorne people 
were exprefling their adminiftration of the eloquence of 
the Koran, told them that he had been taught by the an¬ 
gel Gabriel the language of Iflimael, which had fallen into 
defuetude. 
In a language fo richly replenifhed with the choicefl and 
moll energetic terms, both oratory and poetry were cul¬ 
tivated with eafe. All the difficulty confided i-n making 
a choice among words and phrafes equally elegant. The 
orations of the Arabs were of two kinds, metrical and 
profaic. The former they compared to pearls fet in gold, 
and the latter to loofe ones. They were ambitious of ex¬ 
celling in. both ; and whoever did fo, was highly didin- 
guif’ned. His fuccefs in either of thofe departments was 
thought to confer honour, not only on his family, but 
even on his tribe. In their poems were preferved the ge¬ 
nealogies of their families, the privileges of their tribes, 
the memory of-their heroes, the exploits of their ancedors, 
the propriety of their language, the magnificence of ban¬ 
quets, the generofity of their wealthy chiefs and great 
men, &c. After all, we cannot avoid being of the unpo¬ 
pular opinion, that this mighty parade of eloquence and 
poetry did not reach backward above two centuries before 
the birth of Mahomet, as it certainly vanifhed at the era 
of the propagation of his religious inllitutions. The two 
Succeeding centuries were the reigns of luperdition and 
bloo.ifhed. The voice of the mufes is feldom heard amidft 
the din of arms. 
The ancient Arabs, at whatever time poetry began to 
be in reqtted among them, did not at firll write poems of 
confiderable length. They only exprefled themfelves in 
metre occafionally, in acute rather than harmonious 
drains. The Proverbs of Solomon and the book of Ec- 
clefiades i'eern to be compofed in this fpecies of verfifica- 
tion. The profody of the Arabs was never digeded into 
rules till Some time after the death of Mahomet; and this 
is faid to have been done by Al Khalti al Farabidi, who 
lived in the reign of the caliph Haroun Alraftiid. 
When we confider the richnefs and variety of the Ara¬ 
bic tongue, v/e are led to conclude, that to acquire a to- 
lerable degree of {kill in its idioms, is a more difficult talk 
than is generally imagined ; at lead fome people who have 
acquired the knowledge of the Greek and Latin, and 
like wife of the more fafhionable modern languages, with 
facility enough, have found itfo. Be that as it may, there 
are two cLafl'es of men who, in our opinion, cannot hand¬ 
somely difpenfe with the knowledge of that almod tuii- 
UAGE. 
verfal tongue; the gentleman, who is to be employed i* 
the political tranfadions of the mod refpedable mercan¬ 
tile company upon earth, in the eadern parts of the world ; 
and the divine, who applies himlelf to invedigate the 
true purport of the facred oracles: without this, the 
former will often find himfelf embarrafl'ed in both his ci¬ 
vil and mercantile negociations; and the latter will oftea 
grope in the dark, when a moderate acquaintance with 
that tongue would make all funfhine around him. 
The learned profedors of the univerfity of Leyden were 
the fird who entered upon thecareerof Arabi in learning. 
To them the European dudents are principally indebted 
for what knowledge of that language they have hitherto 
been able to attain. Though feveral Italians have con¬ 
tributed their endeavours, yet the fruit of their labours 
has been rendered almod ufelefs by more commodious and 
more accurate works printed in Holland. The palm of 
glory, in this branch of literature, is due to Golius, whole 
works are equally profound and elegant; fo perfipicuous 
in method, that they may always beconfulted without fa¬ 
tigue, and read without languor. Erpenius’s excellent 
grammar, and his memorable dictionary, will enable the 
Undent to explain the bidory of Taimur by Ibni Arab- 
Ihah. II he has once madered that fublime work, he will 
underhand the learned Arabic better than molt of the 
Khatabs of Condantinople or of Mecca. 
The Arabian language, however, notwithstanding all 
its boafted perfections, has undoubtedly lhared the fate 
ot other living languages ; it has gradually undergone 
fuch confiderable alterations, that the Arabic fpoken and 
written in the age of Mahomet may be now regarded as a 
dead language; it is indeed fo widely different from the 
modern language of Arabia, that it is taught and itudied 
in the college of Mecca jull as the Latin is at Rome. The 
dialect of the highlands of Yemen is laid to have the 
neared analogy to the language of the Koran, becaufe 
thefe Highlanders have little intercourfe with ltrangers. 
The old Arabic is through ali the Ealt, like the Latin in 
Europe, a learned tongue, taught in colleges, and only 
to be acquired by the perufa! of the bed authors 
The Persian language is divided into the ancient and 
modern. Tiie former is at this day very imperfectly 
known; but the latter is at prelent one of the mod exprel- 
five, and at tire fame time one of the molt highly poliihed, 
in the world. 
When Mahomet was born, and Anu-Shiravan, whom 
he calls the jujf king, fat on the throne of Perfia, two lan¬ 
guages were generally prevalent in that empire. The one 
was called Deri, and was the dialed of the court, being 
only a refined and elegant branch of the Parfi, fo called 
from the province of which Shiraz is now the capital ; and 
that of the learned, in which molt books were compofed, 
and which had the name of Pahlavi, either from the he¬ 
roes who fpoke it in former times, or from pahlu, a trad 
of land which included fome confiderable cities of Perfia. 
The ruder dialeCls of both were fpoken by the rudics of 
feveral provinces ; and many of thefedidind idioms were 
vernacular, as happens in every kingdom of confiderable 
extent. Belides the Parfi and Pahlavi, a very ancient and 
abdrufe tongue was known to the prielts and philofophers, 
called the language of the Zend, becaufe a book on reli¬ 
gious and moral duties which they held facred, and which 
bore that name, had been written in it; while the Pazend, 
or comment on that work was compofed in Pahlavi, as a 
more popular dialed. The letters of this book were called 
zend, and the language avefta. 
The Zend and the old Pahlavi are now almod extind, 
and very few even of the Guebres can read it; while the 
Parfi, remaining almod pure, has, by the intermixture of 
Arabic words, and many imperceptible changes, now be¬ 
come a new language, exquifiteiy polifiied by a feries of 
fine writers both in profe aqd verfe, analogous to the difr 
ferent idioms gradually formed in Europe after the fub? 
verliou of the Roman empire. 
The very learned and laborious fir William Jones is of 
opinion, 
