University of Virginia Library

THE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Of the inhabitants of Arabia, previous
to the time of Mohommed, little is known;
and, as far as relates to their public history
and government, that small portion given
to us by Abulfeda by no means strengthens
our wishes to obtain any further details.

In the absence of any system of civilization,
prescription, or rather the will of a
chief, was law, either esteemed as such
or enforced. Subject to no other control,
and under the guidance of their heroes or
kings, the tribes carried on wars and made
predatory incursions under various pretences;
sometimes merely to relieve their
present wants by capturing the flocks and
herds of neighbouring hordes (such depredations

being called gains); at others, with
a view to gratify their revenge for any real
or imaginary outrage, where retaliation had
been delayed only to render it more certain,
when the opportunity for attack might be
attended with less danger, or their force
sufficiently powerful to ensure success.

This period is called the "Time of Ignorance,"
by subsequent writers, in contradistinction
to the enlightened state in which
they suppose themselves to have lived since
the introduction of Islamism.

The Arabians, whether descended from
Ishmael or from Cahtan (Yoctan), were
divided into two sorts, the one living in
towns, the other in tents. The former
subsisted on the produce of their flocks,
by tillage, and even by the exercise of
trades. The latter had their pastures,
their principal food was camel's flesh, its
milk was their usual drink, though wine
was also a liquor in which they indulged to
the greatest excess. By waylaying travellers
and caravans, or invading their neighbours'

possessions, they increased their precarious
means, often changing their place of residence
in quest of better pasturage or a
greater abundance of water, according to
the seasons; avoiding in their course tribes
more powerful than themselves, and overpowering
the weak and unprotected. This
habit of life more particularly applies to the
descendants of Ishmael, or rather Adnan;
for as the genealogy from Ishmael to Adnan
is involved in obscurity, the Arabs to
the north of Yemen or Arabia Felix term
themselves Adnanians; the Arabs of the
Jewish or Christian persuasion chiefly residing
in Syria and its confines. The learning
of a people so constituted must of
course have been very narrow and circumscribed.
They could boast of a slight
knowledge in the stars, so as to foretel the
changes of the weather, and to interpret
dreams.

The grossest idolatry was their religion:
images under various forms and names, the
sun, the moon, or some particular constellation,

were the objects of their worship;
though many tribes looked up to a Supreme
Being, and only deemed the planets or
idols as mediators with the Divinity at the
final resurrection. Some did not believe
in a future state; but those who had any
vague notion on the subject imagined that
the dead, upon whose tombs a camel was
slaughtered, should rise mounted on its
back, but those for whom this ceremony
should not be performed, would be called
to judgment on foot.

Mecca was at all times held in the highest
veneration, as the place where Abraham
and Ishmael had dwelt; the Caaba is believed
to have been erected by them; and
as such, was the object of a holy pilgrimage,
attended with most of the ceremonies in
practice at the present day.

The genealogical descent of families,
and the history of their nobility, were
attended to with the most scrupulous jealousy.
But the accomplishments on which
they most chiefly prided themselves were,

a perfect knowledge of their language,
skill in arms, and hospitality to strangers.

"The first they exercised themselves
in by composing orations and poems.
Their orations were of two sorts, metrical
and prosaic; the one being compared to
pearls strung, and the other to loose ones.
They endeavoured to excel in both, and
whoever was able in assembly to persuade
the people to a great enterprise,
or dissuade them from a dangerous one,
or gave them other wholesome advice,
was honoured with the title of Khatib, or
orator, which is now given to the Mahommedan
preachers. They pursued a
method very different from that of the
Greek or the Roman orators; their sentences
being like loose gems, without connexion,
so that this sort of composition
struck the audience chiefly by the fulness
of the periods, the elegance of the expression,
and the acuteness of the proverbial
sayings; and so persuaded were
they of their excellency in this way, that

they would not allow any nation to understand
the art of speaking in public, except
themselves and the Persians; which last
were reckoned much inferior, in that
respect, to the Arabians. Poetry was in so
great esteem among them, that it was a
great accomplishment and a proof of ingenuous
extraction for any one to be able to
express himself in verse with ease and elegance
on any extraordinary occurrence;
and even in their common discourse they
made frequent applications of celebrated
passages of their famous poets. In their
poems were preserved the distinctions of
descents, the rights of tribes, the memory
of great actions, and the propriety of their
language, for which reasons an excellent
poet reflected an honour on his tribe;
so that, as soon as any one began to be
admired for his performances of this
kind in a tribe, the other tribes sent
publicly to congratulate them on the
occasion; and themselves made entertainments,
at which the women assisted,
dressed in their nuptial ornaments, singing,
to the sound of timbrels, the happiness
of their tribe, who had one now to protect
their honour, to preserve their genealogies
and the purity of their language,
and to transmit their actions to posterity;
for this was all performed by their poems,
to which they were solely obliged for
their knowledge and instructions, moral
and economical, and to which they had
recourse as to an oracle, in all doubts and
differences. No wonder then that a public
congratulation was made on this account,
which honour they were so far from
making cheap, that they never did it but
on one of these three occasions, which were
reckoned great points of felicity, viz. on
the birth of a boy, the rise of a poet, or
the fall of a foal of generous breed. To
keep an emulation among their poets,
the tribes had, once a year, a general
assembly at Ocadh, a place famous on this
account, and where they kept a weekly
mart, or fair, which was held on Sunday.
This annual meeting lasted a whole
month, during which time they employed
themselves, not only in trading, but in
repeating their poetical compositions,
contending and vying with each other
for the prize, whence the place, it is said,
took its name[1] . The poems that were
judged to excel were laid up in the
king's treasuries, as were the seven celebrated
poems, thence called Moallacat,
rather than from being hung up on the
Caaba, which honour they also had by
public order, being written on Egyptian
silk, and in letters of gold; for which
reason they had also the name of Modhahabat,
or the golden verses.

"The fair and assembly at Ocadh were
suppressed by Mohammed, in whose time,
and for some years after, poetry seems to
have been neglected by the Arabs, who
were then employed in their conquests,
which being completed, and themselves

at peace, not only this study was revived,
but almost all sorts of learning were
encouraged and greatly improved by
them. This interruption, however, occasioned
the loss of most of their ancient
pieces of poetry, which were then chiefly
preserved by memory; the use of writing
being rare among them in their time of
ignorance. Though the Arabs were so
early acquainted with poetry, they did
not at first use to write poems of a just
length, but only expressed themselves in
verse occasionally, nor was their prosody
digested into rules till some time after
Mahommed.

"The exercise of arms and horsemanship
they were obliged to practise and
encourage, by reason of the independence
of their tribes, whose frequent jarrings
made wars almost continual; and they
chiefly ended their disputes in field battles;
it being an usual saying among them,
that God had bestowed four peculiar
things on the Arabs; that their turbans

should be to them instead of diadems,
their tents instead of walls and houses,
their swords instead of entrenchments,
and their poems instead of written laws.

"Hospitality was so habitual to them,
and so much esteemed, that the examples
of this kind among them exceed what
can be produced from other nations.

"Nor were those the only good qualities
of the Arabs; they are commended by
the ancients for being most exact in their
words, and respectful to their kindred;
and they have always been celebrated
for their quickness of apprehension and
penetration, and the vivacity of their wit,
especially those of the desert.

"As the Arabs have their excellencies,
so have they, like other nations, their
defects and vices. Their own writers
acknowledge that they have a natural
disposition to war, bloodshed, cruelty,
and rapine; being so much addicted to
bear malice that they scarce ever forget
an old grudge; which vindictive temper,

some physicians say, is occasioned by
their frequent feeding on camel's flesh,
(the ordinary food of the Arabs of the
desert, who are therefore observed to be
most inclined to these vices) that creature
being most malicious and tenacious
of anger."

Such is the language in which the learned
translator of the Coran has delivered to the
public his account of the character of the
Arabians, as gathered from the writings of
Abulfeda, Pococke, and others. That the
Arabs of those days thus thought and thus
acted is founded on the concurrence of
such respectable authority, that the authenticity
of this statement has never been
questioned; but as the application of such
a system of habits and manners to the
practice of common life has been hitherto
unknown, it is with a view of exhibiting
to the world a stronger proof of the truth
of this recorded evidence, that the translation
of the history of Antar is now for the
first time submitted to the public; a work

which represents, with the utmost detail;
the most faithful narrative of that mode of
life in all its variety, whether public or
domestic, which prevailed among the Arabs
in that "period of ignorance," and which,
with some material shades of difference, is
stated, by modern travellers, to exist among
the numerous tribes that inhabit the deserts
at this day.

It would be interesting as a fact in literary
history, could we trace, with any certainty,
the source whence the materials
which furnished the basis of this romance
were drawn, that it might be ascertained
how far historical evidence may be cited to
authenticate the different events, and how
far they were only subjects of oral tradition,
down to the period when they were committed
to writing by Asmaee, during the
reign of Haroon Rasheed.

From D'Herbelot we learn that, at the
court of that monarch, Asmaee was celebrated
as the author of several works on
Arabic grammar and theology; that he

was one of the most learned men of the
age, and in great consideration with Haroon
himself, who used to listen with delight to
the traditions of the ancient Arabs, with
which Asmaee's memory seems to have
been most happily stored, and which he
narrated in the presence of the assembled
doctors, sometimes with such detail and
unwearied diligence, as to call forth the
animadversion of that prince, who would
request him not to overpower him with
such continued demands on his attention.

In order to affix more authority to this
anecdote, it will not be irrelevant to mention
that, in the course of this tale, Asmaee
once breaks the thread of his narrative to
state, that as he was relating before Haroon
and his courtiers one of Antar's astonishing
exploits, both the monarch and the ministers
joined in expressing their doubts
of the truth of such tremendous powers,
and even ventured to question the probability
of the leading subjects of his story.
Asmaee faces these objections, asserting

that every fact rested on undoubted authority,
and that the story was a perfect picture
of manners existing at that time; and
moreover (to place all further hesitation
beyond dispute), he boldly states, that he
himself had witnessed many of the scenes
he so forcibly describes, saying, that he
was then four hundred years of age, and
had consequently been alive long before
the coming of Mohommed.

What could be the object of this extraordinary
falsehood (for it is frequently repeated,
and some of his heroes are also
mentioned as having reached that patriarchal
age), is difficult to imagine; however,
the general points of the narrative are not
to be invalidated by so bold an impossibility;
and it may be presumed that the tale,
as it now stands, comprises every tradition
that he deemed worthy of notice, either as
matter of history or of amusement. Some
of the facts are to be found in Abulfeda as
known causes of troubles and dissensions
among the tribes, but still with some change

of circumstance that may be either attributed
to those errors incidental to all traditional
history, or to the liveliness of the
imagination of the author, who may have
wished to render his tale more consonant
to the taste of the times, by sacrificing the
dry detail of an uninteresting fact, to the
pleasure of engaging the attention of his
audience or his readers[2] .

Haroon Rasheed, who flourished during
the second century of the hegira, was, of
course, the contemporary of Charlemagne:
already was the communication open between
the courts of Asia and Europe, and
mutual presents had evinced the wish of
the monarchs to establish an intercourse
between the two countries.

It is, therefore, no matter of doubt, that

this romance was composed or compiled
at that period; and that it was a book
highly esteemed seems equally notorious. It
is, however, a very surprising circumstance
that, from that time almost down to the
present century, no orientalist of Europe
should have mentioned its existence. Asia
possesses men of ingenuity and talents,
who have, with infinite labour, made commentaries
on those books, generally considered
as objects of research; but Haji
Calfa, the most celebrated of the bibliographers
of Asia, only cursorily mentions it.

The most natural way of accounting for
this omission is to suppose, that as this
book exclusively related to the Arabs of
the Desert, unconnected with those men
of literature, whose habits and pursuits led
them to prefer a residence in cities and at
courts, it may, in the course of time, have
been entirely lost to the learned readers,
and only felt and admired amongst the
hordes and tribes, whose manners it so
accurately described, and whose energies

and passions it was so well calculated to
awaken, in the perusal of those records of
the intrepidity of their forefathers. Thus
it may have been so long neglected, till it
was at last forgotten; still, however, cherished
by those who could understand its
value, and engraven in the hearts and the
memories of men, who might boast as being
the descendants of heroes and warriors,
whose glories made them pant after martial
fame, and roused them, if not to imitate,
at least not to discredit the celebrity of
their progenitors, who had lived honoured
and renowned, and whose splendid histories
and deaths would survive to remotest ages,
recorded by the pen of so devoted and
enthusiastic an admirer of their exploits,
and so capable of transmitting them to the
latest posterity, in such glowing and animating
description.

Even at this period, Antar, as the hero
of this romance, or Asmaee, as the reporter
of his deeds, are but little known beyond

the Deserts, and the towns of Aleppo,
Damascus, Bagdad, and Cairo. To the
Arabs, it is their standard work, which
excites in them the wildest emotions; even
read by some, firm in the memory of others;
but listened to with avidity by all[3] .

In Aleppo it is highly valued, particularly
by the Armenians; and, in coffee-houses,
it is read aloud by some particular person,
who keeps a sheet in his hand, to which he
occasionally refers to refresh his memory. It
is given to children, who are obliged to copy
it out, and thus acquire the habit of speaking
elegantly and correctly; and it may be attributed
to this cause, that the copies of
Antar are generally found written most
execrably ill, and abounding in errors of
every kind.

Until the publication of the "Mines
de l'Orient," printed at Vienna, in 1802,
the name of Antar had scarcely been heard
in Europe. A copy of the work is in the
Imperial Library; and in the Catalogue
raisonné of the Books written by M. Hammer,
there is some account of this romance;
from which the following is extracted:

"This work, which must be reckoned
as very instrumental towards learning
the manners, dispositions, and habits of
the Arabs, seems to us more interesting
than the celebrated `Thousand and One
Nights;' not indeed with respect to the
fictions, in which this work almost entirely
fails; but as a picture of true
history. There is nothing about genii,
magicians, or talismans, or fabulous
animals; and if, indeed, the bravery of
the hero, who, unwounded, slays hundreds
and thousands of the foe, or the
swiftness of his generous steed, that
outstrips the wind, appear incredible; these are rather the results of a hyperbolical

style, than to be considered as
fabulous figures, which never, in the
opinion of orientals, invalidates the truth
of history. The whole of this work may
be esteemed as a faithful account of the
principal tribes of the Arabs, and particularly
of the tribe of Abs, from which
sprung Antar, in the time of Nushirvan,
King of Persia, more faithful in painting
manners than in describing events.

"The style is often flowery and beautiful,
mixed with poetry, frequently in a
common diction, and sometimes the augmentations
and more recent interpolations
plainly prove the adulterations of
the copyist. (What would that light of
oriental literature, Sir William Jones, have
thought of the style and merits of this
work, who only treated of the fourteenth
volume, in his Commentaries on Asiatic
Poetry[4] .) It chiefly treats of the love of

Antar and Ibla, and also of their family,
down to the death of the hero.

"This work, which is generally called
a romance of chivalry, though impossible
to be translated, owing to the number
of volumes, may be gleaned; every part
appertaining to be history, should be
carefully collected, and nothing relative
to manners omitted. Such, with God's
help, we intend to publish.

"The author, from beginning to the
end, appears to be Asmaee, a famous
philologist and poet at the court of Haroon
Rasheed; but sometimes other authors
and sources are mentioned, who,
according to our opinion, appear to have
been inserted by the story-teller in the
coffee-houses. This is the work, and
not, as is generally supposed, the Thousand
and One Nights, which is the source
of the stories which fill the tents and

cottages in Arabia and Egypt; though
materials are often supplied from other
works[5] of the same kind."

The above engaged the attention of
persons interested in oriental literature,
and copies have been demanded, but are
with difficulty procured, owing to the unwillingness
of those, who live by reading
the stories in the coffee-houses, to part
with them; and the expense of transcribing
is very heavy.

The translation, now made public, was
undertaken from a copy procured at Aleppo,
by the kind exertions of Mr. Barker.
It proved to be a very valuable work, being
comprised in a smaller form than any other

as yet sent to Europe. In general, the
copies are bound up in numerous volumes
of various sizes, from forty to twenty or
less, exhibiting a mass to appal the most
enterprising of translators, well aware, as he
must be, that whatever his determination
might effect in making a translation of so
ponderous a work, he could not expect any
corresponding success in printing it for
general perusal.

This difficulty, and the still greater difficulty
of abridging a work of so curious
a texture, must have prevented any one,
acquainted with its merits, from venturing
on so arduous a task; and not till the
translator saw it in so compressed a shape,
did he ever anticipate the possibility of
putting it into English.

Whilst he was engaged on the work, he
had the advantage of receiving from Mr.
Burkardt a letter, in which he accounted
for the abridged state of that copy of Antar,
stating that the voluminous work had been
curtailed of many of its repetitions and

much of its poetry, by some learned inhabitants
of Syria, and was therefore called
the Shamiyeh, or Syrian Antar, in contradistinction
to the original large work, which
was called the Hijaziyeh, or Arabian Antar.

Mr. Burkardt strongly urged the translator
to persist in his undertaking, by
adhering strictly to the abridgement; anticipating
the most complete success, and
even a popularity equal to that so long
enjoyed by the Arabian Nights, "to which,"
he adds, "it is in every respect superior."

Under these inducements, and prompted
by the active encouragement of his friends,
the translator executed the task from the
abridged copy, which even in its reduced
state bears too formidable an appearance
to attract universal favour.

The translation has been completed some
time, and already has one volume met the
approbation of those who would kindly
hope that his time has not been mis-spent.
For the appearance of that volume in its
mutilated state, the only apology to be

offered is the indulgent curiosity of friends,
who expressed a wish to see that portion
in print, before any further addition had
reached England. Whether such publication
was ill-timed, or whether the continuation
might not have been suppressed
altogether, must be decided by the future
reception this part of the work will meet
from the public.

Of the merits of this romance, as a
work to be tried by European critics, and
ideas founded on principles totally unknown
to the Arabian author, it will be
no easy task to form a correct judgment.
A person, unacquainted with oriental literature,
must frame his opinions on rules
by which he has been accustomed to regulate
his opinions on matters of taste—such
a critic must unavoidably err in any
decision he may express. On the other
hand, an oriental scholar is generally too
biassed in favour of languages that have
cost him years of unremitted toil to attain,
to view, with a mind sufficiently calm and

unprepossessed, a work which, in an Asiatic
country, is considered as the standard of
perfection. It is true, an orientalist must
imbibe some new ideas of taste, before he
can judge at all of the merits of an original
Asiatic composition, but whether he
will be an impartial critic is very doubtful.

That a translator of so immense a work
must have felt a more than common gratification
in his labours, is evident; otherwise
he could never have persisted in the
continuance of it; unless it may be presumed
that a person, obstinately persevering
in an undertaking against his conviction,
will in time become so full of his subject,
as to see beauties where none exist, and
become so much an Asiatic, as to forget
he had ever been an European, either in
habits or taste.

Leaving, therefore, the public to form
their opinions of this tale, through the
uncertain medium of a translation (only
begging it may be borne in mind, that the
original may possess beauties, the translator

may have omitted or overlooked, and
that the translation, whenever approved,
by no means does justice to the original),
he will endeavour to give some succinct
account of the object and nature of the
work, that the unprejudiced reader may
have some clue by which he may form his
own opinion of its merits and defects.

Antar, as has been already observed by
the editor of the first volume, is no imaginary
person: he is well known as a
celebrated warrior, and as the author of
one of the seven poems suspended on the
Caaba at Mecca. His intrepidity is often
mentioned by Abulfeda, as being the subject
of poetry: though it does not appear
that any precise composition relating to
his feats in arms is extant, some detached
pieces may have survived; still it must be
supposed that oral tradition alone has commemorated
in verse, current among succeeding
generations, those various proofs
of heroism which Asmaee afterwards embodied
in his work. That he was the son

of Shedad, an Absian chief, is also well
attested; though it does not so clearly appear
that he was born of a slave-woman.

It is not to be understood, that Asmaee
merely intended to compose a faithful history
of those times: his view seems rather
to comprise in a pleasing tale[6] , numerous
isolated facts, and the most striking traits
of the manners and usages prevalent at
that period; and therefore we may presume,
that he has embellished his narrative
with every additional circumstance that
could possibly throw an interest over his
hero, or attract the attention of his readers.

And that he has succeeded among those
for whom the work was composed, there
cannot be the smallest doubt. It is also
true, that many, who at this day have read
it in the original, have expressed the delight
and unwearied admiration they have
felt in the perusal of its endless volumes.

It may be assumed, that it is one of the
most ancient books of Arabian literature,
composed during the second century of the
Hejirah, at a time when the arts were most
successfully cultivated amongst the Asiatic
conquerors, and encouraged more particularly
under the influence of the Arab
princes of Bagdad. Its language is therefore
uncommonly pure, equally remote
from the harshness of the earlier, or the
conceits of the later authors; and when
we consider that it was originally written
in the Cufic character, and has for a thousand
years been transcribed chiefly for the
use of the Bedoweens, and often by persons
who probably did not comprehend one
word they were writing, it is a matter
of surprise, how it has retained so much
purity and correctness. Some few Persian
and Turkish words, subject to Arabic inflexions,
are now and then to be observed.
Some other modern terms may also have
been inserted; these are corruptions, and
Mr. Hammer thinks that many interpolations
have been made by the copyist.

Words often occur which are not to be
found in any dictionary; and some expressions
there are, which, though current
to this day among the Arabs of the Desert,
are not susceptible of the same acceptation
in any lexicon.

The style of the work as a composition
is very plain and easy in construction; but
abounding in an endless variety of diction,
couched in the most choice and appropriate
terms. The sentences are short, much
in the style of the Bible; the prose is even
in rhythm throughout, continuing uninterrupted
but by a change of termination,
according to the powers of the author, or
the redundancy of expressions with the
same sound[7] . Thus, with short rhythmical
periods of various lengths, the author proceeds,
for five or six lines, to the end of
his subject, and then recommences other
matter with a different rhyme. This is
particularly striking in all his descriptions

of battles, where the pauses are very frequent,
all with the same terminations; the
periods being often formed of only two
words, sometimes of three, and thus hurrying
on, with apparent rapidity and great
variety and spirit, throughout a whole page.

This species of composition produces
the necessity of continued repetitions; and
though Asmaee has proved that his memory
was supplied with an infinity of expression,
unrivalled by any oriental author, yet the
frequent recurrence of similar scenes and
thoughts must of course occasion such
repetitions, as almost to weary his warmest
admirers; but when translated into another
tongue, that admits of, comparatively speaking,
no diversity of terms to express the
same meaning, they become most tedious
and disgusting.

The poetry has the charm of a more
elevated style; and a wider range for the
imagination has been eagerly seized by the
poet. Infinitely more difficult in its construction,
it is still natural, and devoid of

those conceits and absurdities that abound
in almost all Asiatic compositions. It comprises
every variety to which poetry is
applied. The heroic, the complimentary,
the laudatory, the amatory, the ludicrous,
the merry, and the elegiac, are all combined
in the utmost profusion; even the
pastoral is not omitted. A specimen of
this species of poetry occurs that is perfectly
unique in the language: the translator
never met with anything of the kind.
Moreover, on inquiry among some learned
Musulmans, he could not understand that
such compositions were at all known or
appreciated among them. It is in the style
of an eclogue, and is introduced as a trial
of skill amongst revellers at a feast. Besides
its originality, it has great merit as
an oriental composition, abounding in terms
never before modelled into grammatical
inflection, and which excited the most unfeigned
admiration and surprise amongst
some natives of Constantinople, to whom
these verses were shown.

The heroic is, of course, a mixture of all
that is bold in imagery and inflated in
expression; exaggeration and personal vanity
run throughout the whole; perhaps
these are the legitimate characteristics of
such poetry: certainly we have the highest
authority for its currency, in a poet whose
writings are considered as the standard for
whatever is grand and majestical in that
species of poetical composition.

The elegiac has drawn tears from persons,
whose sympathy and tenderness were fashioned
to be roused by such scenes as are
described in this work, and are therefore
as true to nature as those feelings which
are recognized in a more refined state of
society.

The ludicrous and satirical are in some
instances too gross, often indelicate, but
not obscene. There is something pretty and
original in the amatory style; and the
merry can move to mirth in its innocence
and playfulness. As to the complimentary,

it is, as is the case in all languages, the
least entitled to commendation, abounding
in ridiculous conceits and unintelligible
panegyric.

With respect to the magic and enchantments
that occur in the work, it may be
proper to add, for the benefit of those who
indulge in the still controverted point of
the birth-place of sorcery, that instances
are to be found of supernatural agency;
though in the portion now published no
mention is made of any such influence over
the minds and actions of the heroes who
figure in the story. The belief that ghosts,
or hobgoblins, or genii, inhabited some
peculiar spot, generally prevailed; and we
perceive that Shiboob, Antar's brother, is
often taken for one of those august personages,
owing to the rapidity with which
he transfers himself from place to place.

The effects of an amulet ring, first worn
by a Christian warrior, who at his death
bequeaths it to Antar, in relieving a person

from fits, are noticed more than once.
Sorceresses were also sufficiently celebrated,
even at that distant period, to be here
recorded, more for the iniquities than for
the good they were called upon to perform.
One endeavours to inveigle Ibla to her
destruction, by means of two dæmon emissaries
she employs, and a magic fire she
kindles. Another fortifies her castle with
the illusion of supernatural flames and
smoke; whilst the sister of this wicked
enchantress dispels these seeming horrors
by her more potent spells. But, though
this latter is married in consequence, to
one of the Absian chiefs, she is absolutely
prohibited from ever practising her magical
arts, before the marriage could be solemnized.
It is thus evident, that this
engine of destruction was regarded as abominable,
and by no means connected with
any acknowledged source of resistance.

Allusions to genii frequently occur: one
of Antar's sons is slain by them. They
are described as most hideous monsters,

having their eyes slit upwards, and uttering
most terrific sounds. Antar restores to the
human form one of the genii who had been
metamorphosed into a horse; and, in return,
he aids his deliverer in avenging his
son's murder.

Besides these instances, there are some
other events of minor consequence, where
magic is supposed to effect its purposes;
and it may be inferred, that the author has
rather for his object to give some account
of the general notions respecting sorcery
and magic, at the period to which the
story relates, than to afford an accurate
detail of its influence on the public mind,
during the reign of Haroon Rasheed, at
which time, though its delusions may not
have gained actual belief, yet as the machinery
of a tale, it was reckoned indispensably
necessary.

Antar's sword is certainly of original
manufacture; and, though not enchanted,
may be cited by the side of Durindana.
Indian blades, Davidean armour, and Aadite[8]

casques are invested with all the properties
of magic weapons, whether of offence
or defence.

No warrior appears with a skin impervious
to the sword's edge. There is, however,
one hero, who is a mass of bone, and
no arm but Antar's can strike a blow to
crush so miraculous a production. Others
are also designated under the formidable
appellation of earth-rakers; thus called
from their immense stature, so that, when
on horseback, their feet tore up the ground;
and others are denominated ear-strippers,
others liver-eaters, &c.

The frequent allusion to dragons and
sea-monsters in the poetry, and in the
description of assailing heroes, proves that,
in those days, the introduction of fabulous
animals, distinct from those mentioned in
Persian books, was considered a legitimate

embellishment in romantic fiction.
But the only animal whose appearance is
mentioned is the cameleopard[9] , which is
described as a beast of burthen, employed
to carry a huge giant, as no other animal
was sufficiently powerful to bear so vast a
weight. But as it is ascertained that the
cameleopard is not a beast of burthen, it
may safely be presumed, that though its
existence had been proved, its distinctive
qualities were unknown.

And thus, with all the paraphernalia of
chivalrous equipment, heroes come forth,
not only in fields of battle or single combat,
but also at marriages and entertainments,
merely for trials of skill in arms in
the midst of a course, to tilt and joust
with barbless spears in the presence of
kings and chiefs, who proclaim the merits

of the victor and the vanquished, sometimes
distributing prizes, or awarding a
contested point, or even deciding the fate
of some damsel, the object of amorous
contention between two devoted champions;
and not unfrequently do these combats,
which commence innocently, end in
bloodshed.

It is also worthy of remark, that these
chiefs, when bound on a marauding enterprise,
often meet with extraordinary adventures;
sometimes forlorn maidens, whose
distresses they relieve, or matrons, whose
husbands and sons have been slain, and
even heroes of inferior stamp, whose cause
they will adopt, and thus either soften his
sorrows, or die in his defence. It must be
acknowledged, that they sometimes take
advantage of the unprotected state to which
females are reduced, when their attendants
have resisted the assaults of a stranger;
but instances of the purest generosity, and
the most chivalrous sentiments of honour
and decency will often mark their acts,

and induce us to marvel, how nations so
barbarous in blood could ever be melted
into pity and tenderness.

Miracles of a sublimer nature, such as
storms, and timely aid in the extremest
perils, and visitations of extraordinary import,
are attributed to the proper source
of such interventions. The Almighty is
here the sole actor: his influence is ever
unquestioned. It is not often invoked,
neither does it often appear; thus rendering
it the more efficacious, and creating corresponding
sentiments of awe and gratitude
in the minds of those who may be either
its victims, or the objects of its favour.

The name of Mohommed is used more
than once as the instrument of divine
vengeance, at the moment he was supposed
to have been born; but at whose
breast he was inhaling life was unknown:
his name had been alone revealed, and
the first mention of it infuses so great
dread into the Persian army, that they are
instantly routed; the name of Mohommed

seeming to rise from every pebble, and
from every grain of sand. His infant cries
are also stated as the means of working a
great miracle, in a second destruction of
the Persians.

Such are the people and the manners
this book purposes to describe, a subject
never before attempted, either by Asiatic
or European: a subject that has hitherto
been supposed devoid of all interest, and
certainly considered as susceptible of no
variety. A nation of shepherds, dwelling
in tents, surrounded by deserts, appears at
first sight, as the very antipodes of those
nations whose usages and habits have supplied
matter for romance and historic fiction.
In minds thus savagely constituted,
where could love dwell? Where could
courtesy, discretion, and those nameless
decencies and distinctions, persons of cultivated
manners can only feel and express,
find a place? And without minds thus
happily organised, and without sensibilities
as easily roused as lasting, pliant or obdurate,

according to the object that excites
them into action, or bidding defiance to repulse,
inconstancy and dangers, how could
chivalry feed its enthusiasm, or imagination
awaken into life?

But in this work we find all these anomalies
reconciled. We see heroes capable
of the wildest enterprises, and subject to
the most vehement emotions, to secure the
approbation of their mistresses. We see
damsels braving every peril, smiling in captivity,
to meet the objects of their love.
We moreover meet with heroines cased in
armour covering hearts at once steeled
against the lance's point or falchion's edge,
and a prey to the utmost ecstacies of enthusiastic
fondness and refined irritability[10] .

Such are the personages who now, for
the first time, are found to have inhabited
the wilderness of sands, under no cultivation
of mind, and bound by no moral restraint,
but what love and friendship excited

and established. Few could read or write.
None were philosophers. Wisdom had its
only support in the influence attached to
advanced years. Their sages were superior
in age, and enjoyed a confidence among
the tribes that no one could uproot, and
which Antar only, by his martial prowess
and universally admitted superiority, could
thwart.

Whether these traits will tend to suggest
further materials to induce the learned to
adopt the theory, so much disputed, that
romance and all its artificial charms come
from the East, and therefore coincide
with the opinions already supported so
energetically by the Editor of the first
volume, the Translator, unbiassed in his
own views on the subject, with no decided
opinions to render him difficult of conviction
to arguments in favour of an opposite
system, leaves the point, here untouched,
to be canvassed by persons whose time has
been more immediately employed in such
matters, and whose pursuits have led them

more accurately to distinguish between the
pretensions produced in defence of either
question.

The Translator has divided the work
into three parts, in which order it is his
intention to publish it.

The first reaches to the marriage of Antar
and Ibla; in which it is the object of the
author to raise his hero to a sufficient
eminence in rank among the Arabs, by his
conquests over various countries, and more
particularly by his victories over the individual
chiefs and heroes, most conspicuous
for their power, and whose haughtiness and
martial spirit could ill brook the elevation
of one sprung from a slave woman, in
order that, by reducing these warriors to
submission, and by gaining their good will
and friendship, he might, by means of his
own intrepidity and the intercession of his
friends advocating his cause, attain the
chief object of his ambition; his acknowledgment
as an Arab chief, and his subsequent
marriage with Ibla.

The second part includes the period
when the hero suspends his poem at Mecca.
This grand point he at length attains, not
only by the friendly dispositions of his former
associates, and the continuance of his
own heroic deeds, but also by the means of
his two sons and a brother, whom he discovers
amongst the heroes of the desert.
Encouraged by their counsels, and urged
by his own ambition, after various conflicts
and conquests, he resolves to crush the
envious malice of his domestic foes, and in
despite of all the machinations contrived
against him, and the hostilities of all the
most potent kings of Arabia, he succeeds
in accomplishing this second object of his
ambition.

The third part comprises the death of
Antar, and most of his comrades and relations;
in the course of which he wages
endless wars against the more distant tribes,
—visits Constantinople and Europe, and
invades that part of Arabia inhabited by
the Æthiopians, amongst whom he discovers

his mother's relations, and finds out
that she was the daughter of a mighty
monarch, and himself thus descended in
both lines from a majestic race. His last
conquest is over his domestic enemies.
His death is consonant with the rules of
poetical justice. He falls under the hand
of one whom he might have justly punished
with death, but who was the object of
cruelty he had never practised on any one
before, not even his most inveterate foes.

This division is not at all pursued in the
original; but as it is evident that the publication
of the whole work at once was impossible,
the translator has endeavoured to
render its appearance less objectionable.
He has also taken another liberty, and has
divided the work into chapters according
to his own fancy.

The copy of the original from which the
translation is made is an uninterrupted
narrative. But the larger copy[11] he has in

his possession, as also one or two other
copies he has seen, is divided into sections
of very great length. Another copy, which
he only saw for a few minutes, appeared to
be cut up into portions much shorter than
the chapters as now printed. This is the
only alteration he has deemed it advisable
to make. Perhaps it would have made the
work more generally acceptable, had he
ventured even to curtail this abridgement,
and to omit many of those reiterated repetitions,
which whilst they tend to give
an idea of the original composition, materially
damp the interest of the story in
our estimation, and certainly weary the
general reader. But where to begin, or
where to stop, is difficult to decide. To
take the opinion of the ignorant in oriental
literature would be unwise in the extreme.
The advantage of the advice of oriental
scholars was by no means easy to obtain;
and of even one acquainted with the book
in question, quite impossible[12]
.

Under these circumstances, the translator,
unwilling to quit his original without
having some decided landmark to guide him
when deviating from the straight course, has
adhered as closely as possible to the Arabic
idiom, only endeavouring to render it intelligible
to the English reader; and if he
has succeeded at all in combining what

is rarely compatible, an easy English style
with the character of the Oriental, he will
not consider his perseverance misapplied,
or his opinion of the original as erroneous.
If, on the other hand, the public should
form a different opinion, he begs their
judgment may rest solely on the translation,
and he will readily join in wishing that the
task had devolved on one more capable of
doing justice to its merits[13] .