'A Dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English; with a Dissertation on the Languages, Literature, and Manners of Eastern Nations' [‎9v] (23/1826)

11
DISSERTATION.
visionary field, learned and pious men have disputed
with much want of temper. The original idiom
of man has been considered as an interesting pur
suit ; and advocates have been found for the
superior claim of every ancient tongue : Adam
has been taught dialects he never knew ; and the
language even of Omnipotence they have not
blushed to determine with precision. To pierce
through the obscurity of those distant periods,
seems however above the powers of man ; and to
have no other tendency, than unprofitably to be
wilder the human understanding. I shall avoid
therefore those unknown regions through which
there appears no guide ; and confine myself to the
simple information of reason and probability . 1
The source of the Arabic Language lies far
beyond historic proof. Grammarians carry the
older dialect to the family of Heber, the fourth in
descent from Noah ; and the more modern to
Ishmael, the son of Abraham. These are Arabian
tales ; yet they apparently furnish this strong con
clusion ; that when nations have recourse to fable
and tradition for the epoch of an invention, no
period within the demonstration of record can
possibly be found to fix its more exact commence
ment. Though rude perhaps in its origin, and
gradual in its progress to improvement, the richness
of the Arabic has been long proverbial; and many
circumstances have concurred to render it not
only the most copious of any known tongue; but
to preserve it uncorrupted amidst all the political
and literary revolutions of surrounding states . 2
The Arabians were never conquered. The
Romans, the Persians, and the Ethiopians, made
indeed, at different times, impressions upon par
ticular districts j but they were all too slight, and
of too short duration, to introduce anv material
altei ation into their government, their language,
or their manners. From very early times, this
immense peninsula was divided into many states \
some independent, and others tributary to the
Tubbas or Himyarit sovereigns of Arabia Felix.
In those states many different dialects prevailed;
the principal of which were the Himyarit and the
Kuraysh, The first, though the language of the
most powerful of the Arabian princes, appears how
ever to have been little cultivated by the indepen
dent tribes; or even by those who paid them a
feudal obedience : a remarkable instance of which
is related by Muhammadan writers. An envoy
from a feudatory state having been sent to the
Tubba, that prince, when he was introduced, pro
nounced the word T'heb ; which in the Himyarit
implied Be seated : unhappily it signified Precipi
tate yourself'm the native dialect of the ambassador;
who, with a singular deference for the orders of
his sovereign, without hesitation or enquiry, threw
himself instantly from the castle-wall and perished.
The Kuraysh tribe were the noblest and the most
learned of all the Western Arabs : they were also
the greatest merchants, and carried on an exten
sive commerce with every adjacent state ; whilst
the Kaaba, or Square Temple of Mecca, which,
before the era of Muhammad, was solely under
their guardianship, drew annually a great con
course of pilgrims from every Arabian tribe, and
every country where the Sabean religion prevailed.
Where many strangers are accustomed to assemble
at stated times, politeness and refinement are a
natural consequence. Numbers of the pilgrims
were people of the first rank, and possessed of all
the science peculiar to their country or their age.
Great fairs were held during their residence, and
a variety of gay amusements filled up the intervals
of their religious duties. Of those entertainments,
literary compositions held the most distinguished
rank; every man of genius considering not his
own reputation alone, but even that of his nation
or his tribe, as interested in his success. Poetry
and rhetoric were chiefly cultivated and admired :
the first being looked upon as highly ornamental;
and the other as a necessary accomplishment in
the education of every leading man. An assem
bly, at a place called Ukdz, had been, in con
sequence, established about the end of the sixth
century; where all were admitted to a rival ship of
genius. The merits of their respective produc
tions were impartially determined by the assembly