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out, with ruthless rigour, their programme for crushing out the life and spirit of this 'Arab movement,' by hanging its leaders, exiling the Arab notables, and starving the masses. On his arrival, however, Jemal found that the inhabitants were peaceful, and practically all supporting the Government with their lives and property in its conduct of the war which it had imposed on them; and that, therefore, there was nothing to justify the institution of a reign of terror. Thereon, he, with the characteristic cunning and deceit of the Turk, tried at first to pose as the friend of the Arabs, gathered round him the élite of Syria, and lured them into confidence by falsely pretending to approve and admire the Arab national movement. It is even said that he went so far as to make a speech, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honour at Damascus, wherein he said: 'How can we expect the fatherland to progress when Arab and Turk forget and neglect their respective national ideals and when ignorance prevails? On suitable occasions he gave expression to other views of a similar character, and thus entrapped the Arab patriots, who revealed to him their innermost hopes and aspirations, assuring him, at the same time, in all sincerity, that they were ready to sacrifice their very lives on the altar of Empire, provided the Government respected and recognised their national claims and rights. He then started dispersing Arab officers and men in the outlying provinces of the Empire, in the Caucasus, the Dardanelles and Persia, and organised an elaborate system of spying; and when finally he saw the country cleared of its militant elements, and his position absolutely secure, he brought down his heavy hand on the helpless population and indulged in that series of atrocities that has horrified the civilised world. When all this was reported to the Grand Shereef, he at once sent his son Emir Faisal . . . to remonstrate with Jemal against this suicidal policy, and to advise him to refrain from it. The Pasha promised to do so; but hardly had Emir Faisal arrived back in the Hejaz when the same ruthless policy was revived with even greater violence. Cases of hanging and exile became more frequent, and, worse than all, the wilful starving of the population was inaugurated. Meantime, the blockade of the Turkish coasts had been declared, and as the Turks stopped the carriage of all foodstuffs by the railway and by caravan to the Hejaz, a state of famine was brought about.

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capped the Turks in sending reinforcements. The Turks, however, were too seriously involved elsewhere to be able to devote any large force to handle the rising. A decree was issued in Constantinople deposing the Grand Shereef, who in reply published a proclamation in Cairo setting forth numerous indictments against the Turkish Committee of Union and Progress in general and against Enver Pasha, Talaat Bey and Jemal Pasha in particular. See also WORLD WAR: 1916: VI. Turkish theater: c.

1916 (June).-Proclamation of the sherif of Mecca. "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is our general proclamation to all our Moslem brothers. O God, judge between us and our people in truth; Thou art the Judge. The world knoweth that the first of all Moslem princes and rulers to acknowledge the Turkish Government were the Emirs of Mecca the Blessed. This they did to bind together and make strong the brotherhood of Islam, for they saw the Sultans of the House of Osman (may the dust of their tombs be blessed, and may they dwell in Paradise!), how they were upright, and how they carried out all the commandments and ordinances of the Faith and of the Prophet (prayers be upon him!) perfectly. Therefore they were obedient to them at all times. For a token of this, remember how in A. H. [Anno Hegira] 1327 [1908] I with my Arabs helped them against the Arabs, to save Ebhah from those who were besieging it, and to preserve the name of the Government in honor; and remember how again in the next year I helped them with my armies, which I entrusted to one of my sons; for in truth we were one with the Government until the Committee of Union and Progress rose up, and strengthened itself, and laid its hands on power. Consider how since then ruin has overtaken the State, and its possessions have been torn-from it, and its place in the world has been lost, until now it has been drawn into this last and most fatal war. All this they have done, being led away by shameful appetites, which are not for me to set forth, but which are public and a cause for sorrow to the Moslems of the whole world, who have seen this greatest and most noble Moslem Power broken in pieces and led down to ruin and utter destruction. Our lament is also for so many of its subjects, Moslems and others alike, whose lives have been sacrificed without any fault of their own. Some have been treacherously put to death, others cruelly driven from their homes, as though the calamities of war were not enough. Of these calamities the heaviest share has fallen upon the Holy Land. The poor, and even families of substance, have been made to sell their doors and windows, yea, even the wooden frames of their houses, for bread, after they had lost their furniture and all their goods. Not even so was the lust of the [Party of] Union and Progress fulfilled. They laid bare all the measure of their wicked design, and broke the only bond that endured between them and the true followers of Islam. They departed from their obedience to the precepts of the Book. [Here follow a number of charges, sacrilegious, etc., against the Turkish government] . . . We leave all of this to the Moslem world for judgment. Yes, we can leave the judgment to the Moslem world; but we may not leave our religion and our existence as a people to be a plaything of the Unionists. God (Blessed be He!) has made open for us the attainment of freedom and independence, and has shown us a way of victory to cut off the hand of the oppressors, and to cast out their garrison from our midst We have attained independence, an independence of

"The Unionists, meantime, had become so drunk with the lust of blood that they actually set about condemning, wholesale, Arab officers who were fighting for them on distant fronts, and degrading Arab soldiers to the position of slaves, and driving them to menial work and calling them on every occasion 'traitors.' As a crowning of this mad career they finally attacked the Arabs in their most sensitive and vital point, the Sheriat, a wellknown member of the Committee, going so far as to declare publicly his contempt for Islam and its teachings. Finding that persuasion and argument were worse than useless with a people of such temper and mind, the Grand Shereef finally drew the sword as the final arbiter."-Near East, Feb. 2, 1917.-On June 9, 1916, the Grand Shereef made his first move by declaring himself independent of the Turkish government. Mecca and the surrounding district were loyal to him and the Turkish garrison in Jeddah was overcome. Taif was soon captured, but with Turkish troops in Medina it was too strong for the Arabs to invest. The latter tore up over a hundred miles of the Hejaz Railway tracks and thus severely handi

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the rest of the Ottoman Empire, which is still groaning under the tyranny of our enemy. Our independence is complete, absolute, not to be laid hands on by any foreign influence or aggression, and our aim is the preservation of Islam and the uplifting of its standard in the world. We fortify ourselves on the noble religion which is our only guide and advocate in the principles of administration and justice. We are ready to accept all things in harmony with the Faith and all that leads to the Mountain of Islam, and in particular to uplift the mind and the spirit of all classes of the people in so far as we have strength and ability. This is what we have done according to the dictates of our religion, and on our part we trust that our brethren in all parts of the world will each do his duty also, as is incumbent upon him, that the bonds of brotherhood in Islam may be confirmed. We beseech the Lord of Lords, for the sake of the Prophet of Him who giveth all things, to grant us prosperity and to direct us in the right way for the welfare of the faith and of the faithful. We depend upon God the All-Powerful, whose defence is sufficient for us.-Shereef and Emire of Mecca, El Hussein ibn Ali, 25 Sha'ban 1334." [June 27, 1916.]

"Later in the year another manifesto was published, and finding that the Turkish government was unable to send any large army to suppress the revolt, Shereef Hussein became more daring. On November 4 the Shereef had himself formally proclaimed 'Sultan of Arabia'; and a large number of Arab chiefs assembled in Mecca for the ceremony."-Annual Register, 1916, p. 275.-"The official recognition by England, France, and Italy of the proclamation of the Grand Shereef of Mecca as King of the Hejaz invests a really remarkable figure with singular interest. His Majesty the King of the Hejaz Hussein Ibn Ali, has the distinction of being able to claim what is probably the purest and oldest lineage of all the crowned heads of the world. Added to his personal qualities and achievements, this fact goes far to account for the remarkable phenomenon of a practically unanimous acknowledgment of him as their supreme lord by the great chieftains of Arabia, whose mutual jealousies and exaggerated love of personal authority are proverbial. Purity of lineage is a source of great pride with the Arabs, and, when it is traceable to their Prophet, it commands the highest veneration on their part. The high value they place on documents attesting the descent of their thoroughbred horses may be cited as a proof of the value they attach to the principle of selection. Shereef Hussein Ibn Ali comes from Beni Hashem, the quintessence, so to say, of the tribe of Koreish. His descent is traceable, through his immediate ancestors, Ali Ibn Mohammed, Ibn Abdul Aziz, Ibn Aoun, back in unbroken line to the Prophet Mohammed. All the Moslems of the world acknowledge this lineage, and believe in Ishmael as being the original ancestor of the Arabs, whose lineage is again traced back to Noah."-Near East, Feb. 2, 1917.-In their reply to President Wilson's note of Dec. 20, 1916, the Allied powers stated the general nature of their war aims, and included among them "the setting free of the populations subject to the bloody tyranny of the Turks." And Mr. Balfour, in his despatch of Jan. 16, 1917, in which he explained these aims from the point of view of Great Britain, observed that "the interests. of peace and the claims of nationality alike require that Turkish rule over alien races should, if possible, be brought to an end." It was in the same spirit that President Wilson, in his speech to the Senate on Jan. 23,

ARABIA, 1918

1917, proposed that the Monroe Doctrine be adopted as the doctrine of the world, "that no nation should seek to extend its polity over any other nation or people." Thus the effort of the Arabs of Hejaz to free themselves from the oppressive rule of the Turks received the sanction of all the Allies. The province of Western Arabia to which the name of Hejaz has been given extends along the Red Sea coast from the Gulf of Akaba to the south of Taif. It is bounded on the north by Syria, on the east by the Nafud desert, and by Nejd, and on the south by Asir. Its length is about 750 miles, and its greatest breadth from the Harra, east of Khaibar, to the coast is 200 miles. Barren and uninviting mostly in its northern part, yet with many very fertile and well-cultivated portions in the southern section, sustaining a brave, hardy and fearless population, the chief claim of Hejaz to fame is that it contains the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, to which Mohammedan pilgrims come annually from all parts of the world. During the World War the Arabs rendered splendid services in fighting and harassing the Turks. Of particular interest is the romantic part played in the task of uniting the Arab tribes by a young English Oxford graduate, Thomas Lawrence. When the World War broke out he was studying archæological inscriptions in Mesopotamia. He was then twenty-six years old and possessed a profound knowledge of the land and its languages. Though he had had no military experience, he was appointed an officer (colonel) in the British army, but he usually wore the costume of an Arab, which he carried like a native. Mounted on horse or camel, he led armies of Arabs in many fights with the Turks. The latter and their German allies were not slow to discover that Lawrence was a mighty factor in the Arab problem. "Through their spies they learned that Lawrence was the guiding spirit of the whole Arabian revolution. They offered a reward of $500,ooo for him, dead or alive. But the Bedouins would not have betrayed their idolized leader for all the gold in the fabled mines of Solomon."— L. Thomas, Thomas Lawrence, Prince of Mecca (Asia, Sept., 1919, p. 829).-After the capture of Bagdad the British commander, General Maude, issued a proclamation to the people of that ancient city on March 19, 1917, in which the following reference to the Arabs occurs: "In Hejaz the Arabs have expelled the Turks and Germans who oppressed them and proclaimed the Shereef Hussein as their king, and his lordship rules in independence and freedom, and is the ally of the nations who are fighting against the power of Turkey and Germany; so, indeed, are the noble Arabs, the lords of Koweyt, Nejd, and Asir. Many noble Arabs have perished in the cause of Arab freedom, at the hands of those alien rulers, the Turks, who oppressed them. . . . It is the hope and desire of the British people and the nations in alliance with them that the Arab race may rise once more to greatness and renown among the peoples of the earth, and that it shall bind itself together to this end in unity and concord. O people of Bagdad, remember that for twenty-six generations you have suffered under strange tyrants who have ever endeavored to set one Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. This policy is abhorrent to Great Britain and her Allies, for there can be neither peace nor prosperity where there is enmity and misgovernment."

1918. Speech of Lloyd George on British war aims. See WORLD WAR: 1918: X. Statem war aims: a.

World War

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outs of the Treaty of Versailles.uence and the Syrian problem.IN the Arabs.--"After the prinThe Nova allotted their quotas at the 、་、་ ་་ e was a belated announce... of the Hejaz would be that httle Arab kingdom, reced England as a belligerent Na left out, but Faisul, third Hejaz (or, as the King prewt of Mecca), and a young SA Weed Lawrence, who had been My tumity of the descendants of M.Seed and was a major-general PN And, made a few spirited remards the the share of the Arab army in the

ARABIA, 1919

liberation of Syria and the feelings which those Arabs might entertain if omitted from the Peace Conference; and the Kingdom of the Hejaz secured its two seats. . . . Meantime certain statesmen in Europe had drawn up secret treaties arranging for a division of Syria and Mesopotamia between Russia, France, and England. This was in 1916, before the Russian Revolution and before the Syrians had achieved their independence. France was to receive the coast strip of Syria, the Vilayet of Adana, and a large strip of land to the north; Russia, in addition to Constantinople, most of what is commonly called Armenia, and some of the south coast of the Black Sea; England, southern Mesopotamia and the Syrian ports of Caiffa and Acre. Palestine was to have a special régime; and the territory between the French and English acquisitions was to be formed into a confederation of Arab governments, or a single independent Arab government, and was divided into 'zones' in which France and England were to have varying degrees of 'influence.' this treaty when he led the Arab revolt; nor did i Faisul did not know of the Arabs and Syrians when they revolted. No one was satisfied with the old treaty. The Russians no longer wanted a share of the spoils; the Syrians wanted real independence; and certain French interests wanted a 'unified Syria' under French tutelage. . . . To the Arab, Syria is simply a region where Arabs, a few of whom are Christians, live more settled industrial lives; there is no word for 'Syria' in the Arab tongue."-Nation, April 19, 1919.-"The Arab world, where considerations into which the wishes of the inhabitants or the main interests of the country did not always enter, have led to its division into spheres of influence. It is unnecessary to go into the different agreements. . . . The French at present hold and administer the Syrian coast towns from Tyre to Alexandretta inclusive, while the Emir Feisal, the son of the King of the Hedjaz, whose services to the Allies in the war are a matter of common knowledge, rules inland Syria [whence he was expelled by the French in August, 1920]. The cities of Damascus, Hama, Homs, and Aleppo are [were until then] under his government. . . . [He is now ruler of Irak (Mesopotamia) under British mandate.] The Hedjaz itself is declared by the Treaty to be a free, independent state. Palestine is to remain under the direct administration of the mandatory. Mesopotamia and Syria are made independent states in accordance with Article 22 of the League of Nations, though they are to receive the advice and assistance of mandatories until they are able to stand alone. The boundaries of all three countries are to be fixed by the principal Allied Powers. Many of the Arabs object to the present arrangement. Their view, which is shared by not a few Europeans, is that it splits up into several parts a country which is essentially one. they will, they say, certainly come together again In the end either in the form of a single state or of a confederation. Nature herself favours this unity. The great rivers would disregard division. So would the nomad. He crosses the country from end to end. There is summer pasture in Syria, while winter grazing takes him as far as the Persian Gulf. He is also the carrier of the desert, so that neither Syria nor Arabia can be permanently cut off from Mesopotamia. And the desert will only support a limited number of people. In other countries the surplus goes to America. Here the Bedu has an America at his tent door. He just goes to the river strip or he settles in Syria, as he has done from time immemorial. Its outlying settlements

are his market towns. The differences between Arabs seem great to the stranger. They really only go skin deep. Townsman, settler, and Bedu may be kept apart by mutual contempt, but all are proud of their descent from the desert. Like their religion they belong to it. What keeps the country one is something deeper than Arab nationality, though the population is in any case mainly Arab. So are its language and its civilization. This applies to Syria and Palestine as well as to the rest. In Palestine the Zionist claims are based not on the present, but on the past and the future; they count on a large immigration of Jews, who at present form only one-sixth to oneninth of the inhabitants. The Christian Syrians of the coast and in the Lebanon are against coming into an Arab confederation or kingdom. It is not, however, because they are likely to be illtreated. Christians are already helping the Arabs to build a state at Damascus. But the Christian population is too small, and if the rest of the country one day comes together it will be impossible to keep it from its natural outlet to the Mediterranean. The Persian Gulf is only a back door."Round Table, June, 1920, p. 511.

ALSO IN: L. Thomas, King Hussein and his Arabian knights (Asia, May, 1920).

1919.-King of Hejaz and the revolt of the Wahabites. "The Lebanon Syrian Committee in the second week of August addressed to the Central Syrian Committee located in Paris the following telegram: 'The Arabian military authorities at Damascus are continuing their arbitrary recruiting. They have just decided to send an army of Syrians to the Hejaz, on a payment of three Egyptian pounds per man, probably to fight against the Wahabites. They are thus treating Syria as a country conquered by the Hejaz, and are misapplying the subsidies furnished by the Allies.' The Mussulman sect of the Wahabites is at war with Hussein, King of Arabia. The causes that led to these hostilities were briefly as follows: When the Ottoman Empire joined the European war the Hejaz and the other Emirates of Arabia joined the Allies, who created Hussein King of Arabia. Hussein played a prominent part from this time on. He only was represented at the Peace Conference. His son, Feisul, became a candidate for the throne of Hejaz under the aegis of England. Hussein's proclamation of himself as Khalif, or great religious leader of Islam, gave offense to the Wahabites among other sects. His subsequent proposal to unite Hedjaz with Nedj, where the Wahabites are mainly centred, brought on a crisis, and the conflict was declared by the Wahabite leader."-Times Current History, Oct., 1919, p. 172.-See also SYRIA.-"The Arab tribes are notoriously independent, and, so far as the outside world knows, have not acted together since the time of Mohammed and of the early conquests of Islam. Even then, some were lukewarm and worse. It will, therefore, be in point to consider the positions taken up by the other elements in Arabia. Of the maritime states to the east, Koweit, Bahrein, Oman, little need be said. The Persian Gulf has known English control since the seventeenth century, a control which is the oldest element in the British Empire. It has known also the Turks, and has no desire for further knowledge. The population of Oman, also, is Ibadite, a sect of Puritans, dissenting and protesting from the earliest Moslem history and standing apart from both Sunnites and Shi'ites. No call to a Holy War from a schismatic Ottoman Caliph would affect them. The great valley of Hadramaut has sent its sons over the farthest seas and is more

cosmopolitan than any other part of Arabia. It, too, has little use for Ottoman-German dreams. The Yemen is a land where recorded history reaches into Babylonian times. Since the renewed occupation by the Turks, in 1871, it has been fighting them; and at Sa'da and San'a there has been, and is a line of Imams, of the Zaidite branch of the Shi'ites, which dates its foundation back to a certain Rassi in A. D. 860. The Zaidites are very modified Shi'ites, holding principally to the divine right to rule inherent in the blood of the Prophet, and thus have found it possible to work together with the Sharifs of Mecca. In Athir, or Asir, a district on the Red Sea, a certain Imam Idrisi has been in insurrection against the Turks since, at least, the Turko-Italian war. The present Great Sharif assisted the Turks then in relieving the Turkish garrison of Obha and securing for it a safe retreat. Now, naturally, he is at one with Idrisi and his followers. In the interior there are two states, settled round greater oases, which have made the politics of central Arabia for about a century. One, to the southeast of Riyad, is all of the Wahabite empire that maintains independence. Once it threatened Syria and Egypt, and indeed, the Moslem world, but now it is limited to a little island in the deserts. But it is still war-like and maintains the traditions of the earliest Islam. It is, in fact, a revival of the ideals of the monkish state of Medina under the first successors of Mohammed. To the north, at Hayil, is the dynasty of the Ibn Rashids. It may be best compared to the Arab court of the Umayyads at Damascus. The Ibn Rashids are orthodox Sunnite Moslems; but they wear their religion more lightly than do the austere Wahabites to the southeast of them. They appreciate literature and poetry and the joy of life. Between them and the Ibn Sa'ud at Riyad lies the headship of inner Arabia. Now one and now the other has held it. But, invariably, up till now, on every question they have taken opposite sides."-G. B. Macdonald, Arabian situation (Nation, Nov. 8, 1917, PP. 505507).

1920.-Separated from Turkey by Treaty of Sèvres. See HEJAZ, KINGDOM OF; SÈVRES, TREATY OF: 1920: Contents: Part III. Political clauses: Hejaz. For further information on Arabia, see also CALIPHATE; MOHAMMEDANISM.

ALSO IN: T. Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur zeit der Sassaniden.-S. Lane-Poole, Mohammedan dynasties.-C. Huart, Geschichte der Araber (2 vols., 1916).-S. M. Zwemer, Arabia, the cradle of Islam.-R. F. Burton, Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah.-A. Sprenger, Alte Geographie Arabiens.-D. G. Hogarth, Penetration of Arabia.-J. T. Bent, Southern Arabia.

ARABIA, Case of.-The sinking in the Mediterranean, on November 6, 1916, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Arabia with one American on board was made the occasion of a protest by the Department of State to the German government, and a charge that the promise made after the Sussex case had been broken. "The German note on the Arabia, now made public, gave as the reason for sinking her the belief that she was a transport. November 6, one hundred miles west of the [Ionian] island of Cerigo, a German submarine, said the note, fell in with a large steamship coming from the Cerigo Straits. She was painted black, and did not, as was usual with the Peninsular and Oriental steamers, have light-colored superstructures. Though identical with the Arabia, she was off the route taken steamers between Port Said and Malta, that taken by vessels of war. On boar

'large batches of Chinese and other colored persons in their national costumes.' Supposing them to be workmen soldiers, 'such as are used in great numbers behind the front by the enemies of Germany,' the submarine commander believed he was concerned with a transport ship, and 'attacked without delay and sank her.' Should the United States give the data showing that the Arabia was an ordinary passenger steamer, the action of the submarine commander would not then be in accordance with his instructions. The act would be a regrettable mistake 'from which the German Government would promptly draw the appropriate consequences.' The British Government, when informed of this reply and asked for the facts, answered that the Arabia was not, when sunk, and never had been, in the service of the Government; that there were no Asiatics on board save the Indian crew; and that she did not take the usual route, for fear of submarines."-J. B. McMaster, United States in the World War, pp. 280-281.-See also WORLD WAR: 1916: IX. Naval operations: b.

ARABIA FELIX: Conquests in. See ABYSSINIA: 6th-16th centuries.

ARABIAN MUSIC. See MUSIC: Ancient period.

ARABIC, White Star liner, torpedoed by a German submarine on August 19, 1915, while on a voyage to New York. The attack, which occurred near the scene of the Lusitania tragedy, was without warning, and the vessel sank within 10 minutes, with resultant loss of fifty-four lives, including three Americans. The German Government at first asserted that the Arabic had attempted to ram the submarine but later waived this contention. While the case was in discussion between the two Governments, Count von Bernstorff, on September 1, gave a pledge for his Government that "liners will not be sunk by our (German) submarines without warning and without safety of the lives of noncombatants, provided that the liners do not try to escape or offer resistance." This pledge was given in ostensible answer to the third Lusitania note and without reference to the Arabic sinking, which, however, was adjusted under it. In a second note, dated October 5, the German ambassador notified the State Department that his Government "regretted and disavowed" the sinking of the Arabic, which "was undertaken against the instructions issued to the commander," and was "prepared to pay an indemnity for the American lives" lost.-See also U. S. A.: 1915 (MaySeptember); 1915 (August); WORLD WAR: 1915: XI. Politics and diplomacy: d.

ARABIC LITERATURE.-Its characteristics. "Of no civilization is the complexion of its literary remains so characteristic of its varying fortunes as is that of the Arabic. The precarious conditions of desert life and of the tent, the more certain existence in settled habitations, the grandeur of empire acquired in a short period of enthusiastic rapture, the softening influence of luxury and unwonted riches, are so faithfully portrayed in the literature of the Arabs as to give us a picture of the spiritual life of the people which no mere massing of facts can ever give. Well aware of this themselves, the Arabs at an early date commenced the collection and preservation of their old literary monuments with a care and a studious concern which must excite within us a feeling of wonder. For the material side of life must have made a strong appeal to these people when they came forth from their desert homes. Pride in their own doings, pride in their own past, must have spurred them on; yet an ardent feeling for the beautiful in speech is evident from the begin

ning of their history. The first knowledge that we have of the tribes scattered up and down the deserts and oases of the Arabian peninsula comes to us in the verses of their poets. The early Teuton bards, the rhapsodists of Greece, were not lis tened to with more rapt attention than was the simple Bedouin, who, seated on his mat or at the door of his tent, gave vent to his feelings of joy or sorrow in such manner as nature had gifted him. As are the ballads for Scottish history, so are the verses of these untutored bards the record of the life in which they played no mean part. Nor could the splendors of court life at Damascus, Bagdad, or Cordova make their rulers insensible to the charms of poetry,-that 'beautiful poetry with which Allah has adorned the Muslim.' A verse happily said could always charm, a satire well appointed could always incite; and the true Arab of to-day will listen to those so adorned with the same rapt attention as did his fathers of long ago. This gift of the desert-otherwise so sparing of its favors-has not failed to leave its impres sion upon the whole Arabic literature. Though it has produced some prose writers of value, writing, as an art to charm and to please, has always sought the measured cadence of poetry or the unmeasured symmetry of rhymed prose...

"Arabic poetry is thus entirely lyrical. There was too little, among these tribes, of the common national life which forms the basis for the Epos. The Semitic genius is too subjective, and has never gotten beyond the first rude attempts at dramatic composition. Even in its lyrics, Arabic poetry is still more subjective than the Hebrew of the Bible. . . . The horizon which bounded the Arab poet's view was not far drawn out. He describes the scenes of his desert life: the sand dunes; the camel, antelope, wild ass, and gazelle; his bow and arrow and his sword; his loved one torn from him by the sudden striking of the tents and departure of her tribe. The virtues which he sings are those in which he glories, 'love of freedom, independence in thought and action, truthfulness, largeness of heart, generosity, and hospitality' His descriptions breathe the freshness of his outdoor life and bring us close to nature; his whole tone rings out a solemn note, which is even in his lighter moments grave and serious,-as existence itself was for those sons of the desert, who had no settled habitation, and who, more than any one, depended upon the bounty of Allah."-F. F. Arbuthnot, Arabic authors, pp. 23-24.-See also SEMITIC LITERATURE.-"The oral communications of the ancient Egyptians, Medes and Persians, the two classic tongues of Europe, the Sanscrit of the Hindus and the Hebrew of the Jews, have long since ceased to be living languages. For the last twelve centuries no Western language has preserved its grammar, its style, or its literature intact and intelligible to the people of the present day But two Eastern tongues have come down from ages past to our own times, and continue to exist unchanged in books, and, to a certain extent, also unchanged in language, and these are Chinese and Arabic. . . . The unchangeable character of the Arabic language is chiefly to be attributed to the Koran, which has, from its promulgation to the present time, been regarded by all Muhammedans as the standard of religion and of literary composi tion. Strictly speaking, not only the history, but also the literature of the Arabs begins with Muham mad.

Excepting the Mua'llakat, and other preIslamitic poems collected in the Hamasas of Abu Tammam and Al-Bohtori, in Ibn Kutaiba and in the Mofaddhaliat, no literary monuments that preceded his time are in existence. The Koran became,