Assemblies of AI Hariri

“Between the civilizations of Christendom and Islam there is a gulf which no human genius, no concourse of events, can entirely bridge over. The most celebrated Orientals, whether in war or policy, in literature or learning, are little more than names for Europeans. A student here and there, weary of the beaten track of Greek and Roman antiquity, may wander into the paths of Eastern knowledge, but to the great number of educated men they appear but an impassable jungle, into which it is wearisome and useless to penetrate. For these reasons it is necessary that even the most esteemed and famous of Arabic writers should be introduced by an English translator as if they were almost unknown to his countrymen. I may assume without danger that this is the case with AI Hariri, of Basra. This eminent man of letters has been rewarded with a fame such as few have ever obtained. For more than seven centuries his work has been esteemed as, next to the Koran, the chief treasure of the Arabic tongue. Contemporaries and posterity have vied in their praises of him. His “Assemblies “have been commented with infinite learning and labour in Andalusia, and on the banks of the Oxus. His poetry has been sung at the feasts of the great, and by the camel-drivers in the desert. To appreciate his marvellous eloquence, to fathom his profound learning, to understand his varied and endless allusions, have always been the highest object of the literary, not only among the Arabic-speaking peoples, but wherever the Arabic language has been scientifically studied. His genius is, by its nature, so bound up with the structure and traditions of the Arabic language, of which his chief work may be said to be a compendium, that the Orientalists of Europe have shrunk from the difficulties of translation, and have even been unwilling to dwell upon merits which it is impossible that those whom they addressed should ever understand. I propose, therefore, to devote a few pages to his life and times, to the character of the work which I have undertaken to translate, and annotate, and to the class of literature of which it is the most eminent example.”— Author’s Introduction.