Transcriber's note:
Spelling of the Arabic names is different in the body ofthe text, in the References and in the Index,these have been left as shown in the original text.Page references in the Index are sometimes related to the footnotes inthese pages which can be found using the footnote links in thesepages, not necessarily in the page itself. Page titles aredisplayed when the mouse hovers over page numbers.
Litigants before a Judge
From an Arabic manuscript in the British Museum (Or. 1200; No. 1007 in Rieu'sArabic Supplement), dated A.H. 654 = A.D. 1256, which contains the Maqámȧtof Ḥarìrì illustrated by 81 miniatures in colours. This one represents a scene inthe 8th Maqáma: Abú Zayd and his son appearing before the Cadi of Ma‘arratu’l-Nu’mán. The figure on the left is Ḥárith b. Hammám, whom Ḥarìrì putsforward as the relater of Abú Zayd's adventures.
A LITERARY
HISTORY OF THE ARABS
BY
REYNOLD A. NICHOLSON
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1966
PUBLISHED BY
THE SYNDICS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bentley House, 200 Euston Road, London, N.W. 1
American Branch: 32 East 57th Street, New York N.Y. 10022,
West African Office: P.O. Box 33, Ibadan, Nigeria
First edition (T. Fisher Unwin) 1907, reprinted 1914, 1923
Reprinted (Cambridge University Press) 1930, 1941, 1953,
1962, 1966
First printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
Reprinted by offset-litho by Latimer Trend & Co. Ltd, Whitstable
To
Professor A. A. BEVAN
In grateful recollection of many kindnesses
PREFACE
A Literary History of the Arabs, published by T. Fisher Unwinin 1907 and twice re-issued without alteration, now appearsunder new auspices, and I wish to thank the Syndics of theCambridge University Press for the opportunity they have givenme of making it in some respects more accurate and useful thanit has hitherto been. Since the present edition is printed fromthe original plates, there could be no question of revising thebook throughout and recasting it where necessary; but whileonly a few pages have been rewritten, the Bibliography has beenbrought up to date and I have removed several mistakes fromthe text and corrected others in an appendix which includes acertain amount of supplementary matter. As stated in thepreface to the first edition, I hoped "to compile a work whichshould serve as a general introduction to the subject, and whichshould be neither too popular for students nor too scientific forordinary readers. It has been my chief aim to sketch in broadoutlines what the Arabs thought, and to indicate as far as possiblethe influences which moulded their thought.... Experience hasconvinced me that young students of Arabic, to whom thisvolume is principally addressed, often find difficulty in understandingwhat they read, since they are not in touch with thepolitical, intellectual, and religious notions which are presentedto them. The pages of almost every Arabic book abound inallusions to names, events, movements, and ideas o