Art. XIV.—Review of the Makámát ul Harírí

Extract

The Makámát of Abul Feteh el Harírí, in its own particular department (that of rhetorical gracefulness), is the leading classic of the Arabs. The principal merits then are those we cannot see. A language must be known in its familiar and habitual applications; its relations to all the characteristics of a people and a country, must not only be understood, but felt, pursued, and admired by foreigners, before the merits of style can be properly appreciated. We must wander with them over their deserts, watch with them beneath their skies—join in the pride of the past—the capriciousness of the present—the carelessness of the future—master every national peculiarity, and delight in each—before we can enter into the intellectual system that resulted from the whole.