Haqa'iq, and the Munabbih, all of them political organs; and the Insan and Kaukab, scientific journals. The legal paper, al-Huquq, continues to appear in Turkish and Arabic. In the Island of Cyprus, now under English rule, a political journal in Arabic, the Dîk al-Sharq (Cock of the East), is published; and in India there is the Nukhbat al-Akhbár (Selection of News), which would appear to be the only Arabic newspaper published in the huge area of Hindustan.

In Italy, the Mustaqill (The Independent); in France, the Anba, the Abu'l-Haul, the Ittihad, the Basir, the Sada, the Huquq, the Shuhra, the 'Urwa al- Wuthqa, and the Raja (all of which, like the Barjis, to which reference has already been made, have discontinued publication); in London, the Ittihad al-Arabi, the Khilafa, and the Mir' ât al-Ahwal, edited by Rizq-Allah Hasûn, represent the journals which have died out on foreign soil. Still green and flourishing are the Abû Nazzâra (The Old Man in Spectacles), a satirical illustrated paper edited by Shaikh Sanữa, and the Tawaddud and Munsif, in Paris; the Kashkûl, which contains Persian and Tartar sheets, at Tiflis; the Diya al-Khafiqain, partly printed in English, in London; the Kaukab Amîrikâ and al-Ayyám, in New York; the Marṣad, in Marseilles ; the Hâdî, in Philadelphia; and the Barâzîl, Raqîb, and Asmåï, in Brazil.

THE FUTURE OF ARABIC LITERATURE

The foregoing pages have given a picture of the blossoming, the maturity, and the decline of a literature which has lasted for thirteen centuries, from the earliest period of the Middle Ages down to our own days; and

we have watched the second growth, induced by the fecundating influence of modern thought, of the original stock, several branches of which-not to mention that offshoot of circumstance engrafted on it, the periodical press-have brought forth flowers. What future lies before this second growth? Will it be an imitation of the classic centuries? Or will the language, forced into modification by the necessity for interpreting fresh ideas, enrich itself with new and youthful forms which shall revivify the ancient groundwork ? It would seem, at the first glance, as though such centres of literary activity as Cairo and Beyrout were destined to produce men who, following the movement initiated by their predecessors of the nineteenth century, will, so to speak, serve as the link between Europe-and in Europe I include the colonies scattered all over the face of the globe, and everywhere continuing the work begun on this continent by the sons of Japhet—and the East, still wrapt in the semi-darkness of a dying twilight. They should be aided in this enterprise by the powerful support of the periodical press, which reaches the greater part of the Moslem world, reckoned at two hundred million souls, and which should be able to do an enormous amount of good in this direction.

But how does all this affect the language? Will it be transformed, developed? Will it grow clearer, more accessible to the mass of half-taught people educated in the primary schools? Any man who has studied the question must answer, No! Nowhere do we see a movement like that which, in the course of the last thirty years, has altered the old Osmanli-Turkish tongue, by clearing all its ancient rhetorical forms away. Arabic is still swathed about with classic formations, and conse

quently employs a quantity of expressions which can only be understood by literary men; thus closing the way of comprehension to the majority, in matters which would be of the deepest interest to it. No self-respecting writer would publish a political article in anything but rhymed prose, and the empty and futile rhetoric, the alliterations after the manner of Harîrî's Lectures, therein displayed, entertain the educated reader. There it ends. Yet, along with these clap-trap harangues, serious articles on special subjects, which make no attempt at shining by the use of a display of empty words, and appeal direct to the intelligence, without permitting their argument to be disturbed by extraneous trifling, are also published. To tell the truth, one obstacle lies always between the editor and his readers the uncertainty which attends the reading of a language in which the vowels are very seldom marked. This drawback it will be very hard to remedy. But it would be less difficult to read Arabic, and there would be less uncertainty about it, if the editor or the printer would consent to mark the harakat in the case of words which may bear a double meaning, in that of the passive tenses of verbs, and in that of the substantives of which the sense changes according to the spelling. This would render a huge service to that part of the Eastern public which has not worn out its youth on the flags of the universities-for I do not, of course, speak here of the very small circle of Europeans who may, either as a study or a pastime, cast their eyes over an Arabic journal, though they have far better and more practical literature at their command, in their own tongue.

Should Arabic writers, instead of producing their work in literal Arabic, write in the dialect of the various coun

tries in which Arabic is spoken, and in which a native press exists? That is not to be desired, for a newspaper established on such principles would find no readers beyond the inhabitants of the country in which it appears. A newspaper in Algerian Arabic is not likely to appeal to a man from Damascus, or Bagdâd, or Muscat. The poor fellow's Qâmûs would be wasted on it! The use of the literal Arabic ensures each newspaper a circle of readers ranging far beyond Arabic-speaking countries, and comprising all those in which it is the language of the learned, as Latin was amongst ourselves in the Middle Ages. This means every country inhabited by Moslems, from the Caucasus to China, from the Steppes of Tartary to the mouths of the Niger.

Already, indeed, many neologisms have found their way into the language, and it has become possible to render the modern expressions which the needs of modern times have created in Europe. The Arabic tongue, with its skilfully composed grammar, is sufficiently malleable to enable it to express modern thought, and at the same time to supply the whole of the Moslem East with the new technical terms in chemistry, medicine, and most sciences. The path one would fain see the writer of the future tread is that of the search for

limpidity and simplicity of expression. Once these are attained, a brilliant career may be predicted for Arabic Literature, which, like Islam itself, will endure for many an age to come.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERAL STUDIES

GERMAN

Hammer-Purgstall, Litteraturgeschichte der Araber. 7 vols. Vienna, 1850-1856.—Alfred von Kremer, Kulturgeschichte des Orients unter den Khalifen. Vol. ii. (Vienna, 1877), chaps. viii. (Poesie) and ix. (Wissenschaft und Litteratur).— Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur. Vol. i., Weimar, 1898 (in two parts); vol. ii., Berlin, 1899-1902 (also in two parts).— Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, second part of vol. vi. of the Litteraturen des Ostens in Einzeldarstellungen. Leipzig, 1901 (drawn up with a view to the general public).

LATIN

Hâjî-Khalfa, Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopædicum, edited in Arabic, with a Latin translation, by G. Fluegel. 7 vols., quarto. Leipzig and London, 1835-1858.

PRE-ISLAMIC PERIOD

ARABIC

Septem Mu'allakât carmina antiquissima Arabum. Ed. F. A. Arnold, Lipsiæ, 1850. Abû'l-Faraj al-Ișfahânî, Kitâb al-Aghânî (Book of Songs). 20 vols. Bûlâq, 1868.-Brünnow, The twenty-first volume of the Kitâb al-Aghânî, being a collection of biographies not contained in the Bûlâq edition. Leyden, 1888.-Rev. Father Salhani, S.J., published a collection of narratives drawn from the same work at Beyrout in 1888.-Kosegarten began to publish the text of this work, with a Latin translation and notes, at Greifenwald, but only the first volume appeared (1840).