A Literary History of the Arabs Part 28

Even in the Umayyad period, as we have seen, the maxim that Knowledge is Power was strikingly ill.u.s.trated by the immense social influence which Persian divines exerted in the Mu?ammadan community.[509]

Nevertheless, true Arabs of the old type regarded these _Mawali_ and their learning with undisguised contempt. To the great majority of Arabs, who prided themselves on their n.o.ble lineage and were content to know nothing beyond the glorious traditions of heathendom and the virtues practised by their sires, all literary culture seemed petty and degrading. Their overbearing att.i.tude towards the _Mawali_, which is admirably depicted in the first part of Goldziher's _Muhammedanische Studien_, met with a vigorous response. Non-Arabs and Moslem pietists alike appealed to the highest authority--the Koran; and since they required a more definite and emphatic p.r.o.nouncement than was forthcoming from that source, they put in the mouth of the Prophet sayings like these: "He that speaks Arabic is thereby an Arab"; "whoever of the people of Persia accepts Islam is (as much an Arab as) one of Quraysh."

This doctrine made no impression upon the Arabian aristocracy, but with the downfall of the Umayyads the political and social equality of the _Mawali_ became an accomplished fact. Not that the Arabs were at all disposed to abate their pretensions. They bitterly resented the favour which the foreigners enjoyed and the influence which they exercised. The national indignation finds a voice in many poems of the early 'Abbasid period, _e.g._:--

"See how the a.s.ses which they used to ride They have unsaddled, and sleek mules bestride!

No longer kitchen-herbs they buy and sell,[510]

But in the palace and the court they dwell; Against us Arabs full of rage and spleen, Hating the Prophet and the Moslem's _din_."[511]

[Sidenote: The Shu'ubites.]

The side of the non-Arabs in this literary quarrel was vehemently espoused by a party who called themselves the Shu'ubites (_al-Shu'ubiyya_),[512] while their opponents gave them the name of Levellers (_Ahlu 'l-Taswiya_), because they contended for the equality of all Moslems without regard to distinctions of race. I must refer the reader who seeks information concerning the history of the movement to Goldziher's masterly study,[513] where the controversial methods adopted by the Shu'ubites are set forth in ample detail. He shows how the bolder spirits among them, not satisfied with claiming an _equal_ position, argued that the Arabs were absolutely inferior to the Persians and other peoples. The question was hotly debated, and many eminent writers took part in the fray. On the Shu'ubite side Abu 'Ubayda, Biruni, and ?amza of I?fahan deserve mention. Ja?i? and Ibn Durayd were the most notable defenders of their own Arabian nationality, but the 'pro-Arabs' also included several men of Persian origin, such as Ibn Qutayba, Baladhuri, and Zamakhshari. The Shu'ubites directed their attacks princ.i.p.ally against the racial pride of the Arabs, who were fond of boasting that they were the n.o.blest of all mankind and spoke the purest and richest language in the world. Consequently the Persian genealogists and philologists lost no opportunity of bringing to light scandalous and discreditable circ.u.mstances connected with the history of the Arab tribes or of particular families. Arabian poetry, especially the vituperative pieces (_mathalib_), furnished abundant matter of this sort, which was adduced by the Shu'ubites as convincing evidence that the claims of the Arabs to superior n.o.bility were absurd. At the same time the national view as to the unique and incomparable excellence of the Arabic language received some rude criticism.

[Sidenote: a.s.similation of Arabs and Persians.]

[Sidenote: Enthusiasm for learning in the early 'Abbasid period.]

So acute and irreconcilable were the racial differences between Arabs and Persians that one is astonished to see how thoroughly the latter became Arabicised in the course of a few generations. As clients affiliated to an Arab tribe, they a.s.sumed Arabic names and sought to disguise their foreign extraction by fair means or foul. Many provided themselves with fict.i.tious pedigrees, on the strength of which they pa.s.sed for Arabs. Such a pretence could have deceived n.o.body if it had not been supported by a complete a.s.similation in language, manners, and even to some extent in character. On the neutral ground of Mu?ammadan science animosities were laid aside, and men of both races laboured enthusiastically for the common cause. When at length, after a century of b.l.o.o.d.y strife and engrossing political agitation, the great majority of Moslems found themselves debarred from taking part in public affairs, it was only natural that thousands of ardent and ambitious souls should throw their pent-up energies into the pursuit of wealth or learning. We are not concerned here with the marvellous development of trade under the first 'Abbasid Caliphs, of which Von Kremer has given a full and entertaining description in his _Culturgeschichte des Orients_. It may be recalled, however, that many commercial terms, _e.g._, tariff, names of fabrics (muslin, tabby, &c.), occurring in English as well as in most European languages are of Arabic origin and were brought to Europe by merchants from Baghdad, Mosul, Ba?ra, and other cities of Western Asia. This material expansion was accompanied by an outburst of intellectual activity such as the East had never witnessed before. It seemed as if all the world from the Caliph down to the humblest citizen suddenly became students, or at least patrons, of literature. In quest of knowledge men travelled over three continents and returned home, like bees laden with honey, to impart the precious stores which they had acc.u.mulated to crowds of eager disciples, and to compile with incredible industry those works of encyclopaedic range and erudition from which modern Science, in the widest sense of the word, has derived far more than is generally supposed.

[Sidenote: Development of the Moslem sciences.]

The Revolution which made the fortune of the 'Abbasid House was a triumph for Islam and the party of religious reform. While under the worldly Umayyads the studies of Law and Tradition met with no public encouragement and were only kept alive by the pious zeal of oppressed theologians, the new dynasty drew its strength from the Mu?ammadan ideas which it professed to establish, and skilfully adapted its policy to satisfying the ever-increasing claims of the Church. Accordingly the Moslem sciences which arose at this time proceeded in the first instance from the Koran and the ?adith. The sacred books offered many difficulties both to provincial Arabs and especially to Persians and other Moslems of foreign extraction. For their right understanding a knowledge of Arabic grammar and philology was essential, and this involved the study of the ancient Pre-islamic poems which supplied the most authentic models of Arabian speech in its original purity. The study of these poems entailed researches into genealogy and history, which in the course of time became independent branches of learning.

Similarly the science of Tradition was systematically developed in order to provide Moslems with practical rules for the conduct of life in every conceivable particular, and various schools of Law sprang into existence.

[Sidenote: Their cla.s.sification.]

Mu?ammadan writers usually distinguish the sciences which are connected with the Koran and those which the Arabs learned from foreign peoples. In the former cla.s.s they include the Traditional or Religious Sciences (_al-'Ulum al-Naqliyya awi 'l-Shar'iyya_) and the Linguistic Sciences (_'Ulumu 'l-Lisani 'l-'Arabi_); in the latter the Intellectual or Philosophical Sciences (_al-'Ulum al-'Aqliyya awi 'l-?ikmiyya_), which are sometimes called 'The Sciences of the Foreigners' (_'Ulumu 'l-'Ajam_) or 'The Ancient Sciences' (_al-'Ulum al-Qadima_).

The general scope of this division may be ill.u.s.trated by the following table:--

I. THE NATIVE SCIENCES.

1. Koranic Exegesis (_'Ilmu 'l-Tafsir_).

2. Koranic Criticism (_'Ilmu 'l-Qira'at_).

3. The Science of Apostolic Tradition (_'Ilmu 'l-?adith_).

4. Jurisprudence (_Fiqh_).

5. Scholastic Theology (_'Ilmu 'l-Kalam_).

6. Grammar (_Na?w_).

7. Lexicography (_Lugha_).

8. Rhetoric (_Bayan_).

9. Literature (_Adab_).

II. THE FOREIGN SCIENCES.

1. Philosophy (_Falsafa_).[514]

2. Geometry (_Handasa_).[515]

3. Astronomy (_'Ilmu 'l-Nujum_).

4. Music (_Musiqi_).

5. Medicine (_?ibb_).

6. Magic and Alchemy (_al-Si?r wa-'l-Kimiya_).

[Sidenote: The early 'Abbasid period favourable to free-thought.]

The religious phenomena of the Period will be discussed in a separate chapter, and here I can only allude cursorily to their general character. We have seen that during the whole Umayyad epoch, except in the brief reign of 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz, the professors of religion were out of sympathy with the court, and that many of them withdrew from all partic.i.p.ation in public affairs. It was otherwise when the 'Abbasids established themselves in power. Theology now dwelt in the shadow of the throne and directed the policy of the Government. Honours were showered on eminent jurists and divines, who frequently held official posts of high importance and stood in the most confidential and intimate relations to the Caliph; a cla.s.sical example is the friends.h.i.+p of the Cadi Abu Yusuf and Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d. The century after the Revolution gave birth to the four great schools of Muhammadan Law, which are still called by the names of their founders--Malik b. Anas, Abu ?anifa, Shafi'i, and Ahmad b. ?anbal. At this time the scientific and intellectual movement had free play. The earlier Caliphs usually encouraged speculation so long as it threatened no danger to the existing _regime_. Under Ma'mun and his successors the Mu'tazilite Rationalism became the State religion, and Islam seemed to have entered upon an era of enlightenment. Thus the first 'Abbasid period (750-847 A.D.) with its new learning and liberal theology may well be compared to the European Renaissance; but in the words of a celebrated Persian poet--

_Khil'ati bas fakhir amad 'umr 'aybash kutahist._[516]

"Life is a very splendid robe: its fault is brevity."

[Sidenote: The triumph of orthodoxy.]

The Caliph Mutawakkil (847-861 A.D.) signalised his accession by declaring the Mu'tazilite doctrines to be heretical and by returning to the traditional faith. Stern measures were taken against dissenters.

Henceforth there was little room in Islam for independent thought. The populace regarded philosophy and natural science as a species of infidelity. Authors of works on these subjects ran a serious risk unless they disguised their true opinions and brought the results of their investigations into apparent conformity with the text of the Koran.

About the middle of the tenth century the reactionary spirit a.s.sumed a dogmatic shape in the system of Abu 'l-?asan al-Ash'ari, the father of Mu?ammadan Scholasticism, which is essentially opposed to intellectual freedom and has maintained its petrifying influence almost unimpaired down to the present time.

I could wish that this chapter were more worthy of the t.i.tle which I have chosen for it, but the foregoing pages will have served their purpose if they have enabled my readers to form some idea of the politics of the Period and of the broad features marking the course of its literary and religious history.

CHAPTER VII

POETRY, LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE IN THE 'ABBaSID PERIOD

[Sidenote: The Pre-islamic poets regarded as cla.s.sical.]

Pre-Islamic poetry was the natural expression of nomad life. We might therefore have expected that the new conditions and ideas introduced by Islam would rapidly work a corresponding revolution in the poetical literature of the following century. Such, however, was far from being the case. The Umayyad poets clung tenaciously to the great models of the Heroic Age and even took credit for their skilful imitation of the antique odes. The early Mu?ammadan critics, who were philologists by profession, held fast to the principle that Poetry in Pre-islamic times had reached a perfection which no modern bard could hope to emulate, and which only the lost ideals of chivalry could inspire.[517] To have been born after Islam was in itself a proof of poetical inferiority.[518]

Linguistic considerations, of course, entered largely into this prejudice. The old poems were studied as repositories of the pure cla.s.sical tongue and were estimated mainly from a grammarian's standpoint.

[Sidenote: Abu Nuwas as a critic.]

These ideas gained wide acceptance in literary circles and gradually bia.s.sed the popular taste to such an extent that learned pedants could boast, like Khalil b. Ahmad, the inventor of Arabic prosody, that it lay in their power to make or mar the reputation of a rising poet as they deemed fit. Originality being condemned in advance, those who desired the approval of this self-const.i.tuted Academy were obliged to waste their time and talents upon elaborate reproduction of the ancient masterpieces, and to entertain courtiers and citizens with borrowed pictures of Bedouin life in which neither they nor their audience took the slightest interest. Some, it is true, recognised the absurdity of the thing. Abu Nuwas ( _circa_ 810 A.D.) often ridicules the custom, to which reference has been made elsewhere, of apostrophising the deserted encampment (_a?lal_ or _?ulul_) in the opening lines of an ode, and pours contempt on the fas.h.i.+onable glorification of antiquity. In the pa.s.sage translated below he gives a description of the desert and its people which recalls some of Dr. Johnson's sallies at the expense of Scotland and Scotsmen:--

"Let the south-wind moisten with rain the desolate scene And Time efface what once was so fresh and green!

Make the camel-rider free of a desert s.p.a.ce Where high-bred camels trot with unwearied pace; Where only mimosas and thistles flourish, and where, For hunting, wolves and hyenas are nowise rare!

Amongst the Bedouins seek not enjoyment out: What do they enjoy? They live in hunger and drought.

Let them drink their bowls of milk and leave them alone, To whom life's finer pleasures are all unknown."[519]

Ibn Qutayba, who died towards the end of the ninth century A.D., was the first critic of importance to declare that ancients and moderns should be judged on their merits without regard to their age. He writes as follows in the Introduction to his 'Book of Poetry and Poets' (_Kitabu 'l-s.h.i.+'r wa-'l-Shu'ara_):--[520]

[Sidenote: Ibn Qutayba on ancient and modern poets.]

"In citing extracts from the works of the poets I have been guided by my own choice and have refused to admire anything merely because others thought it admirable. I have not regarded any ancient with veneration on account of his antiquity nor any modern with contempt on account of his being modern, but I have taken an impartial view of both sides, giving every one his due and amply acknowledging his merit. Some of our scholars, as I am aware, p.r.o.nounce a feeble poem to be good, because its author was an ancient, and include it among their chosen pieces, while they call a sterling poem bad though its only fault is that it was composed in their own time or that they have seen its author. G.o.d, however, did not restrict learning and poetry and rhetoric to a particular age nor appropriate them to a particular cla.s.s, but has always distributed them in common amongst His servants, and has caused everything old to be new in its own day and every cla.s.sic work to be an upstart on its first appearance."

[Sidenote: Revolt against cla.s.sicism.]

The inevitable reaction in favour of the new poetry and of contemporary literature in general was hastened by various circ.u.mstances which combined to overthrow the prevalent theory that Arabian heathendom and the characteristic pagan virtues--honour, courage, liberality, &c.--were alone capable of producing poetical genius. Among the chief currents of thought tending in this direction, which are lucidly set forth in Goldziher's essay, pp. 148 sqq., we may note (_a_) the pietistic and theological spirit fostered by the 'Abbasid Government, and (_b_) the influence of foreign, pre-eminently Persian, culture. As to the former, it is manifest that devout Moslems would not be at all disposed to admit the exclusive pretensions made on behalf of the _Jahiliyya_ or to agree with those who exalted chivalry (_muruwwa_) above religion (_din_). Were not the language and style of the Koran incomparably excellent? Surely the Holy Book was a more proper subject for study than heathen verses.

But if Moslems began to call Pre-islamic ideals in question, it was especially the Persian ascendancy resulting from the triumph of the 'Abbasid House that shook the old arrogant belief of the Arabs in the intellectual supremacy of their race. So far from glorying in the traditions of paganism, many people thought it grossly insulting to mention an 'Abbasid Caliph in the same breath with heroes of the past like ?atim of ?ayyi' and Harim b. Sinan. The philosopher al-Kindi ( about 850 A.D.) rebuked a poet for venturing on such odious comparisons. "Who are these Arabian vagabonds" (_?a'aliku 'l-'Arab_), he asked, "and what worth have they?"[521]