11 JANUARY 1851, Page 17

PRESTON'S MARAMAT. * Mani; or, to give him his full-length appellation,

Abou-Moham- med Al Kaasem Ibn-Aali Al Hariri Al Basri Al Haraami, lived in the eleventh century of our wra, at Basra on the Tigris ; and was, as the name Harin implies, either a merchant or manufacturer of silk. His " Makamat " (rendered by Mr. Preston "Rhetorical Anecdotes ") have ever been famous among students of Arabic lite- rature, as a storehouse of rare words and idioms, and an exhibition of the extraordinary copiousness and capabilities of the language in which they are written. De Sacy, the greatest Arabic scholar of our times, has left in his edition of Harin a "monument= mre perennius"; and Arabic lexicographers have drawn from these Makamat, and the commentaries upon them, more than from pro- bably any single work except the Koran. In spite, however, of this wide and lasting reputation, they have been up to this time accessible to the European public only through an imperfect translation of a few Makamat into Latin by Schultens, with one by Golius, more than a century ago, and a version into German by Friedrich Ruckert, of which its author himself says, "meine arbeit gibt sich fur keine iibersetzung, sondern fiir eine nachbildung." Mr. Preston has translated only twenty at full length ; the rest being incapable of passing into a foreign language, except at a complete sacrifice of either literalness or intelligibility. De Saey says of many of them, "Ii y a des Makamat qui consistent tout entiers en emgmes, en logogriphes, et expressions a double entente, sorte de jeu d'esprit que le plus grand talent no saurait pas passer dans une autre langue." Mr. Preston, however, has added by way of appendix, a summary of the contents of the omitted Makamat; so that we probably have in his work as complete a representation of the original as can be furnished in an English dress. The name of Arabian stories will at once call up the classic book of our childhood, the bare recollection of which thrills us more than the actual reading of the most interesting romance with which we have made acquaintance in our less imaginative years. Mr. Preston, moreover, prevents us from forgetting our old delight, by telling us that his work is no idle rhapsody, intended, like "The Thousand and One Nights," to amuse the loiterers of the café or the seraglio, but the elaborate result of the literary system of a period in which not only the sciences but the useful arts of life were sacrificed by the ingenious and studious of a great nation, to a profound grammatical and rhetorical research into the structure and resources of their own most copious language. Let the lovers of the marvellous therefore beware of expecting any addition, through Mr. Preston's aid, to their stock of volOund- kind-marchen. They will be as disappointed as the youth on pleasure bent, who strolls into a lighted theatre in hope of the usual Thespian entertainment, and finds instead a grave gentleman in semiclerikal costume administering science to a juvenile au- ditory, or an Anti-Corn-law lecturer kindling into eloquence with the vision of universal abolition of import-duties and the calico millennium. Here we no longer meet with our old friends the genii and the enchanted princes and princesses, gardens whose trees bear jewels for fruit, wonderful lamps, and terrible ma- gicians. The stern genius of pure Islamism reigns throughout ; God is God and Mohammed is his prophet ; prayers and a godly life are the only charms to win the favour of Heaven. The trans- ition from the Arabian Nights is as startling as from a collection of our own fairy tales to Beveridge on the Thirty-nine Articles. And we must confess that, like many other highly orthodox and respectable writers, Hariri or his spokesman Abou-Zaid is rather dull to one in search of simple amusement. The stories consist for the most part of improvisations of Abou-Zaid under assumed characters, for the purpose of imposing on his au- dience and taxing their benevolence ; and are related by Hareth Ibn Hammam, a travelling merchant, who from constantly meeting with Abou-Zaid in his peregrinations never fails to detect his impostures, though always too late to prevent their success. The joke generally turns on Abou-Zaid applying the money which he had obtained by his pious and eloquent discourses to bad and profligate uses • though in the last Makamah he is re- presented as becoming really penitent and leaving off his wicked ways. On this very slender thread are strung the pearls of Ara- bian rhetoric, set in every quaint device that the ingenuity of cen- turies of study and invention had suggested. Such of these pearls as could be arranged in corresponding quaint devices of our own tongue, Mr. Preston seems to us to have been eminently successful in restringing ; and he has most bravely and honestly aided his critics to judge of his skill by giving in his notes the literal trans- lation of words and idioms, where the exigencies of metre or of language demanded a paraphrase in the text. Throughout the work the most painstaking effort after accuracy is noticeable—such effort as nothing short of a passion for his subject could have sus. - tained ; and we venture to say that Mr. Preston has raised an en- during monument of his own profound knowledge and untiring energy, and has at the same time furnished the student of the Arabic language with an important aid towards acquiring it in perfection. The translation is partly in a sort of metrical prose, resembling our translation of the Psalms and Proverbs, partly in various poetic measures ; thereby imitating, as far as is practicable, the form of the original.

Our first specimen is an exposition of Abou-Zaids' philosophy of morals, trolled off in reply to a half reproach of Hareth's on his disreputable way of life.

Makamat, or Rhetorical Anecdotes of Al Hariri of Basra. Translated from the original Arabic, with Annotations. By Theodore Preston, MA., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Bntain and Ire- land, and of the Asiatic Society of Paris. Published by Madden. "Since all mankind lt In, aelfis fraud With tigers seem to vie, F dUyguilemmeragithenroverlive

r And turn itoralumuil sly

• acuraeverthe wheel of life,. that so - The millstone round.m.ay "At-eagles.aimIlay abets, and seek lath noblest prize-robtain; .'..1:torlf.thou.but theia plumage graze,

• Thou may!stsamedeatkets gain ;

A-And strive the fairest.fruitsto. pluck,

Since haply may xemain Some leaves, at least, within thy grasp, '

If-fruit-'thou seekin vain.

' Though waywardlortune thwart thee-now,

Or treat rthee-with disdain,

'Ty beast- from all distracting thoughts

And anxious fears refrain: `Ter e'en the Changeful course of time .A promise may contain, • .:Thattoom.the state of.life-will ohange, IThat.makes thee now complain."

"ahe-nearest approach to 'Abou-ZbicFs. type in the England of to- .day, is is the,. gentleman- one-meets ,oeeasionally in the newspapers, irmakinganagnaminous proposals:.ePwritinefor a -moderate donceur, . epic, tragedy, Alava', or-review, and giving-it-to the-world-in the sname of .some diterarytaspiront whose purse is more productive than :Ais ;brain. Howobld have been exactly paralleled an the middle .):Ages brtheAravellingsoholars, -who-prooured-food aü lodging by disputations, against any -corner, in the -universities, which -mere aronauf intellectuabaetivity and. the- homes of 'learning . ;And ofthought. The following extract Will-recall -the casket scene Theltierchtuitof 'Venice.' Preston calls the 'verses.the most in.-enema andelaborate That' lEariri has composed; the in- _otruait;dopending-on,the repetition-of a-particular rhyme twice in veva:LT ain6. I presented, to-himaabiaari: and said to him, -to ,ra.y him, If,thou. wilt eulogize .thia -in wawa, it -is certaindyine, Whereupcm.he instantly begantodadite these lines, Without borrowing aught from ether sources, ' noble coin, of saffron colour clear, "O'eraogions wide.who pissest far and near ! -Thy -wear, thy titles,i current still remain - ,T.,h.hnestliceseeret pledge of-wealth. contaan ; Successful-industry thy steps attend ; ".•Tyy.aspect bright all welcome as a friend ; 'Endeared to all,. as though thy precious ore r Hid e'en, been molten from their-own heart's core.

• Whose pursathou fittest _boldness- may display, ,Though.kindraut beaeiniss or far, away ; With theerthe great their influence maintain, W,ithout thee Pleasure's sons of want complain; ',What heroes thy collected might hath cg.43:14! What lost of cares one stroke of thine- ed !

...dieteoft an_. angry churl,. whose d'ury burn

.Thy whipperechmantien: bath to mildness:tinned! ,Through thee the captive-by-his-kin forxot •• Is ransomed back to joys unmingled lot.

-.Such -power lethine, that, if-I- feared not blame, -Ii- e'en would say, ." Almi.vhty is thy-name V"-.' Afteir iriditing:theso words, ..he strietalted out- his hand- and-said, '--Aman,of -honour fulfils -what he haapromisecl, Arse rain cloud, gives a shower, if alas thundered.' • "Sci.1 threw him the denar;_and.said, Take.it, and welcome!' And he. put it Maids mouth, saying, May Gal bless it!' And then, -after paymrhis thanks, prepared for departure. But Ilad eencemM a:strong. predilection for his pleasantry, That made-me willing torineurn fresh.debt.to him. . Sal drew loath another. de_nar,. and said, tci hint, Wilt thou censure this, and then put it -witth, the other ? ' Whereupon he intlited artemponineously, and chanted readily, • ‘..-Wee.to thy jaundiced looks and:double face, Thom &Ise deceireroionnterfeit and base ; Ju,wlsonsaloved one's gay attire we view ,:ln.uniou strange with loser's sickly-hue! 'Whom sages justly. deema lureabhorrecl, 'Seducing-man to crimes that .grieve his Lord. Through thee the robber of his hand is maimed, ITIze tyrant for 'corrupt extortion-blamed ; ';.-The•sordid grudge -benighted:guests- to, aid, . And =editors bewail their. debts mipaid ; Through thee -we deprecate the. banefulstrokes erivy's.eye, which Oft ,thy lust. provokes; qrridowerst of all, if ill.on mortals light, ,Thou.sidest alone -baby a truant eight ! Then wise& hewholparnamithout delay Thy, proffered aid, and .fliags -thee far away ; deaf to all thy soft entieingdones, ''With scorn unfeigned-thy sordid love disowns, 'And -sternlybidsthyglittering formtagene, :How, brightsoder its-false allurement shone."

Ilinolt -useful. and curious information is conveyedi -.Ames motes ; and,.froru the sti3reotyped nature_ef Oriental manners, will be lona of service in--illustrating the ,phresealogy.and s -of "life of -the Old-Testament. The .following . amusing tich -Of careAshaab, who hid become proverbial for coyetausuesS, 4akeir from-a scholiast on Harm.

"Re never.saw a man -put his. hand into hiS pocket without hoping and xpeeting- thati•he-werald-givelinrsormithhig. -He never, saw a funeral go • but le- wasrpleased, pin g. that the. deceased -might have left. lief..neversasv-,a bride:about to he conducted :through the -streets tit-the house:of lies bridegroom, ,,but ‘, lie; fprepared, :his, own -louseNfor. her

• - reeeption;lopinethat her friends might bring her to.,hira hymistido. , If

he saw a workman maJLing a box, he took -care to tell him_tast be !owletputting am- a --beard‘or-- two to -many, hoping Hatt- be Might 'give him .40m0 warover,.onsoniethinplor the suggestion. He-eras odd taltave 'fol-

lowed a man who was chewing mastich (a sort.of gum whichHriontals clew

like betel nut as a ..,pastime) a whole .mile, ,thinkieg he. was ponsibly ".edting food,.and, intenang,.itso,.tottsk-him te,give him some. When the -yoibsof his WitiVe, tqwn..tauatid Abial,..theit