Since Napoleon showed the way by his expedition to Egypt in 1798, the Moslems in that country, as likewise in Syria and North Islam and modern civilisation. Africa, have come more and more under European influence.865 The above-mentioned Muḥammad ‘Alí, who founded the Khedivial dynasty, and his successors were fully alive to the practical benefits which might be obtained from the superior culture of the West, and although their policy in this respect was marked by greater zeal than discretion, they did not exert themselves altogether in vain. The introduction of the printing-press in 1821 was an epoch-making measure. If, on the one hand, the publication of many classical works, which had well-nigh fallen into oblivion, rekindled the enthusiasm of the Arabs for their national literature, the cause of progress—I use the word without prejudice—has been furthered by the numerous political, literary, and scientific journals which are now regularly issued in every country where Arabic is spoken.866 Besides these ephemeral sheets, books of all sorts, old and new, have been multiplied by the native and European presses of Cairo, Búláq, and Beyrout. The science and culture of Europe have been rendered accessible in translations and adaptations of which the complete list would form a volume in itself. Thus, an Arab may read in his own language the tragedies of Racine, the comedies of Molière,867 the fables of La Fontaine, 'Paul and Virginia,' the 'Talisman,' 'Monte Cristo' (not to mention scores of minor romances), and even the Iliad of Homer.868 Parallel to this imitative activity, we see a vigorous and growing movement away from the literary models of the past. "Neo-Arabic literature is only to a limited extent the heir of the old 'classical' Arabic literature, and even shows a tendency to repudiate its inheritance entirely. Its leaders are for the most part men who have drunk from other springs and look at the world with different eyes. Yet the past still plays a part in their intellectual background, and there is a section amongst them upon whom that past retains a hold scarcely shaken by newer influences. For many decades the partisans of the 'old' and the 'new' have engaged in a struggle for the soul of the Arabic world, a struggle in which the victory of one side over the other is even yet not assured. The protagonists are (to classify them roughly for practical purposes) the European-educated classes of Egyptians and Syrians on the one hand, and those in Egypt and the less advanced Arabic lands whose education has followed traditional lines on the other. Whatever the ultimate result may be, there can be no question that the conflict has torn the Arabic world from its ancient moorings, and that the contemporary literature of Egypt and Syria breathes in its more recent developments a spirit foreign to the old traditions."869

Hitherto Western culture has only touched the surface of Islam. Whether it will eventually strike deeper and penetrate the inmost barriers of that scholastic discipline and literary tradition which are so firmly rooted in the affections of the Moslem peoples, or whether it will always remain an exotic and highly-prized accomplishment of the enlightened and emancipated few, but an object of scorn and detestation to Muḥammadans in general—these are questions that may not be fully solved for centuries to come.

Meanwhile the Past affords an ample and splendid field of study.

" Man lam ya‘i ’l-ta’ríkha fí ṣadrihí Lam yadri ḥulwa ’l-‘ayshi min murrihi Wa-man wa‘á akhbára man qad maḍá Aḍáfa a‘már ^anilá ‘umrihí." "He in whose heart no History is enscrolled Cannot discern in life's alloy the gold. But he that keeps the records of the Dead Adds to his life new lives a hundredfold."

APPENDIX

P. xxii, l. 2. Arabic begins to appear in North Arabian inscriptions in the third century a.d. Perhaps the oldest yet discovered is one, of which the probable date is 268 a.d., published by Jaussen and Savignac ( Mission archéologique en l'Arabie, vol. i, p. 172). Though it is written in Aramaic characters, nearly all the words are Arabic, as may be seen from the transcription given by Professor Horovitz in Islamic Culture(Hyderabad, Deccan), April 1929, vol. iii, No. 2, p. 169, note 2.

P. 4 foll. Concerning the Sabaeans and the South Arabic inscriptions a great deal of valuable information will be found in the article Saba’by J. Tkatsch in the Encyclopædia of Islam. The writer points out the special importance of the epigraphic discoveries of E. Glaser, who, in the course of four journeys (1882-94), collected over 2000 inscriptions. See also D. Nielsen, Handbuch der altarabischen Altertumskunde, vol. i (Copenhagen and Paris, 1927).

P. 13, note 2. Excerpts from the Shamsu ’l-‘Ulúmrelating to South Arabia have been edited by Dr ‘Azímu’ddín Aḥmad (E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series, vol. xxiv).

P. 26 foll. For contemporary and later Christian accounts of the martyrdom of the Christians of Najrán, see the fragmentary Book of the Himyarites(Syriac text and English translation), ed. by A. Moberg in 1924, and cf. Tor Andrae, Der Ursprung des Islams und das Christentum(Uppsala, 1926), pp. 10-13.

P. 31. The collection of Arabic proverbs, entitled Kitábu ’l-Fákhir, by Mufaḍḍal b. Salama of Kúfa, is now available in the excellent edition of Mr C. A. Storey (Leyden, 1915).

P. 32, note 1. An edition of the Agháníwith critical notes is in course of publication at Cairo.

P. 52, l. 9 foll. The battle mentioned here cannot be the battle of ‘Ayn Ubágh, which took place between Ḥárith, the son of Ḥárith b. Jabala, and Mundhir IV of Ḥíra about 583 a.d. (Guidi, L'Arabie antéislamique, p. 27).

P. 127, l. 16. The ode Bánat Su‘ád is rendered into English in my Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose, pp. 19-23.

P. 133. As regards the authenticity of the Pre-islamic poems which have come down to us, the observations of one of the greatest authorities on the subject, the late Sir Charles J. Lyall, seem to me to be eminently judicious (Introduction to the Mufaḍḍalīyāt, vol. ii, pp. xvi-xxvi). He concludes that "upon the whole, the impression which a close study of these ancient relics gives is that we must take them, generally speaking, as the production of the men whose names they bear." All that can be urged against this view has been said with his usual learning by Professor Margoliouth ( The Origins of Arabic Poetry, J.R.A.S., 1925, p. 417 foll.).

P. 145, l. 2. The oldest extant commentary on the Koran is that of Bukhárí in ch. 65 of the Ṣaḥíḥ, ed. Krehl, vol. iii, pp. 193-390.

P. 146, note 2. Recent investigators (Caetani and Lammens) are far more sceptical. Cf. Snouck Hurgronje, Mohammedanism, p. 22 foll.

P. 152, note 5. As suggested by Mr Richard Bell ( The Origin of Islam in its Christian environment, p. 88), the word rujzis in all likelihood identical with the Syriac rugza, wrath, so that this verse of the Koran means, "Flee from the wrath to come."

P. 170, l. 2 foll. This is one of the passages I should have liked to omit. Even in its present form, it maintains a standpoint which I have long regarded as mistaken.

P. 184, l. 4 foll. Professor Snouck Hurgronje ( Mohammedanism, p. 44) asks, "Was Mohammed conscious of the universality of his mission?" and decides that he was not. I now agree that "in the beginning he conceived his work as merely the Arabian part of a universal task"—in which case dhikr ^unli ’l-‘álamín in the passage quoted will mean "a warning to all the people (of Mecca or Arabia)." But similar expressions in Súras of the Medina period carry, I think, a wider significance. The conception of Islam as a world-religion is implied in Mohammed's later belief—he only came to it gradually—that the Jewish and Christian scriptures are corrupt and that the Koran alone represents the original Faith which had been preached in turn by all the prophets before him. And having arrived at that conviction, he was not the man to leave others to act upon it.