A Literary History, of the Arabs (Classic Reprint)

Preface The term Literary History may be interpreted in such different ways that an author who uses it is bound to explain at the outset what particular sense he has attached to it. When Mr, Fisher Unwin asked me to contribute a volume on the A rabs to thisS eries, 1accepted his proposal with alacrity, not only because I welcomed the opportunity of making myself better acquainted with A rabic history and literature, but also and more especially in the hope that I might be able to compile a work which should serve as a general introduction to the subject, and which should neither be too popular for students nor too scientific for ordinary readers. I ts precise character was determined partly by my own predilections and partly by the conditions of time and space under which it had to be produced. To write a critical account of A rabic literature was out of the question. Brockelmann sinvaluable work, which contains over a thousand closely-printed pages, is confined to biography and bibliography, and does not deal with the historical development of ideas. This, however, seems to me the really vital aspect of literary history. It has been my chief aim to sketch in broad outlines what the A rabs thought, and to indicate as far as possible the influences which moulded their thought. I am well aware that the picture is sadly incomplete, that it is full of gaps and blanks admitting of no disguise or apology; but I hope that, taken as a whole, it is not unlike.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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