LII. ciful estimate of their general knowledge of CHAP anatomy,* botany," and chemistry,' the threefold basis of their theory and practice. A su. perstitious reverence for the dead confined both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection of apes and quadrupeds; the more solid and visible parts were known in the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the human frame was reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern artists. Botany is an active science, and the discoveries of the torrid zone might enrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two thou-. sand plants. Some traditionary knowledge might be secreted in the temples and monasteries of Egypt; much useful experience had been acquired in the practice of arts and manufactures; but the science of chemistry owes its origin and improvement to the industry of the Saracens. They first invented and named the alembic for the purposes of distillation, analysed the substances of the three kingdoms * See a good view of the progress of anatomy in Wotton (Reflections on ancient and modern Learning, p. 208-256). His reputation has been unworthily depreciated by the wits in the controversy of Boyle and Bentley. Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i, p. 275. Al Beithar of Malaga, their greatest botanist, had travelled into Africa, Persia, and India. Z Dr. Watson (Elements of Chemistry, vol. i, p. 17, &c.) allows the original merit of the Arabians. Yet he quotes the modest confession of the famous Geber of the ixth century (d'Herbelot, p. 387), that he had drawn most of his science, perhaps of the transmutation of metals, from the ancient sages. Whatever might be the origin or extent of their knowledge, the arts of chemistry and alchymy appear to have been known in Egypt at least three hundred years before Mahomet (Wotton's Reflections, p. 121-133. Pauw, Recherches sur les Egyp tiens et les Chinois, tom. i, p. 376-429). CHAP. LII. Want of erudition, of nature, tried the distinction and affinities of alcalis and acids, and converted the poisonous minerals into soft and salutary medicines.— But the most eager search of Arabian chemistry was the transmutation of metals, and the elixir of immortal health: the reason and the fortunes of thousands were evaporated in the crucibles of alchymy, and the consummation of the great work was promoted by the worthy aid of mystery, fable, and superstition. But the Moslems deprived themselves of the taste, and principal benefits of a familiar intercourse with freedom. Greece and Rome, the knowledge of antiquity, the purity of taste, and the freedom of thought. Confident in the riches of their native tongue, the Arabians disdained the study of any foreign idiom. The Greek interpreters were chosen among heir christian subjects; they formed their traslations, sometimes on the original text, more frequently perhaps on a Syriac version; and in the crowd of astronomers and physicians, there is no example of a poet, an orator, or even an historian, being taught to speak the language of the Saracens. The my thology of Homer would have provoked the abhorrence of those stern fanatics; they possessed in lazy ignorance the colonies of the Macedonians, and the provinces of Carthage and Rome the heroes of Plutarch and Livy a 'Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 26, 148) mentions a Syriac version of Homer's two poems, by Theophilus, a christian maronite of mount Libanus, who professed astronomy at Roha or Edessa towards the end of the viiith century. His work would be a literary curiosity. I have read somewhere, but I do not believe, that Plutarch's Lives were translated into Turkish for the use of Mahomet the second. were buried in oblivion: and the history of the world before Mahomet was reduced to a short legend of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the Persian kings. Our education in the Greek and Latin schools may have fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste; and I am not forward to condemn the literature and judgments of nations, of whose language I am ignorant. Yet I know that the classics have much to teach, and I believe that the orientals have much to learn the temperate dignity of style, the graceful proportions of art, the forms of visible and intellectual beauty, the just delineation of character and passion, the rhetoric of narrative and argument, the regular fabric of epic and dramatic poetry. The influence of truth and reason is of a less ambiguous complexion. The philosophers of Athens and Rome enjoyed the blessings, and asserted the rights, of civil and religious freedom. Their moral and political writings might have gradually unlocked the fetters of eastern despotisin, diffused a liberal spirit of enquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sages to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant and their prophet an impostor. The instinct of superstition was alarmed by the introduction с I have pursued with much pleasure, Sir William Jones's Latin Commentary on Asiatic Poetry (London, 1774, in octavo), which was composed in the youth of that wonderful linguist. At present, in the maturity of his taste and judgment, he would perhaps abate of the fervent, and even partial, praise which he has bestowed on the Orientals. Among the Arabian philosophers, Averroes has been accused of despising the religion of the Jews, the christians, and the mahometans (see his article in Bayle's Dictionary). Each of these sects would agree, that in two instances out of three, his contémpt was reasonable. CHAP LII. LII. CHAP. even of the abstract sciences; and the more rigid doctors of the law condemned the rash and pernicious curiosity of Almamon." To the thirst of martyrdom, the vision of paradise, and the belief of predestination, we must ascribe the invincible enthusiasm of the prince and people. And the sword of the Saracens became less formidable, when their youth was drawn away from the camp to the college, when the armies of the faithful presumed to read and to reflect. Yet the foolish vanity of the Greeks was jealous of their studies, and reluctantly imparted the sacred fire to the bar. barians of the east. Wars of Romans. 781-805. In the bloody conflict of the Ommiades and Abbassides, the Greeks had stolen the opporagainst the tunity of avenging their wrongs, and enlarging A. D. their limits. But a severe retribution was exacted by Mohadi, the third caliph of the new dynasty, who seized in his turn the favourable opportunity, while a woman and a child, Irene and Constantine, were seated on the Byzantine throne. An army of ninety-five thousand Persians and Arabs was sent from the Tigris to the Thracian Bosphorus, under the command of Harun,' or Aaron, the second son of the D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 546. Θεφιλος ατοπον κρινας ει την των οντων γνωσιν, δι ἣν το Ρωμαίων γενος θαυμα Cerai Endorov MOINSEL T015 £OVESI, &c. Cedrenus, p. 548, who relates how manfully the emperor refused a mathematician to the instances and offers of the caliph Almamon. This absurd scruple is expressed almost in the same words by the continuator of Theophanes, (Scriptores post Theophanem, p. 118). See the reign and character of Harun al Rashid, in the Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 431-438, under his proper title; and in the relative articles LII. commander of the faithful. His encampment CHAP. on the opposite heights of Chrysopolis or Scutari, informed Irene, in her palace of Constantinople, of the loss of her troops and provinces. With the consent or connivance of their sovereign, her ministers subscribed an ignominious peace; and the exchange of some royal gifts could not disguise the annual tribute of seventy thousand dinars of gold, which was imposed on the Roman empire. The Saracens had too rashly advanced into the midst of a distant and hostile land their retreat was solicited by the promise of faithful guides and plentiful markets; and not a Greek had courage to whisper, that their weary forces might be surrounded and destroyed in their necessary passage between a slippery mountain and the river Sangarius. Five years after this expedition, Harun ascended the throne of his father and his elder brother; the most powerful and vigorous monarch of his race, illustrious in the West, as the ally of Charlemagne, and familiar to the most childish readers, as the perpetual hero of the Arabian tales. His title to the name of Al Rashid (the Just) is sullied by the extirpation of the generous, perhaps the innocent, Barmecides; yet he could listen to the complaint of a poor widow who had been pillaged by his troops, and who dared, in a passage of the koran, to threaten the inattentive despot with the judgment of God and posterity. His court was adorned with luxury and science: but in articles to which M. d'Herbelot refers. That learned collector has shewn much taste in stripping the oriental chronicles of their instruc tive and amusing anecdotes. |