n consult it best in 'Antar,' a
Bedouin romance, translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton, in four
volumes 8vo (London, 1820). Hamilton's translation, now rare, covers
only a portion of the original; and a new translation, suitably
abridged, is much needed.

The book purports to have been written more than a thousand years
ago,--in the golden prime of the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid (786-809) and of
his sons and successors, Amin (809-813) and Mamun (813-834),--by the
famous As-Asmai (born 741, died about 830). It is in fact a later
compilation, probably of the twelth century. (Baron von Hammer's MS.
was engrossed in the year 1466.) Whatever the exact date may have been,
it was probably not much later than A.D. 1200. The main outlines of
Antar's life are historical. Many particulars are derived from historic
accounts of the lives of other Arabian heroes (Duraid and others) and
are transferred bodily to the biography of Antar. They date back to the
sixth century. Most of the details must be imaginary, but they are
skillfully contrived by a writer who knew the life of the desert Arab at
first hand. The verses with which the volumes abound are in many cases
undoubtedly Antar's. (They are printed in italics in what follows.) In
any event, the book in its present form has been the delight of all
Arabians for many centuries. Every wild Bedouin of the desert knew much
of the tale by heart, and listened to its periods and to its poems with
quivering interest. His more cultivated brothers of the cities possessed
one or many of its volumes. Every coffee-house in Aleppo, Bagdad, or
Constantinople had a narrator who, night after night, recited it to rapt
audiences.

The unanimous opinion of the East has always placed the romance of
'Antar' at the summit of such literature. As one of their authors well
says:--"'The Thousand and One Nights' is for the amusement of women and
children; 'Antar' is a book for men. From it they learn lessons of
eloquence, of magnanimity, of generosity, and of statecraft." Even the
prophet Muhammad, well-known foe to poetry and to poets, instructed his
disciples to relate to their children the traditions concerning Antar,
"for these will steel their hearts harder than stone."

The book belongs among the great national classics, like the
'Shah-nameh' and the 'Nibelungen-Lied.' It has a direct relation to
Western culture and opinion also. Antar was the father of knighthood. He
was the _preux-chevalier_, t