I interspersed,
And literary elegancies, and grammatical riddles,
And decisions upon ambiguous legal questions,
And original improvisations, and highly wrought orations,
And plaintive discourses, as well as jocose witticisms."

The design is thus purely literary. The fifty "sessions" of Hariri,
which are written in rhymed prose interspersed with poetry, contain
oratorical, poetical, moral, encomiastic, and satirical discourses,
which only the merest thread holds together. Each Makamah is a unit, and
has no necessary connection with that which follows. The thread which so
loosely binds them together is the delineation of the character of Abu
Zeid, the hero, in his own words. He is one of those wandering minstrels
and happy improvisers whom the favor of princes had turned into
poetizing beggars. In each Makamah is related some ruse, by means of
which Abu Zeid, because of his wonderful gift of speech, either
persuades or forces those whom he meets to pay for his sustenance, and
furnish the means for his debauches. Not the least of those thus
ensnared is his great admirer, Hareth ibn Hammam, the narrator of the
whole, who is none other than Hariri. Wearied at last with his life of
travel, debauch, and deception, Abu Zeid retires to his native city and
becomes an ascetic, thus to atone in a measure for his past sins. The
whole might be called, not improperly, a tale, a novel. But the
intention of the poet is to show forth the richness and variety of the
Arabic language; and his own power over this great mass brings the
descriptive--one might almost say the lexicographic--side too much to
the front. A poem that can be read either backward or forward, or which
contains all the words in the language beginning with a certain letter,
may be a wonderful mosaic, but is nothing more. The merit of Hariri lies
just in this: that working in such cramped quarters, with such intent
and design continually guiding his pen, he has often really done more.
He has produced rhymed prose and verses which are certainly elegant in
diction and elevated in tone.

Such tales as these, told as an exercise of linguistic gymnastics, must
not blind us to the presence of real tales, told for their own sake.
Arabic literature has been very prolific in these. They lightened the
graver subjects discussed in the tent,--philosophy, religion, and
grammar,--and they furnished entertainment for the more boisterous
assemblies in