e
commencement of the period of the Muwelleds is not distinctly
stated: but it must have preceded the middle of the second century
of the Flight; for the classical age may be correctly defined as
having nearly ended with the first century, when very few persons
born before the establishment of El-Islam through Arabia were
living. Thus the best of the Islami poets may be regarded, and are
generally regarded, as holding classical rank, though not as being
absolute authorities with respect to the words and the
significations, the grammar, and the prosody of the classical
language."

Mr. Thomas Chenry, M.A., writes:[327]--

"Within a century of Mohammad's flight from Mecca, the Moslem
empire stretched from Kashgar and Mooltan to Morocco and the
Pyrenees, and the Arab man of letters was exposed to the corrupting
propinquity of men of very different races. Only a poet of
Ignorance, that is, one who died before the preaching of Islam, or
a Mokhadram, that is, who was contemporary with it, was looked upon
as of paramount and unquestionable authority. An Islami, that is,
one who was born after the rise of Islam, was of least
consideration, and after the first century, the poets are called
Muwalladun and are only quoted for their literary beauties, and not
as authorities for the Arab tongue."

[Sidenote: Mohammadan commentators, &c., quoted.]

9. All commentators, paraphrasts, and jurisconsults admit that the
primary and original signification of the words "_Jahad_" and "_Jihad_"
is power, ability, and toil, and that its use, as making wars or
crusades, is conventional and figurative. Ibn Attiah says regarding
verse 69, Chapter XXIX, that it is Meccan, and was revealed before the
enjoining of the _Orfee_ or conventional _Jihad_ (_vide_ Fat-hul bayan
fi maquasidil Koran, Vol. II, page 517, by Siddik Hussan). Khateeb
Koostlane, in his _Irshadussari_, a paraphrase of Bokhari, says that
"_Jihad_ is derived from _Jahd_, which means toil and labour, or from
_Johd_, which means power. And in technical language it means fighting
with infidels to assist Islam" (Vol. V, page 26). Mohammad Allauddin Al
Haskafi (died 1088 A.H.), the author of Dur-ral-Mukhtar, a commentary on
Tanviral Absar, by Sheikh Mohammad Al Tamartashi (died 1004), says in
the chapter on _Jihad_, that "in the classical language it is the
infinitive noun of _Jahad