The Project Gutenberg EBook of Arabic Authors, by F. F. Arbuthnot

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Title: Arabic Authors
A Manual of Arabian History and Literature

Author: F. F. Arbuthnot

Release Date: November 24, 2006 [EBook #19914]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ARABIC AUTHORS.

A MANUAL
OF
ARABIAN HISTORY AND LITERATURE.

BY

F.F. ARBUTHNOT, M.R.A.S.,

AUTHOR OF

"EARLY IDEAS" AND "PERSIAN PORTRAITS."

LONDON:
WILLIAM HEINEMANN.
1890.

PREFACE.

The following pages contain nothing new and nothing original, but they
do contain a good deal of information gathered from various sources,
and brought together under one cover. The book itself may be useful,
not, perhaps, to the Professor or to the Orientalist, but to the
general reader, and to the student commencing the study of Arabic. To
the latter it will give some idea of the vast field of Arabian
literature that lies before him, and prepare him, perhaps, for working
out a really interesting work upon the subject. Such still remains to
be written in the English language, and it is to be hoped that it will
be done some day thoroughly and well.

It is gratifying to think that the study of Oriental languages and
literature is progressing in Europe generally, if not in England
particularly. The last Oriental Congress, held at Stockholm and
Christiania the beginning of September, 1889, brought together a
goodly number of Oriental scholars. There were twenty-eight
nationalities represented altogether, and the many papers prepared and
read, or taken as read preparatory to their being printed, showed that
matters connected with Oriental studies in all their branches excite
considerable i