en described as 'the ablest physician of
that age and the most distinguished; a perfect master of the art of
medicine, skilled in its practice, and thoroughly grounded in its
principles and rules.' He composed a number of useful works on
medicine, and some of his sayings have been handed down to us, and are
still worthy of record, such as:

(1) When you can cure by a regimen, avoid
having recourse to medicine.

(2) When you can effect a cure with a simple
medicine, avoid employing a compound one.

(3) With a learned physician and an obedient
patient sickness soon disappears.

(4) Treat an incipient malady with remedies
which will not prostrate the strength.

Till the end of his life he continued at the head of his profession,
finally lost his sight, and died in A.D. 923. A new and much improved
edition of Razi's 'Treatise on the Small-Pox and Measles' was
published in London in A.D. 1848 by Dr. Greenhill, and an article on
him will also be found in Wuestenfeld's 'History of the Arabian
Physicians.'

Poetry flourished to a very great extent during the reigns of the
early Abbaside Khalifs, and, as all Arab _litterateurs_ were more or
less poets and writers of verses, it is somewhat difficult to select
the most celebrated.

The first collection of Arabic poems was compiled by Al-Mofadhdhal in
the work called after him--'Mofadhdhaliat.' He was followed by Abu Amr
as Shaibani, by Abu Zaid bin A'us, Ibn-as Sikkit, Muhammad bin Habib,
Abu Hatim es Sejastani, and Abu Othman al Mazini. Abu Tammam and
Al-Bohtori, the collectors of the two Hamasas, are considered to be the
two greatest poets of the third century of the Hijrah (A.D. 816-913).
And it may here be observed that in the great bibliographical
dictionary of Haji Khalfa, who enumerates seven Hamasas, the names of
Ibn-ul Marzaban and of Ibn Demash, each of whom composed one, are not
mentioned.

Zukkari made himself a reputation by editing several of the
Mua'llakat, as also the poems of the great pre-Islamite bards,
Al-Aasha and Al-Kama, whilst Abu Bakr as Sauli likewise acquired great
merit by publishing ten of the master-works of Arabic poetry.

From the many poets of this period some of the most celebrated have
been selected--viz., Farazdak, Jarir, Al-Akhtal, Abul-Atahya, Bashshar
bin Burd, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam, Al-Otbi, Al-Bohtori, Al-Mutanabbi,
and An-Nami, and a few biographical details about them will be given,
as also some remarks about