THE SEVEN ODES – THE FIRST CHAPTER IN ARABIC LITERATURE

The Seven Odes – THE FIRST CHAPTER IN ARABIC LITERATURE by A. J. ARBERRY

THE SEVEN ODES – THE FIRST CHAPTER IN ARABIC LITERATURE

The first is a treatise On the Maritime Jurisprudence of the Athenians, illustrated by five speeches of Demosthenes on commercial causes; and the second, a dissertation

On the Manners of the Arabians before the Time of Mahomet, illustrated by the seven poems, which were written in letters of gold, and suspended in the temple at Mecca, about the beginning of the sixth century.

When they are printed, I shall be proud in submitting them to your judgment, as their excellence is well known.’

This is the earliest extant reference to JOIE’s intention to publish for the first time in print the poems which constitute the theme of the present book. Since men’s motives in the work, they undertake are at least as interesting as what they eventually achieve, it will not be superfluous to consider briefly the background to what a young Welshman, the son of a distinguished mathematician and the grandson of an Anglesey farmer, was